Auburn’s offense, at least statistically, has improved from last season in most areas. But it’s been especially inconsistent in the second quarter of games.

The Tigers have lulled and stalled after the opening frame against Power-5 opponents this year, save for a three-touchdown, 187-yard second quarter in a 56-23 blitzing of Mississippi State last month.

The worst showings have come away from Jordan-Hare Stadium. Against Oregon, Texas A&M, Florida and Arkansas, Gus Malzahn’s team had 60, 14, 50 and 13 yards in the second quarter, respectively.

In those matchups, the yards-per-play average for Auburn is 2.3, and the team has gone three-and-out nine combined times in the second quarter.

“It’s a little bit of all the above,” Malzahn said of the second-quarter lulls Tuesday. “Some execution. We’ve got to put our guys in better positions and all that. We’ll need to be better in the second quarter, I’ll tell you that.”

Malzahn has scripted effective starts for his offense this year, as Auburn ranks No. 8 nationally in first-quarter points per game at 10.7. But for second quarters, that number drops to 7.9, ranking 70th in college football.

“It could be some of that,” Malzahn said of the offensive output dropping off because of the scripted plays ending. “There’s a lot of different things that account for that. We’re well aware and doing our best to overcome those things."

For Bo Nix, the true freshman quarterback has had his worst showings in second quarters. He’s being forced to throw the most passes in those frames and has his worst completion percentage and passer rating in second quarters.

“Well, defenses do a good job of checking on the sidelines and readjusting, so the second quarter we continue to try to do what we started fast on,” Nix said. “Obviously, once the defense starts doing some different things, they start to stop us, so that’s why in the second half when we make adjustments, we do a better job of moving the ball there in the second half than what it looked like in the second quarter.

“But, really, it all depends on who we play and what kind of game you’re in and what’s working for you and if the defense does anything to stop it, like I said.”

Just Auburn’s luck: Its opponent this Saturday, No. 2 LSU, has the second-best second-quarter scoring offense in the nation at 15.8 points per game.

“Obviously they’re very explosive, but we’ll just have to see how the game goes,” Malzahn said. “And hopefully we’ll correct it. That’s our plan.”

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