Tulane Game Report Card

[StatTiger 3,188]

The defense bailed out the Auburn offense, holding Tulane to just six points on the night.  It was one of the worst offensive performances against a team outside the Power-5 during the Gus Malzahn era. Auburn’s inability to run the football during the first-half, placed the offense on the shoulders of Bo Nix. Auburn attempted 29 passes to just 13 rush attempts, gaining only 7 first downs. The offense went “3 & out” four times during the first half, opting to run out the half with an opportunity to make a deep throw towards the Tulane end zone. The offense lacked rhythm, and Gus Malzahn returned to mass substitution in an attempt to execute the perfect play. There were moments in the game Bo Nix, and his receivers were not on the same page, with Nix throwing to spaces on the field, where there was no receiver in sight. Two times during the second-half, a wide-open Auburn player was running down the middle of the field, and Nix threw into coverage near the sideline. In defense of Nix, it appeared both plays might have been a one-route option.

 

The defense was stellar for the most part but failed to register a single sack. Auburn had only 5 tackles for loss, and 4 quarterback hurries. The Tigers did not allow a play of more than 24 yards and only two plays of 20+ yards. After allowing 48 yards of offense on Tulane’s first offensive possession, the Green Wave gained an average of 14.6 yards during their following 12 possessions. It appears moving Kevin Steele to the sideline was a smart decision, allowing him to make adjustments in the first quarter rather than at halftime. The defense missed out on 5-6 tackles for loss because of poor tackling or poor angles of attack. For the most part, the defense did an exceptional job of boxing in Tulane’s option running game that netted over 350 yards rushing during their season opener. For the second week in a row, Jeremiah Dinson led Auburn in tackles and came up with a spectacular interception that ended a potential scoring drive.

 

This no doubt was a strong Tulane team but this was not a SEC caliber team in terms of talent. The Green Wave roster consisted of only ONE 4-star player that was able to go toe to toe upfront for nearly one-half. The loss of Seth Williams could be a devastating blow, should he be out an extended period. Throwing a deep ball to Anthony Schwartz with a cast on his hand was a head-scratcher, and Auburn missed on an opportunity to establish a deep threat other than Schwartz. Will Hastings is a remarkable route runner who can excel within the intermediate routes and an occasional deep ball, but he is not a true “deep threat.” With Schwartz and Williams injured, I fear Auburn will struggle in finding their replacements. Auburn signing a grad-transfer at wide receiver should have been a major red flag. The Tulane game was also an opportunity to play D.J. Williams at running back, and it did not happen. With Whitlow’s continued fumbling issues, it would be in Auburn’s best interest to involve D.J. Williams in the running game against Kent State.

Game #2 Statistical Evaluation (Tulane Game)

Offensive Report Card

01) Avg 7-yards per play on 1^st down: [3.30] fail
02) Convert at least 50% of 3^rd downs:  [52.6%] pass
03) Avg at least 6.0 yards per rush:  [3.8] fail
04) Score on at least 1/2 of possessions:  [28.6%] fail
05) Keep 3 and out series under 25.0%:  [35.7%] fail
06) Average 9.0 yards per pass attempt: [5.59] fail
07) Score at least 80% inside red zone:  [75.0%] fail
08) TD red zone above 75%:  [50.0%] fail
09) Avg at least 40-yards per possession:  [27.1] fail
10) 50% of offensive snaps part of scoring drives:  [39.0%] fail
11) TD / Turnover ratio above 3.0:  [3/2] fail
12) TD ratio of at least 1 every 13 snaps:  [27.3] fail
13) At least 10 impact plays:  [5] fail
14) At least 3 big plays:  [2] fail
15) Pass rating of at least 145.0:  [107.3] fail
16) Yards to Point Ratio of 12.0 or under: [15.8] fail 

Score: 1 of 16 (6.2%) FAIL

  
Defensive Report Card:

01) Avg under 5-yards per play on 1^st down: [3.54] pass
02) Convert below 30% of 3^rd downs:  [13.3%] pass
03) Avg at least 3.0 yards per rush or less:  [4.00] fail
04) Score  1/4 of possessions or below:  [15.4%] pass
05) Keep 3 and out series above 40.0%:  [30.8%] fail
06) Average below 6.5 yards per pass attempt: [3.03] pass
07) Score below 65% inside red zone:  [100.0%] fail
08) TD red zone below 50.0%:  [0.0%] pass
09) Avg under 20-yards per possession:  [17.1] pass
10) 30.0% or less of offensive snaps part of scoring drives:  [23.4%] pass
11) TD / Turnover ratio below 1.0:  [0/1] pass
12) TD ratio of at least 1 every 35 snaps:  [64.0] pass
13) Less than 6 impact plays:  [6] fail
14) No more than 1 big plays allowed: [0] pass
15) Pass rating below 115.0:  [48.9] pass
16) Yards to Point Ratio of 25.0 or higher: [37.2] pass

Score: 12 of 16 (75.0%) PASS
 

Special Teams Report Card:

1) Punt Average (Above 43.0):  [43.8] pass
2) Punt Return Defense (Below 7.0 YPR): [24.0] fail
3) Punt Return Offense (Above 11.0 YPR): [16.7] pass
4) Kick-Return Defense (Below 20.0 YPR): [0.0] pass
5) Kick-Return Offense (Above 25.0 YPR): [16.0] fail
6) PAT’s (100%): [3/3] pass
7) FG Pct (75% or above): [100.0%] pass 

Score: 5 of 7 (71.4%) PASS
 

* 50% is a passing score.

War Eagle!

 

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Wow, 1-16 for the offense. Only 3.3 yards per play on first downs, yeesh. I think the improvement needs to begin at winning first downs. 

[doverstutts 1,643]

I saw this earlier when you put it up on 24/7 and that score for the offensive side is just disgusting beyond words...i don't even know how we managed to score looking at that

[Hspoprn 199]

2 minutes ago, ValleyTiger said:

I think the improvement needs to begin at winning first downs. 

Which begins with whoever calls the plays....................

[AidiAU 1,270]

Isn’t DJ hurt? 

[aucanucktiger 1,791]

(Cough cough) involve Matthew Hill more at WR (cough cough). 

[AU-24 3,063]

1-16... even worse than it looked.

 Stat, if you have time: have we ever went 1-16 before, against an unranked, non SEC opponent?

[aubaseball 2,591]

At least what I say with my eyes, actually played out on paper.   Thought maybe I was losing my mind.   

[AUpreacherman22 3,884]

Thanks @StatTiger, as always!!!

That was an awful performance by the offense any way you slice it.   The OL is just not good, period.  I think that may be a factor in the head-scratching play calling we have seen.   But unfortunately, our issues are deeper than just the OL and play-calling.  

I wish we could put together a decent offense to go with our excellent defense.   I’m afraid that our lack of pass rush is going to hurt us badly when we play bama, uga, and LSU.   Punt defense wasn’t much better yesterday.   Time is running out for us to fix our problems on offense, which are extensive!!!

[steeleagle 2,945]

Great report. But I believe I heard Malzahn in his after game press conference say that DJ Williams injured himself during the practice week. He hoped he could be back against Kent St. I also think DJ has been banged up even since the spring game(shoulder)...and continues to get banged up keeping him from a chance to play.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

The defense and the kicking game played a great game. A+ for both.

[StatTiger 3,188]

58 minutes ago, AU-24 said:

1-16... even worse than it looked.

 Stat, if you have time: have we ever went 1-16 before, against an unranked, non SEC opponent?

No

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

Head coach- fail

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

Not the first time I've said this, but that's a pretty sobering offensive report. I've been very critical of the coaching on this board and others for a very long time and I'm trying very hard to give the benefit of the doubt early in the season. But man, it's really really hard not to see the same deficiencies and predictability as last year. If this doesn't improve and we have the same results as last year the drumbeat from fans and writers is going to be deafening. If not now, then when? Probably not in 2020 with all the parts we have to replace. 

[AUFriction 1,179]

1 hour ago, ValleyTiger said:

Wow, 1-16 for the offense. Only 3.3 yards per play on first downs, yeesh. I think the improvement needs to begin at winning first downs. 

Bingo. We got cute on first down last night. Too many perimeter runs and screen passes. Would be interesting to see how the number would have been different if we had committed to the downhill running game early instead of this dink-and-dunk perimeter stuff. 

To be fair though, the 1-16 is a little misleading. We didn't use a lot of tempo last night, and Tulane was milking the play clock on every play. We only got 5 possessions in the 2nd half, and one of them ended after 1 play (with the fumble). We also sat on the ball in the redzone on the final drive instead of scoring, which we could have easily done. Take that into account and it is likely that 4, 7, 8, 10, and 16 would have  been passes. Most of the rest of the numbers would have come up if we had committed to the inside run game early instead of trying to throw underneath and run to the perimeter.

 

[around4ever 4,139]

In comparison, using the numbers that Stat used in our Defensive Report Card to grade Tulane's Offense, they also scored 1/16.  

[AU-24 3,063]

1 hour ago, StatTiger said:

No

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[ArgoEagle 1,771]

4 hours ago, aucanucktiger said:

(Cough cough) involve Matthew Hill more at WR (cough cough). 

And Harold Joiner. Grossly misusing these 2 guys!

[jptiger 481]

Thanks Stat!

[Beaker 2,457]

Tiger Stat, I don't hold you responsible, but I don't feel any better after reading the facts.

 

All joking aside - thanks man.

[fishepa 1,901]

I knew we were in trouble the very first series on 3rd and 2 and we run some fancy ass reverse fake pass which didn’t work. Should have just ran the damn ball. 

[AdamsHouseCat 43]

How do we go from showing really good offensive potential in the Oregon game to what we saw against Tulane?  Same pattern as last year?

[Warbird82 160]

15 hours ago, AUFriction said:

Bingo. We got cute on first down last night. Too many perimeter runs and screen passes. Would be interesting to see how the number would have been different if we had committed to the downhill running game early instead of this dink-and-dunk perimeter stuff. 

To be fair though, the 1-16 is a little misleading. We didn't use a lot of tempo last night, and Tulane was milking the play clock on every play. We only got 5 possessions in the 2nd half, and one of them ended after 1 play (with the fumble). We also sat on the ball in the redzone on the final drive instead of scoring, which we could have easily done. Take that into account and it is likely that 4, 7, 8, 10, and 16 would have  been passes. Most of the rest of the numbers would have come up if we had committed to the inside run game early instead of trying to throw underneath and run to the perimeter.

 

From what I saw, Tulane sold out to stop the run by putting 8-9 guys in the box.  Now I'm no mathematician but its kind of hard to block them all if they out number your guys.  Having said that, one way to counter this is to use screens and play action passing.  Gus finally figured it out in the second quarter.  IMHO, he continues to force the issue when the defense is showing you otherwise...that's just being stubborn.

[I_M4_AU 7,791]

11 minutes ago, Warbird82 said:

From what I saw, Tulane sold out to stop the run by putting 8-9 guys in the box.  Now I'm no mathematician but its kind of hard to block them all if they out number your guys.  Having said that, one way to counter this is to use screens and play action passing.  Gus finally figured it out in the second quarter.  IMHO, he continues to force the issue when the defense is showing you otherwise...that's just being stubborn.

This will be the blueprint for opposing defenses the rest of the season.  They want to see if our Freshman QB can carry the team.  We’ve been successful so far, but that is largely due to our defense.  This could change if Bo can successfully navigate a sustained drive when faced with this type of defense. However, when we run into a bonafide SEC defense that knows Gus has scripted plays to start the game, it is a guaranteed slow start.

Combine that with Gus’ use of one option pass routes and/or having the QB only look at the primary receiver and we could get in the hole quickly.  Something similar to the start of the 2018 LSU game.                                

[AUsince72 11,084]

2 hours ago, AdamsHouseCat said:

How do we go from showing really good offensive potential in the Oregon game to what we saw against Tulane?  Same pattern as last year?

At least you notice that.   

You're ahead of the curve compared to some...