AUBURN | For a large portion of the first half, Will Rogers and Mike Leach's offense looked out of sync, with Auburn's defense keeping Mississippi State to 80 total yards and a field goal for the first 19 minutes. The Tigers made sure tackles, and for quite some time, kept Rogers, who came in completing 75 percent of his passes, to mediocre stats.
It seemed innocent at the time, but the Bulldogs drove 75 yards on 10 plays in 1:55 right before the half to cut Auburn's lead to 28-10. No one, including Derek Mason apparently, could see what was coming next.
In a classic case of a coach getting thoroughly schooled by his counterpart, Bulldogs' head coach Mike Leach saw what wasn't working, made the necessary adjustments and watched as Rogers and his team drove down the field for five straight touchdowns to start the second half. A 28-3 lead at one time in the second quarter had vanished, and now it was 43-38, State.
Just look at the stats that Rogers and company put up in the final 30 minutes. The sophomore quarterback completed 24-of-26 passes (holy moly!) for 271 yards and five touchdowns. Heck, even the Bulldogs' rushing game got a bit going, gaining 61 yards to give Rogers a chance to rest his arm for a second. And, unlike last year's game against State in which Auburn pressured Rogers, sacking him six times, the defensive line play was nowhere to be seen.
Bryan Harsin had no explanation for the lack of pass rush.
“I don't know why we didn't get as much pressure or why he felt more comfortable in the second half than he did in the first half," he said. "I mean, just from looking at it from the sideline, it felt like we weren't getting the kind of pressure that we had gotten early, and so, that's a factor.
Mason, for the most part, never gave his players in the trenches a chance. He was more than happy to rush three guys (and sometimes four, but that didn't work either) against five offensive linemen. You don't have to be an accountant to figure out those numbers. Rogers had more than enough time to go through his progressions, dinking and dunking at times while also hitting big plays down the field against a tiring Auburn secondary. You give a quarterback with his talent in a Leach offense time, and that will happen.
"Obviously, he played well," Harsin said of Rodgers. "It is a tale of two halves. That is what they do: throw the ball. We have to be able to prevent that."
Prevent? It almost looked like Auburn was in a prevent defense for most of the second half, and you know what they say about those: it prevents winning.
Yet there was Mason, never making changes, even with his team getting shredded through the air. It's one thing to get beat after making some adjustments and trying something new. It's another thing when you stick with what clearly isn't working. Unfortunately, the bend-and-don't-break defense that Auburn had shown over the past few games didn't show up.
Of course, we won't know why Mason decided to stay with the same game plan. All we can take is that he either thought it would start working, he gave up or that the defense is that bad. I think of all the options, the first is the likeliest. But not since 2012, when Johnny Manziel came in during his Heisman Trophy-winning season, has a quarterback ever had more control over an Auburn defense.
Harsin has already dismissed one assistant this season due to below-par performances by his players. After Saturday's second half, you have to wonder how long of a leash he will give Mason.
