Here's the best part...

Malzahn’s offense has four base running plays — inside zone, power, counter and buck sweep. The last three are known as man- or gap-blocking plays, as individual linemen are responsible for a specific defender or will lead the way through a certain area of the defense.

Inside zone is foundational to a lot of modern offenses, including Auburn’s. The inside zone is a building block to many of the Tigers’ play-action passes and run-pass options. When the inside zone is working as a running play, the defense has to be on high alert for a variety of possibilities.

It didn’t work against Tulane. Here’s a look at the performance for each type of running play Auburn used in Week 2:

A successful inside zone play requires offensive linemen to be able to quickly secure blocks, often in one-on-one situations, in order to let others get to the second level and create explosive gains. Auburn’s offensive linemen rarely reached the linebackers against Tulane and sometimes had problems holding off Tulane’s down linemen, especially nose tackle Jeffery Johnson. Auburn clearly tried to get the inside zone rolling after mixed results against Oregon in Week 1. But the interior of Auburn’s offensive line didn’t get enough push up front against Tulane for it to be an effective play. Of the 16 inside zones Auburn ran against Tulane, 10 of them went for three yards or fewer.

Cleary shows the up the middle plays don't work. If we had better O-line play yeah but until we do something different needs to be done.

This post was edited on 9/10/19 at 11:21 am