'Back to the basics': Auburn' run game looking for vast improvement
AUBURN– For a team that historically prides themselves in a strong run game, Auburn’s offense is not executing the way that it should be.
Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter combined for 57 rushing yards against Penn State on Saturday. Bigsby alone had just nine rushing attempts, Hunter following with five.
When quarterbacks T.J. Finley and Robby Ashford are added in the mix, the Tigers rushed for 119 total yards, averaging at just 3.3 yards per carry. This number is still under half of Penn State’s 245 total rushing yards.
Head coach Bryan Harsin said the Tigers wanted to run the football, but cited Penn State’s defensive scheme for the reason they moved away from the strategy.
“We want to run the football. Every game is different. You guys don’t sit in the meetings and look at what they’re trying to do and all that. There’s very little understanding of what their defense was trying to get done during the game,” Harsin said. “We can run into nine or 10 guys if we need to, but our coaches, that’s why we put together game plans.”
The running backs can only run where the offensive line opens holes, and Saturday was a mighty struggle. Senior right tackle Austin Troxell spoke on the matter in Monday’s press conference.
“It’s huge for our offense- run game, being physical upfront- that’s our offense,” Troxell said. “We should be able to run the ball against any defense and go from there. That’s our identity as an offense and that’s what we want to be as an offensive line is to be able to run the ball consistently no matter what looks we’re given.”
The Tigers rank 74th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (17), and lost 52 yards against Penn State.
When asked what the offensive line needs to do in order to improve, Troxell talked about how they need to go back to the basics and fundamentals in order to allow the run game to get into a sort of rhythm.
“The whole game, we couldn’t really get into rhythm, run game wise consistently,” Troxell said. “We need to get a lot better going forward. We’ve got to have a good week of practice this week and that’s what we’re going to do… Just going back to the basics, fundamentals. We lost our fundamentals in this game and that’s key for the offensive line. We’re going to correct that in practice this week for sure.”
With the quarterback position in flux, the Auburn run game will have to be efficient against Missouri on Saturday when the two teams meet at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.
