One mustn't be cute to be effective.

That's what my mom used to tell me because I was born cross-eyed and, well, she's always been a pragmatic woman. The same advice is applicable to Gus Malzahn, whose past travails have been exacerbated by his innate desire to be a little too cute.

Auburn people don't easily forget double reverses on the goal line.

Yet for all the talk about this Auburn team, Malzahn's seventh as head coach, there has been little chatter surrounding the button-down nature of the Tigers' offensive play-calling so far. It's been smart. The sequencing has been intuitive. It's as if Malzahn finally realized that winning games is more important than proving yourself as the smartest coordinator in the room.

That point is of paramount concern as we look back at the Tigers' strategic successes from their big win over Mississippi State last weekend. Malzahn didn't get cute; he got forecful. He mostly stuck with the formations and concepts that have been yielding positive outcomes this season. That sounds elementary but it's actually a parallax; things that seem simple are often made complex by real-time drama.

There was little drama Saturday night.

And what we saw was one of the most effective offensive performances of the Malzahn era. Don't let the 56 points fool you — Auburn could have scored another touchdown or two had it felt compelled to do so.

Why did everything work so well? Let's review this game ...

PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GRADES: OFFENSE (at least 15 snaps played)
1. QB Bo Nix, 80.4
2. LT Prince Tega Wanogho, 80.3
3. WR Seth Williams, 76.8
4. WR Anthony Schwartz, 73.7
5. WR Will Hastings, 67.7
6. C Kaleb Kim, 67.5
7. RB Boobee Whitlow, 66.8
8. RT Jack Driscoll, 65.4
9. FB Jay Jay Wilson, 64.7
10. QB Joey Gatewood, 62.1

Nix has been playing with excellent situational awareness all along, but he's struggled a bit to keep his eyes on the prize as pass rushers swarmed around him. He maintained focus against Mississippi State, though, remaining calm in the pocket and not letting token pressure negatively affect his timing. The result was a 16-of-21 passing performance that perfectly complemented Auburn's strong run game. Wanogho made some WOW blocks in space that signaled his return to health. Williams was targeted nine times and finished with eight receptions. And Schwartz once again reminded us how much defenses hate offensive players with speed, change of direction and positional utility. He changes the geometry of the game.

PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GRADES: DEFENSE (at least 15 snaps played)
1. DE Marlon Davidson, 78.1
2. DT Daquan Newkirk, 74.1
3. DT Derrick Brown, 72.3
4. CB Roger McCreary, 70.7
5. DT Coynis Miller Jr., 69.1
6. LB Chandler Wooten, 69.1
7. DE Caleb Johnson, 68.9
8. STAR Christian Tutt, 66.8
9. LB K.J. Britt, 65.3
10. S Jeremiah Dinson, 64.9

This was an affirming performance for defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, who saw two of his less experienced defensive linemen (Newkirk and Miller) find ways to undermine the Bulldogs' run game time and time again. The question this season always has been what Auburn has behind Marlon Davidson and Derrick Brown. McCreary continues to be a guy who makes mistakes, but always makes them at full speed. These numbers are skewed a bit because Steele made a conscious effort to get his second- and third-team guys in the game as early as possible. Still, it's good to see a guy like Caleb Johnson, whose received zero hype this season, make a meaningful contribution against an SEC opponent.

PERFECT CALL, PERFECT EXECUTION

Anthony Schwartz is really fast. Opponents are attempting to keep track of him in different ways, but Mississippi State shows that simply not adjusting to his motion is a really bad idea.

Take a look at this jet read. Before this ball is snapped, Auburn knows this play will hit. We know this because Auburn will have a lot of blockers headed to an area of field where MSU doesn't have many defenders. It's a numbers game and Auburn has the numbers.

The Tigers' fortunes are solidified when the play-side defensive linemen slant away from the run. Yikes.

The Tigers make four excellent blocks along the path of this run. I personally prefer Spencer Nigh's cut block, which sends the defender airborne. LT Prince Tega Wanogho climbs to obstruct a linebacker. RB Malik Miller shoulders a safety out of the way. WR Seth Williams shows remarkable persistence with his block at the goal line, which is remarkable because Williams' blocking in the Oregon game was well short of "persistent."

This is not an exotic call, yet it nonetheless left the MSU defense emasculated.

OPEN-FIELD TACKLE OF THE WEEK

The winner is sophomore safety Smoke Monday, who played well this week after missing a couple tackles at Texas A&M. Watch how quickly he diagnoses the run here by watching the quarterback's feet and then driving downhill to secure the TFL.

This is called "filling they alley."

RUNNER-UP FOR 'BEST OPEN-FIELD TACKLE OF THE WEEK'

This is an Auburn site, but give credit where credit is due.

LT Prince Tega Wanogho (76) worked quickly to get wide and provide cover for WR Seth Williams (18) on this tunnel screen. Wanogho damn near killed S C.J. Morgan (29), who was crashing down in an effort to affect the run after the catch.

Rather than take his beating meekly, though, Morgan rotated his body and managed to get an arm on one of Williams' legs. That was enough to get Williams down in this case. Had Morgan not gotten his hand on Williams, this probably was going to be a touchdown after Williams cut inside of WR Matthew Hill (19).

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

I strongly suspect this is an example of Malzahn coming back to something he tried to use against Texas A&M to weak effect. Malzahn twice stacked Anthony Schwartz ahead of Eli Stove to run what's called a "divide concept" — a two-man route designed to pressure Cover-2 coverage.

It didn't work at A&M; both plays were negatively affected by pressure.

In this case, Malzahn used the same concept out of a traditional alignment from the spread formation. The goal is to get Schwartz moving at full speed on a Go/Fly route and force that boundary CB to somehow manage a very difficult coverage responsibility.

Here's how it looked last weekend ...

Against a Cover-2 look, that CB has to protect against an out or comeback route because the safety can't help that close to the boundary. During that split second when the CB is diagnosing Nix's intentions, Schwartz gets by his man with nothing but green grass ahead.

Nix did a fine job of lofting the ball rather than outgunning the team's fastest player, though the throw was a bit wide. If he aims this a little more inside, it's an easy touchdown — rather than merely an explosive play.

Auburn typically runs this concept to the field (wide) side; Schwartz's route typically goes down the numbers rather than the sideline. Perhaps that messed with Nix's spatial awareness. Or perhaps I'm simply overthinking a throw.

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