Oct. 1, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- Daniel Carlson and your six field goals against LSU, take a seat. Auburn found other ways to score Saturday on homecoming.
The Tigers fixed their red zone issues by scoring touchdowns on their first four trips there and beat Louisiana-Monroe 58-6 in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Oh, Auburn didn't stop with the red zone. The Tigers scored four other touchdowns on three long passes and an 80-yard run by John Franklin III.
Coach Gus Malzahn said all week he wanted to see the Tigers produce touchdowns after last week's 18-13 win over LSU. He saw those TDs Saturday. Auburn has scored on nine of its 11 trips into the red zone the last two weeks. But, this time, the success was measured in touchdowns, not field goals, from 20 yards in.
"We have been focusing on it and that is going to be an emphasis moving forward," Malzahn said. "We have to keep carrying that over and score touchdowns down there. Primarily, it's about running the ball down there. If you are going to be a good red zone team, you have to be able to run the football in, and today we were able to do that.
"We just have to keep working and keep building on that."
- The game story is here.
Auburn's 688 total yards were the fourth most in school history. The second-most yards? Just three games back when Auburn beat Arkansas State. But that was before Malzahn ordered a re-examination of the offense, and before he turned the play-calling over to Rhett Lashlee.
Auburn will look for more of the same when the Tigers leave Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time this season to play at Mississippi State next Saturday. The Tigers are 3-2. Mississippi State is 2-2.
The offense could head to Starkville with a bounce after throwing three touchdown passes and running for five more scores against Monroe. The Tigers used three quarterbacks, had eight players carry the ball and six players catch passes.
Running the ball? That was Kerryon Johnson's department. He had burst through his single-game career-high by halftime, and finished with 146 yards and two touchdowns despite taking a seat in the third quarter.
"Kerryon is starting to come into his own," Malzahn said. "He is very elusive, breaks tackles and he is running extremely hard. We think he is in a good spot."
Auburn's other SEC Top 10 running back, Kamryn Pettway, did not play because of a bruised quad.
Auburn didn't miss him this Saturday, jumping to 28-7 lead. The Tigers tacked on 28 points in the third quarter, highlighted by an 80-yard run from backup quarterback John Franklin III. Auburn did all of that with a new configuration in the offensive line. Center Xavier Dampeer didn't play because of a leg injury, so Austin Golson moved from tackle to center and Darius James replaced Golson at his position.
Who could tell?
"At halftime we challenged our guys to come out and take care of business," Malzahn said. "We did that early and put the game away. We were able to play some of our young guys and get them some experience and that is vital. They got some experience and I thought the young guys did a good job out there."
Auburn finished with 688 yards after streaking to 618 in the first three quarters. The Tigers did it with the run, of course, and with the deep ball. Senior Tony Stevens and freshman Kyle Davis each caught 48-yard touchdown passes. Fellow freshman Nate Craig-Myers caught a 39-yard score.
"We talked about that two weeks ago, that we needed to give our guys more chances downfield, and that's been an emphasis for us" Malzahn said. "We have to take chances down the field. I think we had two freshmen catch touchdowns on deep balls, so that is always good."
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine