*FAN SUBMISSION by Andrew Ellis of Montgomery Alabama.*
The talk of the college football season this year has been the success of the Auburn Tigers. Some may call it luck, but while they’ve had their share of miraculous plays that may even lead you to believe that God is an Auburn fan; there’s no denying the talent of the Tigers offense.
An offense that seems to run the ball with ease and always put up points no matter how over-matched it may seem that they are. Because, lets face it, Auburn has gone into a handful of games this season they have not been the better team. Alabama, who some still think is the best in the nation, is still said by many to be a better team than the Tigers; and they just got drubbed by Oklahoma.
Courtesy: USA Today
Auburn ended up beating an unhealthy Georgia team by five points on a last second play; that play being about the only thing that went Auburn’s way in the second half. Missouri is a more well-rounded team than Auburn, but Auburn’s offense was eventually able to pull away and get the win. So what are they doing right? They run the football.
Many talk of the spread when mentioning Auburn’s offense, but it’s really just more of a two back power rushing attack. This kind of offense relies on tempo and, in Auburn’s case, space to be able to bounce outside. They have so much success with this because they control the line of scrimmage. If you win the line and begin using stunts and run blitzes, you can cause the Auburn backs to change direction in the backfield slowing down the speed of the run game.
So what about when Nick Marshall passes? Auburn doesn’t pass very much for obvious reasons. One, their run game is so good; two, because if we are honest, Nick Marshall isn’t the most efficient passer. He’s had numerous under and overthrows this year; many plays that could’ve been touchdowns that were either incomplete or just came up short because a receiver had to make a play on the ball that didn’t allow for many yards after the catch. However, they do make plays through the air sometimes. And usually the receivers are wide open when it happens.
Courtesy: Yahoo News
So how do you stop the receivers from getting wide open on these plays? With good cornerbacks. The problem here is that with the dominance of Auburn’s run game we often see safeties and other defensive backs cheating up a little for added run protection. When Auburn has success on the ground, naturally safeties will cheat up. When safeties cheat up Auburn throws the deep ball to their wide open receiver. Good cover corners who are fast and will stay back when your safeties and linebackers are moving up will help this.
Will everyone who executes these two things beat Auburn? Probably not. But I guarantee it will at least make things a bit more interesting. Few have been able to do it thus far; however, with Florida State up next we very well could see something new.
