Welp, that was easy.
Auburn's defense needed a few possessions to get its coverage in order, but Kent State never had much success at all with its run game. Gus Malzahn's rarely sputtered and was derailed only by sporadic miscues — two unseemly dropped passes and a couple egregious overthrows.
Still, the Tigers won by 39 points, rushed for 467 yards, finished with a trio of 100-yard rushers for the first time since Bo Jackson's freshman season and seemed to establish a run-game identity. That's a successful outing.
Let's take a look at the BOTTOM LINE ...
PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GRADES: OFFENSE (at least 15 snaps played)
1. QB Bo Nix, 84.1
2. WR Eli Stove, 76.9
3. QB Joey Gatewood, 74.4
4. C Kaleb Kim, 70.2
5. LG Marquel Harrell, 69.6
6. LT Bailey Sharp, 66.7
7. RB Kam Martin, 65.9
8. RB Boobee Whitlow, 62.0
9. RB Shaun Shivers, 61.5
10. LG Tashawn Manning, 61.4
• Kent State's general inability to pressure Nix gave the true freshman more time to consider his throws and he didn't waste the opportunity. He went 12-of-16 for 161 yards and a touchdown. Gatewood attempted just one pass, but he made good decisions in the run game and was simply too much for the Golden Flashes. I'm still confounded a bit by Kim's relatively high grade; PFF clearly values correct assignments very highly.
PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GRADES: DEFENSE (at least 15 snaps played)
1. CB Roger McCreary, 88.0
2. DT Tyrone Truesdell, 76.5
3. LB K.J. Britt, 75.0
4. DE Marlon Davidson, 72.6
5. S Smoke Monday, 72.4
6. DE Nick Coe, 71.7
7. LB Zakoby McClain, 70.1
8. LB Chandler Wooten, 70.0
9. DE Big Kat Bryant, 69.8
10. DE Derick Hall, 69.1
• McCreary played the same number of snaps (41) as starter Javaris Davis — and that's not a garbage-time mirage. McCreary's passion and acceleration has allowed him, at least through three games, to overcome some mental errors. His rise is second only to Truesdell's; the defensive tackle has come out of nowhere to give the Tigers a front-line, do-everything complement to Derrick Brown inside. Britt is really something to see when defending the run as often as he was last weekend. He fits the run as well as Deshaun Davis.
SETTLING ON AN IDENTITY
Auburn dominated many opponents during the 2017 season with Kerryon Johnson primarily running inside zone — largely because that concept worked well with that offensive line and Johnson's patient rushing style.
Things are different now. The Tigers aren't as strong at the point of attack, Malzahn feels like his linemen in general are better in space and tailback Boobee Whitlow is less patient. What works best with all that taken into account? It appears Malzahn's answer is one-back power, guard-tackle counters and various RPO components built off those concepts.
I correctly predicted this a few weeks back when the Tigers' best run plays against Oregon were (two-puller) sweeps out of wildcat. They began emphasizing the GT counter against Tulane last week and experimented more with the one-back power runs against Kent State. Taken as a whole, this constitutes a multi-dimensional, blunt-force ground attack — assuming it's sequenced thoughtfully and executed at least somewhat well.
I wanted to show the play below because it's everything all at once. It's a power run — watch LG Marquel Harrell execute a skip pull and provide an excellent, second-level block to spring Whitlow — with good deception, strong blocking and decisive acceleration from the tailback.
This is the goal.
INSIDE ZONE STILL HAS ITS PLACE
Though the inside zone won't be the Tigers' primary weapon this season, it can be made more potent if QB Bo Nix establishes himself as a potent, competent option on the keeper.
He did that against Kent State last weekend during a memorable, three-play sequence that saw Nix gash the visitors as a runner and then force them to adjust — just in time for Whitlow to hit 'em up the middle.
The zone read generally is easy to understand. Nix is taught to keep the ball and get upfield if the backside DE crashes hard toward the mesh point. If that DE slow-plays the handoff, Nix is taught to hand the ball off.
This puts the DE into a constant state of conflict. And if everything unfolds according to design, Auburn can manipulate that conflict more often than not.
FIRST PLAY: DE crashes, Nix keeps it.
SECOND PLAY: DE crashes, Nix keeps it.
THIRD PLAY: DE stays at home, Whitlow scores up the middle.
FOOTNOTE: Nix can get greedy against a slower team like Kent State, but he'll need to amp up his open-field awareness when keeping against teams like Texas A&M. Those quicker defenders can chase him down; Malzahn would prefer Nix slide at his earliest convenience to keep himself lucid.
SHER'WOOD' AT HIS BEST
We haven't seen a lot from Jamien Sherwood this season because, well, defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has leaned heavily on his starting safeties this season.
But his young guys are very good.
Check out this otherwise forgotten play from the other night. Sherwood drives downhill in run support and arrives with bad intentions to end this inside run. LB K.J. Britt did his job and has this play under control, but Sherwood was thirsty for contact.
Yikes.
WIDE WILSON
One of the most peculiar personnel tweaks last weekend included the use of H-back Jay Jay Wilson as an outside receiver. I asked Malzhan about this Sunday and he laughed while reminding me that he frequently talks about Wilson's versatility.
Yeah, but wideout?
Players said that Wilson didn't drop a single pass during the first 12 days of fall camp. Yeah, his hands are pretty good. While lining up as a "2" (flanker), Wilson's first two throws were on stick routes against a zone concept. The third play, also run against a zone concept, was a go route that was complemented nicely by Will Hastings' skinny post route. Hastings pulled the deep safety toward him and away from Wilson.
That should have been a touchdown. Nix just missed a bit high.
DIG A FOOT IN
Those watching the game on TV may have been perplexed when ESPN showed Malzahn berating Nix after a fairly straightforward touchdown run.
It was a delayed response.
Malzahn was livid after Nix, one play earlier, opted to bounce a run outside when cutting it inside would have yielded a touchdown.
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