From Phillip Marshall

Malzahn, Roof share their thoughts on AU victory (includes videos)
By Phillip Marshall, Senior Editor
Posted Sep 19, 2010
Copyright © 2010 AuburnUndercover.com



Defensive coordinator Ted Roof talks after Saturday's victory over Clemson/Phillip Marshall
AUBURN – In the first half Saturday, Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn kept looking for answers and kept coming up empty.

He found lots of answers in the second half as the Tigers scored 24 unanswered points en route to a 27-24 overtime victory over Clemson.

“We were awful in the first half,” Malzahn said. “We had penalties, ugly football. The third quarter we got in a rhythm, made some plays and looked like ourselves.”

The Tigers were three-and-out on their first three possessions. They had 8 yards total offense in the first quarter and didn’t make a first down until near the 7-minute mark of the second quarter. After falling behind 17-0, they finally put together a drive that led to a Wes Byrum field goal on the final play of the half.

“We couldn’t speed things up in the first half because we didn’t make any first downs until the very end,” Malzahn said. “We’re a rhythm offense. When we’re in a rhythm, we’re pretty solid. When we’re not, we’re not that solid.”

The second half, the offense Malzahn expected to see from the start returned.

“We figured out how they were playing certain sets and certain situations,” Malzahn said. “When we got in a rhythm in the second half, we looked like our offense. When we are at our best, we get first downs, first downs, big play.”

For defensive coordinator Ted Roof, the story was similar. First-half struggles were replaced by second-half success.

“Right now, we’re getting everybody’s best shot,” Roof said. “We got Mississippi State’s best shot and tonight we got Clemson’s best shot. They hadn’t had to show a lot of things (in the first two games). They had some new things our kids had to make adjustments to. I thought they did a nice job making adjustments in the second half.

“I thought we missed too many tackles. We have to get that cleaned up. It was a physical, physical football game. I thought both teams really played hard.”

The tackling problems were dealt with, Roof said, in the second half.

“We tackled well last week,” Roof said. “We didn’t tackle as well in the first half this week. The second half, I thought we did tackle well.”