Published Nov 13, 2021
Offense goes quiet in second half again
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Christian Clemente  •  AuburnSports
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Auburn's offense was cooking. It had gotten its groove back after going six quarters without a touchdown. The explosive plays that had been missing all season were starting to happen. The Tigers were rolling.

Then, all of a sudden, the offense was stagnant again.

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"You know, I’m not quite sure what happened there. Just felt like the entire stadium — the life — just kind of mellowed out and the life of the stadium kind of relaxed there for a minute and it was hard to get some momentum back," Quarterback Bo Nix said. "They did a great job of doing good on offense, defense and special teams. They came back and made it a game and we didn’t do our part.

"We came out really hot, really on fire, moving the ball well, scored a lot of points and then I mean, that’s just on us for relaxing and we just didn’t have the same intensity that we needed. You just kind of felt it and that’s never good."

In the first half, Auburn racked up 28 points and 325 yards, including 205 from Nix through the passing game. The Tigers were averaging 8.6 yards per play.

Then in the second half Auburn scored just six points and 158 yards. Auburn had -14 rushing yards in the second half. The Tigers averaged just 4.9 yards per play over the course of six second half drives.

"You know, we're not as consistent in the second half, let me say that," Bryan Harsin said. "I think we do some things early in the first half. We've got to continue to keep attacking in the second half as aggressively -- just playing and executing -- as we do in the first half. It doesn't seem like we do that in the second half."

Nix finished the game passing for 377 yards and two touchdowns, completing 27 of his 41 attempts.

On the ground, Auburn ran for 102 yards on 27 attempts. But taking away Ja'Varrius Johnson's 57-yard run puts Auburn at 49 yards on 26 carries. Auburn's running backs averaged 2.7 yards per carry.

"You know, the second half, I just think it comes back to finish a ballgame. I think it comes back to finding ways to put teams away," Harsin said. "You can't be satisfied with 28 points necessarily in the first half and just say, 'Hey, we're good.' You've got to continue to keep attacking. You've got to put as many points on the board as you can. That's the responsibility of the offense."

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