Kansas State Postgame and Numbers

[StatTiger 3,188]

It certainly wasn't the result most Auburn supporters were hoping for but we should all be grateful Auburn left Manhattan, Kansas with a victory. Auburn's school record streaks of 200-yard rushing games and 30-point games came to end at the hands of the Kansas State defense. It was a Wildcat defense that was well coached, disciplined and quick to the point of attack. It took away the heart of the Auburn offense, which limited Auburn's explosive play ability. Fortunately for Auburn, the Tigers' defense came to play, holding Kansas State to under 300-yards of offense. If not for the first-half play of the Auburn defense, the Tigers would not have held their slim 10-7 lead at halftime.

If we learned anything from tonight, it was a clear sign of how difficult it will be for Auburn to navigate through their schedule unblemished. With the way Auburn has run the ball during the last 16 games before the Kansas State game, we became spoiled from its production. This is the very reason why Gus Malzahn and Rhett Lashlee knew the importance of improving the pass-offense. Auburn will remain a strong running team but Kansas State won't likely be the last team to slow Auburn's rushing attack down before season's end. This means the pass-offense must strive for continued improvement or face the reality of losing.

The play of the offensive line and blocking on the perimeter was very inconsistent against the Wildcats. Auburn's longest run of the night was a 17-yard gain by Nick Marshall and Cameron Artis-Payne took a massive beating between the tackles. Kansas State simply beat Auburn up front, when the Tigers were on offense. The good news was that Nick Marshall delivered, when he was needed the most. If not for 4-5 dropped passes, Marshall would have passed for over 300-yards and at least 3 TD's. It's good to know the players and coaches can learn from this reality check and still be undefeated. All in all, the defense took another big step forward as well as Nick Marshall but the offensive line are in for a gloomy film study this week.

Inside the Numbers:

• Despite the average performance by the offense, Auburn has raised the bar over a 16-game run. Auburn's offense beginning in 1970 and 5 games into the 1971 season, averaged 446.8 yards per game and 34.8 PPG. Starting with the 6th game of the 1994 season, Auburn's offense averaged 461.8 YPG and 36.1 PPG over a 16-game period. Starting with the last game of the 2009 season on through the first game of 2011, Auburn averaged 486.3 YPG and 41.1 PPG. Beginning with the second game of the 2013 season on through the Kansas State game, Auburn averaged 504.4 YPG and 40.4 PPG.
  
• The last time Auburn held a team from a major conference to under 300-yards was the 2011 Florida game.
  
• Kansas State was held to only 78-yards on 30 first down snaps. The last time Auburn held a major opponent to under 3-yards per play on first down was the 2008 Mississippi State game.
  
• Nick Marshall had a QB rating of only 112.3 during the first-half, thanks to a couple of dropped passes. Marshall rebounded strong with a 159.9 rating during the second-half.
  
• Nick Marshall came into the game with a total of 4 third-down passes that resulted in a first-down. Against Kansas State, Marshall converted 7 third-down situations, throwing the football.
  
• Three games into the season, D'haquille Williams has been targeted 27 times, catching 21 passes. Sammie Coates has been thrown to 13 times, catching 3. Ricardo Louis has been targeted 10 times, hauling in 6 passes.
  
• Nick Marshall has completed on 43 percent of his passes on first down but has connected on 57 percent on third-down.
  
• After gaining only 60-yards during their first 5 possessions of the game, the Auburn offense gained 294-yards during their next 6 possessions.
  
• After going 2 of 7 on third-down during the first-half, Auburn was 8 of 11 during the second-half.
  
• Through 3 games into the 2013 season, the Auburn defense had allowed 6 plays of 30-yards or more. The 2014 defense has surrendered just 2.
  
• Only 24 of Auburn's 76 offensive snaps netted at least 5-yards. Lowest output of the season. K-State had 29 of 70 snaps that went for at least 5-yards.
  
• Auburn's defense has allowed 5.4 yards per play during the first-half and only 3.4 yards per play during the second-half.
  
• 52.2 percent of the plays defended by the Auburn defense has been held to 2-yards or less this season.
  
• Auburn had averaged at least 17 first down plays that netted at least 5-yards, prior to Kansas State. The Wildcats held Auburn to just 9 plays of 5-yards or more on first down.
  
• Last season through 3 games, only 7.9% of Auburn's possessions began on the opponent's side of the field. This season it has increased to 17.1 percent.
  
• One of the primary keys to victory was stopping Kansas State from scoring on the 3 possessions they took possession on the Auburn side of the field.
  
• Auburn is now 33-4 under Gus Malzahn's offense, when the Tigers score at least 2 times during their first 4 possessions of the game. This was not the case against Kansas State, making Auburn 12-8 under Malzahn, when scoring only once or less during their first 4 possessions.
  
• Last season Nick Marshall completed only 28.3 percent of his passes beyond 20-yards of the line of scrimmage. The key was to improve to 40-45 percent in 2014. Through 3 games, Marshall has hit only 18.2 percent. This has to improve or Auburn won't make it back to Atlanta much less the playoffs.
  
• Through 3 games Auburn has allowed 3.2 yards per rush during the first-half and 1.3 yards during the second-half.
  
• Of Auburn's 18 scoring drives this season, 65.7 percent of the plays have been on the ground.
  
• Auburn's front-7 (star included) was involved in only 42.4 percent of the tackles. This included only 9 stops by the D-line, which averaged 17 per game prior to Kansas State.
  
• Auburn has now scored 34 points from their opponent's turnovers and have surrendered zero points to the opponent from Auburn's turnovers.
  

Final Word:

It would be easy to write off this team's chances of winning a championship solely based on their performance against Kansas State. Though it's obvious there are areas Auburn needs to improve upon, most championship teams survives at least one of these type games during the season. I believe the game plan for this game were solid but execution was questionable in several critical areas. The offensive line struggled, there were too many dropped passes and special teams did not deliver like they normally do. Credit should also be given to the opposition for their performance and effort, which made Auburn's offense look mortal more than not.

Auburn will have a couple of extra days and Louisiana Tech to work through before hosting LSU. The time spent before the LSU game will be critical to prepare for what will be an extremely physical game. The offense must find the ability to be more balanced, when their backs are against the wall but there are plenty of positive signs, the defense has continued to improve. Though Auburn won the tackle for loss battle against Kansas State (6 to 5), the Wildcats clearly held the edge in controlling the line of scrimmage. Auburn will not advance very far is this becomes the case, when they return to conference play.

The secondary looks questionable at times but it is important to remember the youth movement in place and the lack of experience back there. A better push by the defensive line would help but until that happens, look for Ellis Johnson to mix in the blitz at critical times. Thus far, Auburn has been very productive in this area. The regular season is one-fourth through and Auburn is still in the mix for a special season. The Tigers will need to continue their march to improvement as the schedule becomes more challenging each week. Enjoy the good things accomplished in each game, rather than fretting over the negatives. Normally there are more positives than negatives but its human nature to focus on the negative. This is directed at us as fans and not the team and coaches. Let the players and coaches work out the kinks.

War Eagle!

[WFE12 9,191]

nice post stat, a lot of us especially me, are speaking out of frustration cuz we know the team can do better and know that there's so much potential for this season, and you're right it is human nature to focus on the negative...i know i keep saying this but the team cannot risk not thinking about things one game at a time

[RunInRed 16,360]

I'm not near as "freaked out" as some AU supporters seem to be after last nights W on the road against a Top 20 opponent but there were some head scratchers ...

• Why wasn't Daniel Carlson in on the first punt?
  
• Why did we continue to kick to Lockett? Why did we kick to him in the first place? There seemed to be limited advanced game planning here, much less in-game adjustments.
  
• When Marshall finally hit his groove in the 4th quarter and we were on the verge of literally putting the game away, why bring in Johnson/Bray to run some quasi Wildcat?
  
• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter?
  

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

[AU64 10,122]

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

Going into the game all the talk was about their QB and how we had to stop him from beating us with his legs......so check his stats....mission accomplished it seems to me. To do this we gave up some short passes which was frustrating but the QB ended with almost no rushing yardage and their leading receiver threat had less than 50 yards.

JMO but that was a good defensive performance in this era of wide open football.

[IronMan70 3,277]

I'm not near as "freaked out" as some AU supporters seem to be after last nights W on the road against a Top 20 opponent but there were some head scratchers ...

• Why wasn't Daniel Carlson in on the first punt?
  
• Why did we continue to kick to Lockett? Why did we kick to him in the first place? There seemed to be limited advanced game planning here, much less in-game adjustments.
  
• When Marshall finally hit his groove in the 4th quarter and we were on the verge of literally putting the game away, why bring in Johnson/Bray to run some quasi Wildcat?
  
• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter?
  

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

I would add Reed to that list. He was solid all game and lined up against their best receiver for a lot of his snaps. The combo of Holsey and Ford at safety was also solid.

[rbrigby 0]

I thought our run D was pretty good, except for a couple of runs right up the middle but when you hold a Big5 Team to 40 yds rushing that is pretty good and speaks to how well our DL played the run as well as our LBs and Safeties. I thought we would have more pass rush but KSU delivered the ball quickly most plays and when they attempted to hold the ball to let longer plays develop, Waters didn't look comfortable because someone was starting to make a push. Overall I was pleased with the D and I agree with IronMan in that Reed looked good to me. He was flagged on a bogus call. Ford is really becoming an impresive safety and he has the speed to recover from mistakes and is willing to lay the wood to people. He made some hits that I thought for sure where Therezie then he got up and was surprised it was Ford. Holsey looked great at Safety last night, better than he has at CB this year. We couldn't find a way to cover #14 to save our lives but we did enough to get the W.

I felt like Marshall played well, better passing than running for a change. If not for the dropped passes and the 3 or 4 batted passes by the KSU DL he would of had a great game and everyone would be super thrilled about his performance. The wildcat was a giant mistake last night. I was hoping to see Barber play for a change of pace, not taking anything away from CAP, just appeared that Snyder had his boys ready for our Offense so why not give them a curveball.

[1TexasTiger 55]

Trovon Reed played into a starting position last night against a great receiver. I am so proud of him. WDE T. Reed

[wakeriderof87 31]

I'm not near as "freaked out" as some AU supporters seem to be after last nights W on the road against a Top 20 opponent but there were some head scratchers ...

• Why wasn't Daniel Carlson in on the first punt?
  
• Why did we continue to kick to Lockett? Why did we kick to him in the first place? There seemed to be limited advanced game planning here, much less in-game adjustments.
  
• When Marshall finally hit his groove in the 4th quarter and we were on the verge of literally putting the game away, why bring in Johnson/Bray to run some quasi Wildcat?
  
• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter?
  

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

I couldn't believe we continued to punt to Lockett, stupidity. I also wondered what was up with the first punt, is he our direction punt guy? The wildcat pissed me off too, no reason for that there. Duke seemed to be shaken up a bit, I think he took himself out of the game twice in the second half.

[Guest jojo1515]

All in all we beat a top 20 team on the road, on a Thursday night on an off night. I believe all the players that struggled at times to get in the groove found a way to get their groove back by the end of the game. All except J. Jones. Not sure what was up with his cover skills. His interception only happened because he blew the coverage on a 4 yard route by 5 yards which put him coming through as a tipped ball came back down. Hopefully he just had an off night all night (although I have my doubts). Fact is that we survived, which we will have to do a lot of to win the NC. I am pleased with a win in what usually is a death trap for good teams.....the Thursday night road game. I hope we never at another one!

[maxwere 82]

I'm not near as "freaked out" as some AU supporters seem to be after last nights W on the road against a Top 20 opponent but there were some head scratchers ...

• Why wasn't Daniel Carlson in on the first punt? Plan was to use the rugby style backup P as counter to Tyler Lockett. Plan scrapped on muff... turned out to be best net yards of the night.
  
• Why did we continue to kick to Lockett? Why did we kick to him in the first place? There seemed to be limited advanced game planning here, much less in-game adjustments. see above.
  
• When Marshall finally hit his groove in the 4th quarter and we were on the verge of literally putting the game away, why bring in Johnson/Bray to run some quasi Wildcat? Good question, cuteness by Malzahn. First Bray play was good, KSU not fooled on inside. Johnson seemed confused, which begs your question.
  
• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter? IDK he had at least 4 catches and 3 huge ones. Could be sideline was not satisfied with blocking... remember playing 7-10 cushions are advantageous for run support to the outside. Drops cost us more than 14-21 points. The D was giving us the underneath stuff. It would have forced KSU to move their DBs up and that would have opened the run and likely a typical offensive outcome.
  

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

[lala 327]

Stat,

1). We really miss tre. Was hoping we'd see Peyton or Rock to see if they'd be more patient for better runs.

2). Seemed like K St. really pressed up the middle and stopped the run better than any team in the last. Yr

3). Why can't we throw to CJ like they do jimmy graham or Gronk?

[doc4aday 1,887]

I think that KSU is a very good ball club. I see them winning 8-10 games for 2014. We saw their best, and they saw our mediocre play. I think that if they played 8 SEC games on their own turf and with Big 12 refs, they would probably go 5-3 or possibly 6-2. However, we did what we had to do, and came home with a hard fought win.

I have stated in previous posts that this might very well have been one of our toughest opponents for all of 2014. I like our chances for the rest of the season.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter?
  

There was a replay of a Williams reception where he immediately jumped up and ran off the field after the tackle. The manner in which he ran off the field led me to believe he was hurt. But this feeble mind can't remember what part of the game this occured.

[WarEagle84 0]

Stat,

1). We really miss tre. Was hoping we'd see Peyton or Rock to see if they'd be more patient for better runs.

IMO, we miss Prosch more than we miss Tre. The dropoff from Prosch to Fulse > the dropoff from Tre to CAP.

[lala 327]

Stat,

1). We really miss tre. Was hoping we'd see Peyton or Rock to see if they'd be more patient for better runs.

IMO, we miss Prosch more than we miss Tre. The dropoff from Prosch to Fulse > the dropoff from Tre to CAP.

I thought that as well. It also shows with jay making a pro roster which is very difficult for a rookie FB.

In regard to front 7 tackles it was a different type of game. We used the LB's to keep QB in the pocket, so they relied more on the pocket pass game making it a CB game.

[war eagle6 0]

We were out-physicalled by their d-line the whole night. If I know Gus, we probably won't see that happen again

[Ryan Sanders 123]

What was the deal with Jonathan Jones (first half especially)? He seemed to have his head way out of the game IMO. Yeah he caught the interception in the endzone, but that was on their wide receiver. lol.. I do think that the interception kinda got him back together (mentally) though.

[MaxP 137]

We tackled better in this game than we have since the Tuberville era. Holsey needs to stay at safety, he played an excellent game. Also, as others mentioned, Frost really seems to be benefiting from the switch at LB positions.

[war eagle6 0]

We tackled better in this game than we have since the Tuberville era. Holsey needs to stay at safety, he played an excellent game. Also, as others mentioned, Frost really seems to be benefiting from the switch at LB positions.

Agreed. I knew holsey would ball out at that position, he's faster and more physical than whitehead. And he tackles better as well.

[doc4aday 1,887]

I knew that this game going in was going to be a very tough nut to crack. We were a blue collar team facing another blue collar team, I think as the season unfolds, we will see just how good of a team that KSU is. I would not be surprised to see KSU finish with a 9-3 or 10-2 record at the end of the regular season.

I was pleased with the outcome of the game, and am ready to move on to the next victim on the gallows.

[kd4au 1,145]

What was the deal with Jonathan Jones (first half especially)? He seemed to have his head way out of the game IMO. Yeah he caught the interception in the endzone, but that was on their wide receiver. lol.. I do think that the interception kinda got him back together (mentally) though.

KSU ran a lot of picks in there passing game.Jones seem to have trouble getting off the pick(that I thought are illegal)and staying with WR.

[kd4au 1,145]

I'm not near as "freaked out" as some AU supporters seem to be after last nights W on the road against a Top 20 opponent but there were some head scratchers ...

• Why wasn't Daniel Carlson in on the first punt?
  
• Why did we continue to kick to Lockett? Why did we kick to him in the first place? There seemed to be limited advanced game planning here, much less in-game adjustments.
  
• When Marshall finally hit his groove in the 4th quarter and we were on the verge of literally putting the game away, why bring in Johnson/Bray to run some quasi Wildcat?
  
• Where was Duke Williams for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter?
  

On the positives side ...

• Defense, Defense, Defense!
  
• Rudy Ford appeared to be flying around and making plays; same could be said for Frost and Holsey
  
• The front-four on the DL really played a whale of a game ... even with all the holding going on
  

I too was disappointed with the wildcat at that stage of the game .But after that we did go on and pick up a first down before the drive stalled,so not sure the wildcat hurt as much as I thought during the game.