Auburn was soundly defeated through the first three quarters of its home game against Georgia last weekend, but the fourth quarter was something else entirely.

The Tigers shifted into their two-minute, fast-paced offense and immediately began putting UGA on its heels. A 21-point deficit was trimmed to seven with with a few minutes remaining.

Auburn was on a roll.

The situation hit a crescendo with 2:30 remaining. Facing a 4th-and-2 that was a do-or-die moment for all intents and purposes, Gus Malzahn needed a special play to gain the necessary yardage.

He had one.

Malzahn likes to disguise certain plays with what he calls "Fire Alarm," where the offense huddles near the ball and aligns with unusual fervor after breaking the huddle. It's meant to create defensive confusion. The defense doesn't have much time to adjust to the offensive formation.

In situations like this, Malzahn has shown a major preference to run the ball outside. He doesn't want to run outside this time, but he wants Georgia to think he does. Malzahn's play is a Wing-T staple — a play-action pass called a "Waggle" with a little speed-sweep fake to catch UGA's attention.

Here's how it looks on paper:

The sweep man, 5 Anthony Schwartz, sprints toward the boundary to simulate a run. Backside tackle Prince Tega Wanogho and backside wideout Seth Williams block as if they're attempting to maintain outside leverage in an effort to get the UGA defense flowing toward the boundary.

That allows the tailback, 22 Harold Joiner in this case, to slide outside with a flat route in the other direction. The slot man, 80 Sal Cannella, runs a playside corner route to draw at least one frontside defensive back away from the tailback's route.

This is very much against tendency for Auburn and should create at least one coverage breakdown.

Here's how it looked in real time:

Everything unfolded just as Malzahn expected. The linebackers flowed the wrong direction initially and weren't a factor in this play. The playside safety, shaded in red in the above diagram, ditched the tailback in favor of chasing the quarterback.

The tailback was open.

Still, quarterback Bo Nix just missed the throw. He may have been surprised that the safety was so close to him so quickly, but the throw didn't have to be rushed. A clear path existed between Nix and Joiner. Also, Joiner's route was a little more shallow than expected due to that safety's quick release, but that's minor.

Nix has to put that ball in an area where Joiner can make a play on it. There is no other option.

Sometimes brilliant calls result in failure. Humans aren't flawless.

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