Adjustments key Auburn's comeback win

AUBURN | Time and again, Gus Malzahn pontificated on the importance of adjustments going into Saturday’s game against Oregon.

Malzahn insisted that season-opening games often involve double the number of adjustments. And Auburn’s seventh-year head coach was spot on as the changes the 16th-ranked Tigers were able to make in the first half and during halftime were key in the 27-21 come-from-behind win over the 11th-ranked Ducks.

“If you look at the game, we got off to a tough start. You got to give them credit. I think they had really good schemes early, made some big plays, offensively, defensively and special teams,” Malzahn said. “At halftime we came in, we made some adjustments. We really just talked about we need to win the line of scrimmage.”

Oregon opened up a 14-3 lead in the first quarter, out-gaining Auburn 176-101 yards. AU’s offense struggled to find consistency against UO’s multiple defense including an okie front, which deployed three powerful defensive linemen and two athletic ends out wide.

AU rushed for just 70 yards in the first half, completed 33 percent of its passes and committed two turnovers.

“We were making minor mistakes and really we were killing ourselves,” said offensive guard Mike Horton. “It wasn’t anything they were doing to us. We really knew we could win that game even going into the half and we were down. We knew we were going to win that game.”

AU’s offense made a commitment to run the ball after halftime, playing powerful run-blocking tight end Spencer Nigh more and nearly doubling their output on the ground with 136 rushing yards.

Nigh even caught a 9-yard pass from freshman quarterback Bo Nix, who completed more than 50 percent of his passes in the second half with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

JaTarvious Whitlow had 78 of his 110 rushing yards after halftime.

“Going in that first half and coming in for halftime we knew we could run the ball on them, just the feeling,” Horton said. “We asked Coach just to lean on us and use us. That’s what he did and it really worked for us.”

Oregon rolled up 191 yards on its first three possessions of the game, which ended in two touchdowns and a missed 20-yard field goal. AU’s defense, which started out playing mainly zone, shifted to tighter man coverages as the game progressed, pressing UO’s wideouts and getting more numbers in the box to disrupt the Ducks’ effective outside zone runs and screens.

“It was just settle down, play our game, get your feet set, because they were going fast; they were going real fast,” said safety Jeremiah Dinson, who led AU with 13 tackles along with two tackles-for-loss and a sack. “We just had to settle down, because we were kind of jittery that first quarter, then second quarter came out, third and fourth and we played our game.”

UO managed just 156 total yards the final three quarters including 13 rushing yards on 13 carries in the second half and four rushing yards on seven carries in the fourth quarter as AU’s defense took control of the game.

Auburn out-scored Oregon 21-0 over the final 20 minutes.

“Our defense did a super job holding them to just a few yards rushing in the second half,” Malzahn said. “I felt like we were able to lean on them some in the second half, running the football.”