These 4 explosive plays show how hard Auburn’s run game can be to stop

Auburn absolutely wrecked Arkansas, 56-3, on Saturday. The box score is flabbergasting. Auburn rushed for an SEC regular-season record 543 yards. Five. Hundred. Forty. Three. The Tigers averaged 9.5 yards per rush and never let off the gas. Starting QB Sean White threw 11 times. He didn’t need to do anything else.

No, Arkansas’ defense is not the ’85 Bears, but it’s not like Auburn took advantage of a bunch of inexperienced freshmen. Our Razorbacks blog discusses:

Going into the season, one of the most-discussed issues was Arkansas’ returning defense. The pass defense was dreadful last season, but the run defense was ok, and the Razorbacks returned 9 of 11 starters on that side of the ball. Everyone expected Arkansas’ defense to be better. The only question was “how much better?”

But this is not just about Arkansas’ struggles on defense this season.

Auburn’s offense is actually good. After a rough 2015, the Tigers are back up to No. 14 in yards per carry against FBS opponents and No. 3 in rushing yards per game. That’s despite playing tough Clemson, LSU, and Texas A&M defenses. Their efficient blocking is a huge reason why.

Auburn is one of just four offenses to rank in the top 20 in Adj. Line Yards, opponent-unadjusted opportunity rate (percentage of carries gaining at least five yards), and stuff rate (run stops at or behind the line). The others: rushing juggernauts Louisville and Ohio State, and pass-happy California.

The Tigers didn’t have a bunch of long runs. Only eight of Auburn’s 57 carries against Arkansas went for more than 15 yards. They haven’t been especially explosive on the year, either, with 20 runs for 20 or more yards, which ranks them about where they rank in total carries. This was death by 1,000 cuts.

But the haymakers were informative, so let’s hit on four of Auburn’s biggest rushing plays from Saturday night.

This was Auburn’s first offensive play. For starters, you should have known something was off, because Sean White’s under center here. That’s not exactly Gus Malzahn’s modus operandi.

College and Magnolia said, “I do love that we had a jet sweep go for a huge gain, because it’s something we fake a lot.”

No. 12, Stove, is usually a decoy, but here he’s going to get the ball. Auburn’s set this play up by not handing the ball off to the motioning WR.

Life is about to come at those two DBs (orange arrows) very fast. Auburn fullback Chandler Cox and WR Tony Stevens will create a lovely alley for Stove. But the beauty’s in what LT Darius James (blue arrow) does to get to the second level and make sure the LB is sealed off.

Now, James doesn’t block anyone at the second level, but that’s fine. Auburn blocks Arkansas DL Deatrich Wise Jr. without laying a hand on him. James takes this jab step with his right foot ...

... and Wise (who naturally expects contact) gets off-kilter because James doesn’t engage him.

James has already stepped around him and moved on to engage a LB, who’s been sucked in by White’s post-handoff fake to No. 36, Kamryn Pettway.

Wise stumbles through the gap, and there’s no way in hell he could make this tackle of a full-speed Stove. The angle just isn’t there.

White’s big zone-read run

God bless offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee and Malzahn, because they know what they are. The play before White has a 41-yard scamper on a zone read, the Tigers run the zone read.

It’s an 8-yard gain, and there’s largely nothing to see here. But the Tigers hurry to the line and run the same play again out of the same formation (three WRs right and a TE left, tight to the offensive line.)

Auburn’s QB is not a major threat to run. White has rushed more than eight times in a game once this season. Even after this game, he only has 113 yards rushing. But he gains 41 of those here after reading the DE, who crashes on superior runner Pettway, and keeping the ball.

Big shout to an exquisite one-on-one on the outside by TE Jalen Harris, No. 85.

White’s such an infrequent runner, Arkansas safety Josh Liddell still hasn’t noticed that White is literally about to run right by him:

Welp.

Here we have an unbalanced offensive line that just freakin’ mashes. There are offensive linemen to the right of the center, plus an H-back, and they pull No. 63 Alex Kozan from the other side.

Motion from a WR creates some shifting in Arkansas defense ...

... to Auburn’s advantage, because the running back isn’t going all the way to the outside.

Truitt hasn’t even crossed the line yet, and he’s already home free for the score.

In a perfect world, these two DBs should head this play off, either making the tackle or forcing it back the other way for their buddies to clean up the tackle.

DB Santos Ramirez comes down to try and make the play, but his teammate Henre’ Toliver backs up into him after jamming a receiver and attempting to recover and make the play as well:

No problem. You’ve got another DB who maybe could cut the play off at an angle on the second level and stop a long touchdown, right? Nope ...

... he’s chasing backup QB John Franklin III (No. 5 above), who’s carrying out a fake to the left.

To break big plays, sometimes in college football you have to take advantage of big mistakes. And sometimes, you can help your opponent make mistakes. That’s what Auburn did, and they got a huge win because of it.

Screencaps taken from SEC Nation on YouTube.