Attacking offense gives Tigers momentum

The first-half, knee-taking days appear to be over at Auburn.

In the first two games of 2009, Auburn has taken possession in opponents’ territory with less than two minutes to play in the first half. Both have ended with Auburn putting points on the board in momentum-shifting fashion.

“It makes sense,” coach Gene Chizik said. “And really, if we feel like we can get some momentum swings before the half, by all means we’re going to do that.”

Even with a Gus Malzahn offense that can be labeled anything but conservative, the Tigers have rolled the dice in situations Tommy Tuberville — nicknamed the Riverboat Gambler — would have customarily conceded because of time constraints.

Reeling from an 18-play, 90-yard Louisiana Tech drive in the season opener, Auburn took possession at its own 39-yard line with 23 seconds to play. A 9-yard run and a 20-yard pass later, Wes Byrum hit a 49-yard field goal to snap a 10-10 tie and give the Tigers a lead they would not relinquish.

On Saturday, Mississippi State took possession with 3:08 remaining in the second quarter. Auburn allowed a first-down pass on the first play but slammed the door on the following three, calling two timeouts in between plays before forcing the Bulldogs to punt.

The Auburn offense reciprocated with an eight-play, 78 yard drive that elapsed just 1:13. It ended with a 1-yard Kodi Burns touchdown and gave the Tigers 14 unanswered points and a 28-17 lead heading into halftime.

“They were both big drives going into halftime,” quarterback Chris Todd said. “Anytime you can have momentum shift like that going into the half it’s big.”

Perhaps what has made Auburn’s two-minute drill so effective is that the Tigers go at that pace the entire game in Gus Malzahn’s no-huddle, no-time-to-breathe offense.

When the Tigers devoted an entire preseason scrimmage to situations like the time-crunched situations they’ve already encountered, Malzahn spoke with cautious confidence that the Tigers are better prepared than traditional offenses.

“We’re used to going fast anyways,” Malzahn said. “So I’d like to think there was not as much panic as there is with some other offenses.”

And it’s not as if the Tigers are flying off the cuff, either.

Chizik said the Tigers have certain names given to certain situations — all the way down to particular yards and seconds. As an example, Chizik said there’s a name and play for first-and-10, 38 seconds on the clock and one timeout.

“We can recall on Saturday that this is a certain (snap), whatever we name it, it’s this situation right here,” Chizik said. “We have confidence and we work it and we work it and we work it.”

The ease in which Auburn ran through its multiple two-minute drills has been exemplified in the seemingly brash play calls.

On the first play of the Louisiana Tech drive, Onterio McCalebb ran the ball. He got out of bounds and Auburn didn’t need to use one of its two remaining timeouts before Byrum’s field goal.

Against Mississippi State, Auburn not only ran the ball twice, it also broke out what most would consider a trick play — a term Malzahn doesn’t include in his vocabulary.

With less than 30 seconds to play, Todd motioned for a shift and three players broke away from the offensive line, including tackle Lee Ziemba. Ziemba, doing his best to cover up his number, broke out even farther when the ball was snapped and waved his arms in the air, motioning for a pass and drawing at least one defender’s interest.

Todd looked Ziemba’s way before completing a 20-yard pass to Darvin Adams. Burns plunged into the end zone on the very next play.

“Everybody feels comfortable, so it’s kind of like going out there and executing a regular play,” Todd said. “It’s a little wrinkle we have to try and make a play where we needed one. We rep enough to where everybody feels comfortable doing it.”

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