Gus Malzahn's Poor Play-Calling Limiting an Already Struggling Auburn Offense
Through all the offensive turnover Auburn had entering 2015, the Tigers still could feel confident in the strategic advantage of innovative head coach Gus Malzahn.
But on Saturday, in Auburn's 27-19 loss to Ole Miss, writers and fans alike were left wondering what exactly is going on inside Malzahn's patented visor.
Auburn's offense went 2-of-15 on third downs against the Rebels. It turned three red-zone trips into a grand total of nine points. It also scored just three points off two interceptions from Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly.
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Some of those woes come down to execution. Auburn's offensive line took a step back. The wide receivers have struggled with drops since the dismissal of the sure-handed Duke Williams.
Health became a factor Saturday, too. Redshirt freshman quarterback Sean White, who was a game-time decision due to a knee injury, played through obvious pain to deliver some clutch passes.
But a lot of Auburn's offensive troubles on Saturday purely came down to Malzahn's play-calling, which has regressed from brilliant to baffling this season.
Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee had a harsher word for it:
Granted, Malzahn dialed up a couple of successful deep passes to flip the field against the Rebels—including a gadget play in which backup quarterback Jeremy Johnson completed a risky bomb to Tony Stevens in double coverage.
But what happened after those big plays received plenty of valid criticism.
In the third quarter, with Auburn trailing by three points, White hit Melvin Ray for a 44-yard gain. Auburn followed that up with a 22-yard run and an 11-yard run from a now seemingly healthy Jovon Robinson.
But after Robinson was stuffed in the backfield on 1st-and-goal at the Ole Miss 4-yard line, the Tigers never went back to him. Johnson came in for a short quarterback draw, and White was sacked on third down on a play that started at the 3-yard line.
After a field goal, a similar scenario happened for Auburn on its next drive, when the Tigers were now down by seven points.
White connected on a long pass play to Ricardo Louis, and Robinson combined for 17 yards on back-to-back runs to get Auburn into the red zone. After Robinson went for no gain on the next play, the Tigers threw two incompletions, got called for a blatant holding call and settled for another short field goal.
When another scoring opportunity presented itself off a Kelly interception near midfield, Auburn did the same thing—long pass to get into the red zone, followed by a stopped run and back-to-back incompletions inside the Ole Miss 5-yard line.
To recap, Auburn only handed the ball off three times to its running backs on 10 offensive plays in the red zone. White went 1-of-5 through the air and was sacked on a third down.
| First | 2 | 1 | Johnson run on 2nd, White sacked on 3rd |
| Second | 1 | 3 | Holding call wipes out White completion |
| Third | 1 | 3 | Ineligible receiver on White incompletion |
| Total (RZ) | 4 | 7 | Nine total points |
| Total (Outside RZ) | 37 | 25 | Per @John_P_Carvalho on Twitter |
Malzahn offenses of seasons past would have hammered the ball at its opponents deep in the red zone instead of abandoning the running game after one negative play.
Former Auburn lineman Chad Slade, who played on those offenses, voiced his frustrations on Twitter:
But this isn't the same kind of Malzahn offense this season—both in execution and play-calling.
In terms of turning red-zone conversions, Auburn is lining up more for field goals than extra points than it has in years past.
| 2013 | 88.52 | 72.13 |
| 2014 | 87.93 | 65.52 |
| 2015* | 87.10 | 61.29 |
Outside of the 20s, Malzahn had a few more head-scratching decisions.
A few plays after Blake Countess picked off Kelly inside Auburn territory, Auburn surprisingly went to Johnson on an ill-advised running play with just before halftime.
"Johnson nearly fumbled the ball on a critical play with 11 seconds remaining in the first half that could have been returned for a touchdown by the Rebels," Brandon Marcello of AL.com wrote. "He was down on the play, but the decision to go with Johnson at quarterback was baffling in the first place."
Questions were also asked on Auburn's two failed fourth-down conversions.
Malzahn elected to throw the ball on 4th-and-2 near midfield midway through the second quarter. While the aggressive decision to go for it would have been a welcome sight for Auburn fans, throwing the ball in a short-yardage situation with a banged-up quarterback couldn't have been one.
Ole Miss took advantage of the good field position by tying the game on the next drive.
Later, with Auburn trailing by eight points late in the fourth quarter, White chunked an aimless deep ball on fourth down when the Tigers just needed nine yards to keep the drive alive.
The bottom line is Auburn's offense was nowhere near the usual Malzahn standard Saturday against an Ole Miss team that, while putting up 558 yards of total offense, gave the Tigers opportunities to stay in and perhaps win the game.
A redshirt freshman quarterback whom no one expected to start this season had to take over the offense and now battle a knee injury. What was supposed to be a deep running back corps continues to struggle with nagging injuries.
Those backfield issues, combined with inconsistent play from the wide receivers and offensive line, are handicapping an offense for a team that already has one of the SEC's worst defenses.
And on top of all that, Auburn's offensive guru of a head coach is making questionable at best decisions with his underwhelming offense.
As Jerry Hinnen of CBS Sports tweeted, Saturday's SEC West game came down to which team could convert the most with their scoring opportunities:
Shaky decision-making from Malzahn played a huge role in that disadvantage for the Tigers, who missed yet another big-time opportunity in a season that increasingly looks like it will end with a losing record.
And that would be even more shocking for Auburn than a handful of baffling play calls.
Game statistics courtesy of StatBroadcast. Unless otherwise noted, other statistics courtesy of cfbstats.com.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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