Auburn Squashes Arkansas! (Grading Auburn vs. Arkansas)

Having the angle on Igbinoghene did not matter!

     War Eagle everybody! It’s time now for the Acid Reign Report on Auburn’s bruising 34–3 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. Offensively, it was not a thing of beauty, but Auburn used opportunistic special teams plays and bone-jarring defense to carry the day and cover the ridiculous 30-point spread in this one. We are now officially into fall, and Auburn is sitting at 3–1 on the season, about where most pundits had prognosticated.

     It was a curious week from the officials. Against Washington and LSU, Auburn played tight coverage on the outside and picked up 6 pass interference penalties, several of them costly. I’m guessing Auburn privately complained to the SEC office, particularly regarding phantom calls. It’s one thing for an official to call what he sees. It’s quite another to call a penalty, just guessing. As a result, in this game, no pass interference penalties were called on either defense, despite more hand fighting, pushing and, in one case, Auburn’s Anthony Schwartz being pulled down by the shoulder pad with the ball in the air. Arkansas tried to float it up to the sideline, and with the handcuffs off the Auburn secondary, it did not go so well for the Razorbacks.

     During the game, it was frustrating to see Arkansas pick up a few first downs on 3^rd and 4^th down early in the game. These opportunities faded as the game went on. I and others bemoaned a lack of a pass rush during the game, but a rewatch reveals otherwise. Arkansas quarterback Ty Storey took a beating. Credit to the guy,when pressured he managed to dump the ball off into the dirt most of the time. Still, 13 completions out of 32 passing plays resulted in Arkansas not getting into the end zone. About the only defensive quibble I can come up with is that there were about 3 long runs given up that set up Arkansas for scoring opportunities. In particular, there was a 45-yard sweep early in the 3^rd by Rakeem Boyd where Auburn was caught seriously out of position on the edge. Still, Auburn slammed the door in the red zone, and Arkansas was never a serious threat to score a touchdown.

     Folks, the offensive line regressed this week. I hated to see that. What Auburn likes to do in the running game is pull guards and get a blocking advantage on the edge. When you pull guards, you leave a defensive lineman unblocked. Hopefully the play design leaves that lineman chasing air. For that to happen, the center and the tackles MUST neutralize their linemen. That did not happen very often in this game. Auburn running backs were often caught from behind by the unblocked guy because there was nowhere to go with defensive linemen in the backfield.

     Auburn seriously missed the usual contributions by departed receivers Nate Craig-Myers and Jalen Harris. As a result, overall team blocking ability went down, and plays that used to work well were blown up. I really can’t blame either guy for leaving as they were rarely targeted in the passing game.

     Auburn had a fantastic day on special teams with 2 long punt returns, a kick return for a touchdown, and a couple of blocked punts. I can’t be too upset with a couple of field goal misses from 50+ yards away. If you’re having to try kicks like that, it means that the offense is falling down on the job.

Unit grades after the jump!

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