Lashlee regrets not running the ball more

AUBURN | Upon further review, offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee wishes he would have called more running plays in Auburn’s 13-7 loss at Georgia Saturday, especially in the second half.

Auburn came into the game averaging 299.8 rushing yards on 53.6 carries per game. Against the Bulldogs, the Tigers had just 127 yards on 32 carries, only eight of those carries came in the second half.

“We played an OK first half. We weren't great but we moved the ball,” Lashlee said. “We had a good touchdown drive. We only had the four chances. We were backed up a little bit. We weren't world beaters by any means but we're OK.

“We start the second half and we have two critical errors, we turn the ball over and we tie the game up. We give them momentum. Our defense is playing great. But at that point we're still tied and it just goes back to I've got to do a better job with our offense of calming everybody down and getting them in better plays so we can overcome that. I didn't do that last night.”

After throwing a pick-6 on its opening drive of the second half, Auburn had five-straight three-and-outs before a four-and-out on its final drive of game. Quarterback Sean White was sacked or threw an incomplete pass to end all six of those drives, four of them were third-and-twos.

“We should have run the football,” Lashlee said. “We were running it well enough to say we have a pretty good chance to getting it. With the exception of one call, we had a chance to pick them up but we dropped a ball here, we missed a block there but going back, our O-line is healthy and I don’t know if it’s the flow of the game or the feel but if I were to do it over again, we’d run the ball.”

Kerryon Johnson led Auburn with 99 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries against the Bulldogs, averaging 4.5 yards per carry. He worked as a running back and Wildcat quarterback.

Lashlee also regrets not using Johnson more out of the Wildcat although he entered the game with an ankle injury and re-aggravated it early.

“Definitely something I wanted to do more looking back at it,” Lashlee said. “Kerryon, you can see is out there on one leg, Stanton Truitt got hurt early, Chandler (Cox) got banged up in the game. That had a little to do with it.”

No. 18 Auburn, 7-3 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, hosts Alabama A&M Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network Alternate and WatchESPN.