In a season where a coach enters operations and says “we’re gonna run the piss out of the football, there is certainly an expectation to be had that a football team will run the ball a lot and will run it well.
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The Auburn Tigers are certainly running the ball than people might think they are, but the yardage has not come along with it.
Auburn rushed 27 times for 63 yards on Saturday against the Ole Miss Rebels. That is 55% of the rush attempts and 25% of the ground yardage that the Rebels put up.
The even more glaring stat stands in the fact that the Tigers were going up against the worst defense against the run in Ole Miss, who was giving up 161.1 yards on the ground per game entering Saturday.
According to Head Coach Alex Golesh, the inability for Auburn to run the ball against the Rebels was credited to a lot, with both the Rebels and the Tigers having played parts in it.
“You saw we kept leaning on it up until the point where I felt like we had to go into a two-minute type mode,” Golesh said. “I thought they did a good job inside. I thought schematically we kept trying to get to the right things. Obviously, there's some execution things.”
Comparatively, 38 of those rushing yards came in the first half, while the other 25 came in the second half.
No matter which two ways you chalk the numbers and performance up, it was not a pleasing showing on the ground, especially when you consider how much Auburn tried to do throughout the game.
“I thought early in the game you saw we tried to get out on the perimeter,” Golesh said. “We didn't block well enough on the perimeter to create anything more than a three, four-yard gain. Tried to mix it up with some quarterback run game. I mean, we literally went from outside zone to some gap scheme stuff to read power. We kind of tried a little bit of everything to try to stay in rhythm.”
When the players look at it, there is a lot that is chalked up to inconsistency between plays and not getting the job done correctly.
Offensive tackle Stanton Ramil was one of those that brings up the concern. At the end of the day for the line as a whole, it goes back to how the team prepares and holding themselves to a higher standard each day.
“Consistency, all across the board,” said Stanton Ramil. “I know personally, can't be on one play and off one play. Goes for the entire offensive line. Just goes back to practice. We have to be better practice players, and me as an older guy, I have to be a leader. I have to take accountability, get everyone right as best I can and move forward, keep our heads on the next couple games.”
A lot of it though goes back to being behind the chains, which Golesh has put a big emphasis on avoiding throughout the season as the games have gone on.
The Tigers averaged 8.9 yards to go on third downs, pinning them at what is deemed “third-and-medium.” It truly feels like being in a third-and-long in actuality, and Golesh says consistently being in that position is something that can’t happen if a team wants to have success.
“We kind of tried a little bit of everything to try to stay in rhythm,” Golesh said. “First down gain we were at just around three yards, which again puts you in second-and–7. We had a bunch of third-and-8 pluses. Thought early on third down we were effective, but again, living in third-and-8, nine, ten-plus is a tough world, and it starts with the run game.”
In order to avoid that, guys like Byrum Brown pin it back to execution, which has been something that has not happened since Auburn rushed for 192 yards against the Georgia Bulldogs on Oct. 17.
Execution is what has to happen if the team wants to grow properly and get to where it wants to go.
“Just execution,” said Byrum Brown. “All guys being on the same page, getting to the right guy. And. obviously, reading the blocks, seeing the holes. But I can't give you a full answer right now. Gotta go watch the film.”
Heading into the game, the Tigers were seventh in the SEC in rushing attempts at 267 and 10th in rushing yardage at 1,158 yards.
Going into the month of November, it is a stat Auburn is looking to improve on, especially with the weapons it knows it has in the backfield to do work on the ground.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
