Auburn football is off to an impressive start despite the fact that their first two games have been easy matchups. Bo Nix passed for a 90.1 percent completion in game one versus Akron, and Tank Bigsby left week one as the highest-graded running back.
The Tigers took care of business versus Alabama State on Saturday, but it looked far less perfect than the season-opener. Auburn came out sluggish in the first half, scoring only six points in the first quarter. The offense made nine first downs and only converted on two of seven third downs.
Bo Nix completed 8-16 passes for 80 yards and one touchdown, caught by Demetris Robertson. What really hurt the Tigers in the first half were the six penalties for 41 yards. They cleaned up their act in the second half, but a sluggish start like that could seal the Tigers’ fate in a game like next week’s matchup against Penn State.
According to Bryan Harsin, the biggest negative from the game was the lost yardage due to penalties, and their focus heading into week three will be to clean up what the team can control, per AL.com:
"But overall, probably the biggest thing that stands out from a negative standpoint is just the penalties. I think we had 10 penalties. We need to clean that up. Those are things that we can control for the most part. Then some turnovers as well. We lost one of the fumbles. We put the ball on the ground a couple of times. Those are things we need to make sure we continue to keep working on as we had into this next week."
Harsin said that a game on the road will bring new challenges for Auburn football, but the goal remains the same, and that is to correct the issues from last week and prepare for the #10 Nittany Lions.