AUBURN | Shut down Nick Chubb and Sony Michel and force Jake Fromm to beat you. That was Auburn’s plan on defense and it was executed to perfection.

The 10th-ranked Tigers held the nation’s most dangerous running back duo to just 48 yards on 20 carries in a decisive 40-17 win over No. 1 Georgia at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“We felt like we had to stop the run. We did that,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “Hat’s off to our defense against one of the better rushing teams in college football.

"They've trashed everybody else they've played up front and them running backs have ran wild through pretty good defenses," Malzahn added. "We settled down and we stopped that run and we were getting them before they got going."

The Bulldogs came into the game averaging an SEC-best 279.3 rushing yards per game, but managed to gain just 46 yards on 32 carries, an average of 1.4 yards per carry. UGA finished with 230 yards of total offense, 215 yards less than their average.

Chubb finished with 27 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries and Michel 21 yards on nine carries.

“When you’re a good unit, you get tired of hearing about individual players,” said linebacker Deshaun Davis, who had five tackles and a sack. “A lot of people told us that we had poor linebacker play this year and they were gonna run all over us, run for 300 yards.

“We didn’t buy into all that. We know the unit that we had and we knew what we had to do and we went out there and did it.”

Fromm didn’t fare much better. The Bulldog true freshman completed 13-of-28 passes for 184 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked four times and hurried six more times.

Jeff Holland had one of the sacks to up his SEC-leading total to nine, along with five tackles and three quarterback hurries. Carlton Davis, Stephen Roberts and Jeremiah Dinson had a team-high six tackles apiece. Roberts added two pass breakups, Dinson one.

“Holding a team like Georgia under 50 yards, that’s big with the great backs they’ve got over there,” Holland said. “Their backfield is great but I think we played great. We filled those gaps and we stopped the run.”

The Tigers return to action next Saturday hosting Louisiana-Monroe at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.