What Do You Do When a Team Makes the Same Play Over and Over Again?

COLUMBIA, Due south.C. — Chandler Wooten knew.

He'southward a senior, a squad captain. He knew.

He'south linebacker, a quarterback-of-the-defense type of player. He sees what's happening germination to formation, snap to snap. He knew.

He knew that what Southward Carolina motorcoach Shane Beamer said later on a 21-17 win over Auburn (6-5, 3-4 SEC) was true.

"Nosotros talk well-nigh this being large-male child SEC football," Beamer said, "and nosotros literally lined up the second half and ran the aforementioned 2 plays, over and over and over again."

That quote should sting Auburn football game fans. It should make Auburn's coaching staff wince in pain. Wooten confirmed it was truthful.

"Aye, they did run the same play," he said. "We had a couple of problems fit-wise. ... They bled us a trivial bit in the beginning of the 2nd half."

That wasn't supposed to happen. Even afterwards Auburn blew a 28-3 lead to Mississippi State last week, this was never supposed to happen. Even after Auburn came to Due south Carolina as a height-15 squad last year and lost to the Gamecocks, this wasn't supposed to happen. This was supposed to be why Auburn went in a new direction, into a new coaching tenure.

Beamer is a kickoff-twelvemonth coach, also. Auburn had the resounding talent advantage over Beamer's Gamecocks. But they out-worked and out-smarted Bryan Harsin's start-twelvemonth staff with simplicity. And so Beamer rubbed information technology in.

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Wooten knew Beamer had earned that right.

He knew that S Carolina running back Zaquandre White should not have accounted for 168 total yards while averaging 6.two yards per conduct. Non against this Auburn defense, the Derek Stonemason-led defense that was a second-half squad in the starting time half of the flavor.

The second half of the season has been an entirely different team.

Stonemason and the Tigers were depleted past injuries, but they could do near nothing to cease the inside zone to White that immune South Carolina to close a 14-0 gap. On the two touchdown drives that tied the game, the Gamecocks ran 14 times and passed three times.

"He was a very big, strong back who ran extremely difficult, so tip your hat to him," Wooten said. "We just didn't tackle well, evidently and uncomplicated. That's on us. Wasn't actually anything special they did. We kind of knew what plays they were running; we just didn't tackle."

On the rare occasions when South Carolina did determine to throw, Auburn couldn't do much to cease that, either. But v passes weren't completed. The moment that inverse the game was a quaternary-down pass to White, who slipped out of the backfield and was completely unmarked as Auburn tried to go pressure. Easy 28-yard touchdown.

"They did a adept task of feeding him," Wooten said.

He attributed that play to a miscommunication past Auburn'southward players — a familiar refrain this flavour when defenders have been asked to explain what went wrong on a certain play. When in that location are enough of those miscommunications in pivotal situations deeper into a season, it ceases to be just a player issue.

When Harsin was asked about Beamer's comments, he did a double take.

"Yeah, I think just, they ran within zone; they ran it hard," he said. "I know that was 1 of the two plays. They were able to get some yards on it. I idea we slowed that down. ... I don't know what two plays exactly, but I know they were running inside and they were getting some yards on it. And then they were running within — I don't know if this is considered the 2d play — but they were bouncing outside because their guys were doing a good job of getting outside of contain on a couple of runs."

Later on the kickoff quarter, S Carolina won 21-3, averaged iv.12 yards per deport and beat Auburn at the line of scrimmage on both sides. This was the opponent that Auburn was supposed to smashing.

Every bit Wooten noted later, the defense did make a few stops to continue the game within reach. Just the offense went silent in a series of punts.

Auburn regressed throughout the game for a second directly calendar week, a reflection of the team's regression throughout the 2021 flavour. Iii weeks ago, the Tigers were positioned to run the table and win the SEC Westward after a superlative-10 win vs. Ole Miss. Now they have lost 3 consecutive games for the first time since 2012.

That was the last year of the Gene Chizik era. When an Auburn team loses three straight, it makes sense for it to exist the terminate of a coaching tenure — not the beginning.

Harsin understands that.

"That'due south on me," he said while discussing the incompleteness of Auburn's functioning. "I've got to help this football squad be more consistent."

The Tigers close with proving ground for Harsin and his staff: the Iron Bowl and a below-expectations bowl game. For now, they've been browbeaten past another first-year motorbus whose game plan was so consistent Saturday that it became a punchline.

Two plays.

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Source: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/college/auburn/2021/11/20/shane-beamer-south-carolina-ran-same-2-plays-beat-auburn-football/6382342001/