Auburn, Ala. —Tonight Auburn and Georgia faced off in the 128th meeting between the two schools, in what is called the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, and what a game it was. Both Auburn and Georgia showed why this game is a rivalry, and despite Auburn losing in a close game 27-20, their run game was very successful and fun to watch.
When talking about the run game strategy for game and season Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said, “I think we’re going to have to run the football in a lot of different ways and to make it look different and we did some of that today.”
Auburn certainly ran the ball many ways, and overall, it was very successful, especially considering their run game against other Power 5 schools. Tonight, against Georgia they had 219 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, whereas against Cal and Texas A&M, they had an average of 140 rushing yards and no rushing touchdowns.
All four players who had rushing yards for Auburn made positive plays with the ball, especially quarterback Peyton Thorne who had a 61-yard-long rush early in the game to get Auburn into Georgia territory, which eventually ended in an Auburn field goal. Thorne’s 61-yard rush not only set up an Auburn score, but it was also the longest run in his career, and we’ll probably see more from him before his career is done.
Not only did quarterback Peyton Thorne have a great run game today, but so did quarterback Robby Ashford who ran for Auburn’s second touchdown of the game which was his 5th rushing touchdown this season and the 12th of his career.
“Our identity has to be balanced on offense,” Freeze said, and that starts with making sure that both the run game and the throw game are effective. It doesn’t take away from the success that both quarterbacks had today with running the football, it should just be worked on for the next game.
Though both the stars of the run game tonight were the Auburn quarterbacks, both running backs, Jarquez Hunter, and Brian Battie, played great tonight as well. Hunter had his second rushing touchdown of the season and the 12th of his career, while Battie had a great run game tonight that certainly showed why he is now at Auburn.
“The stage doesn’t seem too big for him," Freeze said about Battle. "He can make people miss, he’s shifty, and he’s got good hands and we can use him in a lot of ways. Really proud of how he’s progressing.”
If Battie continues to play like he did today, Auburn fans will certainly see a lot more of him in future games especially while Damari Alston remains out with his injury.
The staple for Auburn’s offense is their run game, and if their run game continues to improve and dominate the game like they did tonight teams are going to have to come up with some creative strategies to stop Auburn’s dynamic run game.
Auburn gets a weekend off before they rush out to Baton Rouge to face the other tigers in the SEC west, the LSU Tigers, and hopefully their run game against LSU is as good as it was today against Georgia.
