Upon Further Review - Washington Game

[StatTiger 3,188]

Upon Further Review - Washington Game

• Despite scoring only 21 points against the Huskies, the offense did gain 420-yards and registered 27 first downs yesterday. The offense played well more often than not but struggled inside the red zone. In the past, red zone scoring has been an issue, but it is a good sign this offense could work its way into the red zone against a quality opponent. Of their 12 possessions, the Auburn offense worked it's way into scoring territory seven times.
   
• Though Ryan Davis has returned punts in the past, he looked more natural and explosive against Washington. One of the reasons I contribute to his new look is all the screen packages he makes the majority of his receptions. Davis has grown accustomed to catching passes and running through traffic as a wide receiver on screen plays. His vision and his athletic abilities are now showing up as a punt returner. Like the screen passes, he has adjusted to making one move laterally and then jetting up the field as soon as possible.
   
• Of the 31 combined carries by Martin, Whitlow and Shivers, only one attempt was held to a loss. The offensive line had some issues against Washington but the number of tackles for loss were limited. Auburn's defense registered 9 tackles for loss compared to Washington's three tackles for loss.
   
• After rushing for 103-yards on 28 attempts during the first half, Auburn was held to only 44-yards rushing on 17 attempts during the final two quarters.
   
• The Big-10 officials made sure to make their presence known during the game. There was a combined 22 penalties assessed for 209-yards.
   
• During Auburn's last 7 games, the Tigers have attempted more passes on 3rd down than 1st down only one time. Prior to the last seven games, Auburn attempted more passes on 3rd down than 1st down during 14 of 22 games. Placing Jarrett Stidham in better passing situations will be a good trend to continue for the Auburn offense.
   
• The Huskies averaged 8.5 yards per play on 33 first down snaps. On their remaining 32 snaps, Washington averaged only 3.6 yards per play. This and red zone defense was a primary key to Auburn's victory over No. 6 Washington.
   
• Auburn under Gus Malzahn is now 36-9 in games the pass-offense has a pass-rating of 140 or better on first down. Auburn threw the football over 45 percent of the time on first down against Washington. It was the third most percentage of pass attempts on first down against a Power-5 opponent since Malzahn took over has head coach.
   
• From 2013-2018, Auburn's leading passer and rusher have combined for at least 350-yards during a game on 23 occasions. From 2013-2015, Auburn was 10-5 in those games. Since Kevin Steele took over on defense, the Tigers are 7-1 in those games.
   
• Auburn is now 39-5 under Gus Malzahn when the Tigers have more rushing yardage and attempts than their opponent. Auburn is also 24-2 when they don't lose the turnover and tackle for loss battle during the same game.
   
• From 1986-2018, there have been 75 games Auburn faced a ranked opponent and was held to under 150-yards rushing. Jarrett Stidham's performance against No. 6 Washington was the ninth best efficient performance by an Auburn quarterback.
   
• From 2009-2015, Auburn faced 38 ranked opponents, allowing 31.5 PPG, while holding only eight opponents to under 20 points (21.0 percent). Since Kevin Steele arrived on campus, Auburn has held their 13 ranked opponents to 20.2 PPG and eight were held to under 20 points (61.5 percent).

**Looking back to last year, Auburn's speed-sweeps were not efficient late in the season. Eli Stove ran it 10 times during the last 4 games of the season, netting 55-yards, failing to register a run play of 15-yards or more. I believe Chip Lindsey knew Washington had all summer to prepare for the speed-sweep and it took it out of the game plan. (He later commented after the game, UW's wide alignment at DE made running the speed-sweeps less effective.) He substituted swing passes and flat passes to a motioning back or receiver instead. Auburn connected on 10 such passes against the Huskies for 82 yards of which two netted more than 15-yards.

War Eagle!

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

#TheReturn

[bigbird 60,368]

1 hour ago, StatTiger said:

The Big-10 officials made sure to make their presence known during the game. There was a combined 22 penalties assessed for 209-yards.

Did they ever!

I said it somewhere earlier on here, but I'll say it again.  If we had the refs from the LSU/Miami game we would've shut UW out.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Love the bit about substituting swing passes for jet sweeps. For several reasons. One is that they're still part of our offense, which I hope nobody was genuinely concerned about, especially with the additional speed on the roster. Another huge reason is that Chip scouted the opponent and we made a strategic *but sensible* adjustment to the offense.

I saw several things that fans have been questioning and I'm comfortable that the staff saw things on film that they felt they could exploit. The first 2-pt conversion attempt is the easy example. It was a great call that should have succeeded if not for a mystifying decision by one player. The staff had good reason to believe that play would work, so they went for it. I ain't mad at 'em. Still very, very excited about this win.

The players made mistakes but were put in position to win. War Damn Gus. 

[RunInRed 16,360]

Man did I miss these posts.  B/T @JMR and @StatTiger, one would be hard pressed to find better Auburn analysis anywhere!!!

[bigbird 60,368]

3 minutes ago, RunInRed said:

Man did I miss these posts.  B/T @JMR and @StatTiger, one would be hard pressed to find better Auburn analysis anywhere!!!

[RunInRed 16,360]

Just now, bigbird said:

[RunInRed 16,360]

5 hours ago, StatTiger said:

After rushing for 103-yards on 28 attempts during the first half, Auburn was held to only 44-yards rushing on 17 attempts during the final two quarters.

This is an interesting stat that seems to run counter to Malzahn's, hurry up, wear them down philosophy.  Possibilities ... we don't have the bruiser back who gets stronger as the game goes ... the OL never took over ...

[Barnacle 9,064]

How about no run plays for a loss!? As poorly as the offensive line may have played, that seems like a phenomenal statstic against a quality opponent in game 1.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Do we think others will copycat this “wide De” alignment to take away the speed sweep until our OL can prove it can run between the tackles? 

[AUbritt 611]

Thanks for mentioning Ryan Davis, Stat!

His punt returns were electric. Hate that one was called back on a penalty.

[AUStew87 326]

3 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

Do we think others will copycat this “wide De” alignment to take away the speed sweep until our OL can prove it can run between the tackles? 

One thing that impressed me with Washington’s dline, especially their DTs, is the way they tackled our RBs going up the middle once they passed the LoS. A few times I saw Martin & Bobbie on the verge of breaking into the second level and then go down by a DT who has hog tied their legs from behind. I agree our oline needs some work, but I think Washington’s dline is better than we or at least I thought.

Edited September 4, 2018 by AUStew87

[McLoofus 35,182]

9 hours ago, AUStew87 said:

One thing that impressed me with Washington’s dline, especially their DTs, is the way they tackled our RBs going up the middle once they passed the LoS. A few times I saw Martin & Bobbie on the verge of breaking into the second level and then go down by a DT who has hog tied their legs from behind. I agree our oline needs some work, but I think Washington’s dline is better than we or at least I thought.

You need the Jimmies, Joes, Xs AND Os. That was a very well coached football team, even if some of the late game management left a little to be desired.

[Zeek 16,617]

18 hours ago, StatTiger said:

Of the 31 combined carries by Martin, Whitlow and Shivers, only one attempt was held to a loss. The offensive line had some issues against Washington but the number of tackles for loss were limited. Auburn's defense registered 9 tackles for loss compared to Washington's three tackles for loss.

That's actually awesome.

 

18 hours ago, StatTiger said:

The Huskies averaged 8.5 yards per play on 33 first down snaps. On their remaining 32 snaps, Washington averaged only 3.6 yards per play. This and red zone defense was a primary key to Auburn's victory over No. 6 Washington.

Seems like we're adjusting well then!

18 hours ago, StatTiger said:

From 2009-2015, Auburn faced 38 ranked opponents, allowing 31.5 PPG, while holding only eight opponents to under 20 points (21.0 percent). Since Kevin Steele arrived on campus, Auburn has held their 13 ranked opponents to 20.2 PPG and eight were held to under 20 points (61.5 percent).

That's a tremendous difference. Took a lot of DCs to go through but I'm glad we have Steele.

[meh130 1,043]

17 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Love the bit about substituting swing passes for jet sweeps. For several reasons. One is that they're still part of our offense, which I hope nobody was genuinely concerned about, especially with the additional speed on the roster. Another huge reason is that Chip scouted the opponent and we made a strategic *but sensible* adjustment to the offense.

I saw several things that fans have been questioning and I'm comfortable that the staff saw things on film that they felt they could exploit. The first 2-pt conversion attempt is the easy example. It was a great call that should have succeeded if not for a mystifying decision by one player. The staff had good reason to believe that play would work, so they went for it. I ain't mad at 'em. Still very, very excited about this win.

The players made mistakes but were put in position to win. War Damn Gus. 

One of the plays I saw last year and in this game is the inside WR screen where the WR cuts inside towards the OL, and several OLs slide past their defenders to block downfield. It does not seem to work much in terms of a big play, but is an interesting change-up. I think we saw it some against Washington because of their desire to play zone pass defense.

[meh130 1,043]

13 hours ago, AUStew87 said:

One thing that impressed me with Washington’s dline, especially their DTs, is the way they tackled our RBs going up the middle once they passed the LoS. A few times I saw Martin & Bobbie on the verge of breaking into the second level and then go down by a DT who has hog tied their legs from behind. I agree our oline needs some work, but I think Washington’s dline is better than we or at least I thought.

They play an interesting variety of DL formations. One is called a "2-4-5", where they line up two huge DTs 2-gapping on the OGs, and two stand-up OLB/Bucks on the edge (with two ILBs behind the DL). Those DTs are supposed to soak up enough OL double teams, combined with the stand-up OLBs ability to move laterally, to stop many run plays as well as be strong in pass rushing.

They are talented and coached creatively in the DL, they have one of the top secondaries in the country, they were a top-10 defense last year, and they returned 9 starters this year. I give them props too.

[Auhud08 596]

i too wonder if the jet sweep will return (it has to to some degree) but also think it could become an off tackle type run. I would like to see it run with a heavy package, you could mess with some teams with canella out there too (idk how well he blocks). Lots of possibilities to get the wide runs back. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

12 hours ago, Auhud08 said:

i too wonder if the jet sweep will return (it has to to some degree) but also think it could become an off tackle type run. I would like to see it run with a heavy package, you could mess with some teams with canella out there too (idk how well he blocks). Lots of possibilities to get the wide runs back. 

It will return. Staff didn't think it would be effective against Washington's defense. 

(Another reason this game gives me optimism. Previous iterations of our offense based decisions off of imaginary opponents and game situations, such as thinking that Clemson played a sport other than American football or that we still had a 20 point lead against LSU late in the 3rd quarter.)

[Zeek 16,617]

9 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

It will return. Staff didn't think it would be effective against Washington's defense. 

(Another reason this game gives me optimism. Previous iterations of our offense based decisions off of imaginary opponents and game situations, such as thinking that Clemson played a sport other than American football or that we still had a 20 point lead against LSU late in the 3rd quarter.)

I like the speed sweep when it's used as a "triple option" of sorts. With the sweep being set up with a series of plays when the man in motion is faked to, then later in the game given the ball at full speed. Ryan Davis probably wouldn't be half bad at tbh.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I like the speed sweep when it's used as a "triple option" of sorts. With the sweep being set up with a series of plays when the man in motion is faked to, then later in the game given the ball at full speed. Ryan Davis probably wouldn't be half bad at tbh.

I really think we're gonna see a couple freshmen go nuts with it this season. 

[Zeek 16,617]

4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

I really think we're gonna see a couple freshmen go nuts with it this season. 

Agreed, we have so much speed! The moment of truth will be something that even McCalebb had to learn. 1. How and when to go North/South 2. Not out running your feet and slipping.

[AUsince72 11,084]

14 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

I really think we're gonna see a couple freshmen go nuts with it this season. 

Momma Worm's boy certainly earned his shot at being Mr. Jet Sweep.

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, Zeek said:

Agreed, we have so much speed! The moment of truth will be something that even McCalebb had to learn. 1. How and when to go North/South 2. Not out running your feet and slipping.

True. With Shivers, I can't imagine that being an issue. And reports on Schwartz have been very, very positive. Hill might also be a factor, but I feel like we might see him catching the ball more. Just hunches. 

We also saw guys like TZach and Rico- big, physical receivers- have success with it. No matter what, I think we're going to see some big plays with it this season. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Momma Worm's boy certainly earned his shot at being Mr. Jet Sweep.

That's where my money is. Unless he goes out and steals one of the top 2 RB spots...

[AUsince72 11,084]

4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

That's where my money is. Unless he goes out and steals one of the top 2 RB spots...

Interesting delimma....