Malzahn keeps foot on pedal

On this night, Gus Malzahn’s foot remained planted squarely on the pedal.

A week after blowing a 20-0 lead in a loss at LSU, the 21st-ranked Tigers scored four touchdowns in the third quarter as they cruised to a 52-20 win at Arkansas.

“I’m real proud of our players and staff. It was a tough week, a tough loss last week,” Malzahn said. “We had a great practice on Tuesday, we had good ones on Wednesday and Thursday and it carried over. It was a big win. It was really what we needed. Now we go into the off-week and we can heal up and we can really make a serious run at this thing when we get back.”

The Tigers led just 17-6 at halftime despite rolling up 288 total yards in the first half. Auburn was stopped on fourth down at the 2-yard line and Jarrett Stidham threw an interception at the Arkansas 39 to end two first-half drives.

But the third quarter included touchdown drives of 75, 70, 62 and 23 yards as the Tigers totaled 239 total yards on five possessions to build a 45-13 lead.

“That was the biggest key for us all week,” said Stidham of coming out strong in the third quarter. “Even in our meeting today we said whenever we come out for the second half, we have to finish the game and really set the tone for the second half. I think we did that and it kind of got everything rolling.”

Auburn went through a stretch of 17-straight runs on first down at LSU, but mixed it up much better against the Razorbacks. Through the first three quarters, AU ran 14 times and passed nine times on first down. AU averaged 8.8 yards per play and Stidham was 8-of-12 for 100 yards on first down.

Malzahn even mixed in a trick play as wide receiver Ryan Davis took a handoff on a reverse and found Darius Slayton for a 62-yard touchdown pass — on first down.

“We’ve got to come out like our hair’s on fire and that’s exactly what we did,” said Malzahn of his halftime message. “I think we had one of the better quarters of the whole year. I’m very proud of the way our guys responded. We got some pace, we hit trick play, hit a couple of passes, hit a couple of big runs. It was really nice.”

Auburn finished the game with 629 total yards, the most this season and sixth-most ever in an SEC game. The totals included 345 rushing yards and 284 passing.

Auburn, which improves to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the SEC, will take the week off before playing at Texas A&M Nov. 4.