11 numbers that explain just how thoroughly Auburn waxed No. 1 Georgia

The Georgia Bulldogs went to Auburn on Saturday as the No. 1 team in the country. They left in tatters, beaten in a 40-17 romp that was every bit as lopsided as the score suggests. The Tigers’ two-loss Playoff hopes are very much intact ahead of a huge Iron Bowl with Alabama in two weeks. They’ve never looked more dangerous.

These numbers can help provide a sense of what a dominant Auburn effort this was.

Yards per Auburn rush.

The Bulldogs entered with the country’s No. 9 rushing defense, allowing 3.1 yards per carry. Nobody had done better than 4.8, and four of the Dawgs’ last five opponents had been kept under 3. Notre Dame, which might’ve had the best running game in the country until Miami got a piece of it, could only muster 1.5 against UGA back in September.

Yards per Georgia rush.

The Tigers’ control of the trenches stretched to both sides of the ball. UGA also entered with the country’s No. 9 rushing offense at 5.8 yards per run and hadn’t been kept below 4.3 in any game. But the Tigers were ferocious.

College football stats are weird, so that total includes four sacks of Jake Fromm that cost Georgia 37 yards. But even with sacks filtered out, UGA’s average yards per carry was just 3. Auburn’s defensive front took whatever it wanted. (Auburn’s yards per run were 5.7 with sacks filtered out, if that interests you.)

The passer rating for Jarrett Stidham, the Auburn QB and this season’s most high-profile free agent. The Baylor transfer had three touchdowns and 214 yards on 16-of-23 passing, which was exactly the kind of big-time game the Tigers needed. Stidham got stronger as the game went on and threw all three of his TDs after halftime.

Auburn first downs to Georgia first downs.

The Tigers sustained drives, doing most of their damage on first and second downs. Twenty-one of Auburn’s 25 conversions came before third down. The Tigers were four-of-13 on third downs, and three of those conversions were on short-yardage Kerryon Johnson carries. But when they stayed out of bad down-and-distances, Georgia had a brutal time trying to stop them. Auburn moved the ball in large part because it only faced two third-and-longs of nine-plus yards.

Meanwhile, the Tigers clamped down on Georgia third-and-longs, holding UGA to three-of-14 on third down.

Auburn offensive yardage to Georgia offensive yardage.

Auburn yards per play to Georgia yards per play.

I’m just really trying to drive home the point that Auburn was about two times better at everything than Georgia was on Saturday, if not more.

The number of Auburn completions longer than 15 yards, and also the number of Auburn runs longer than 10 yards.

Georgia had only given up 21 10-plus-yard runs all season, third-fewest in the country behind Alabama and Michigan State entering the weekend. They’d given up 47 10-plus yard pass plays, second fewest after Mississippi State. The UGA defense was No. 10 in IsoPPP, an advanced that measures explosiveness. But Auburn managed to get plenty of chunk plays, which made up for UGA’s defense getting eight tackles for loss.

Yards on Georgia’s longest run of the night, a fourth-quarter, garbage-time carry by Swift. That was the only double-digit-yardage run the Dawgs had.

Georgia had 76 carries of 10-plus yards in its first nine games. The Dawgs’ running game is one of the most explosive there is, but breathing room against Auburn didn’t exist. That put a lot on Fromm, the freshman, who couldn’t compensate with his arm.

Georgia’s conversion rate on third-and-nine or more, which won’t do anything to quiet critics who think Fromm’s had an easy ride this year because of UGA’s running game.

Fromm did convert on a third-and-7, a third-and-8, and a fourth-and-7, and he played an interception-free game against a good defense. It’s likely that Kirby Smart will face calls this week to turn to five-star sophomore Jacob Eason, but Fromm did decently against one of the country’s best defenses on the road, considering he didn’t have a running game.

Dominance on display. @AuburnFootball's 23-point win is the largest over CFP No. 1 team in rankings history (since 2014).
The previous four such losses by the CFP No. 1 team were by a combined 21-point margin. pic.twitter.com/m1lYgwHTM2
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 12, 2017

I think it’s a testament to the Tigers’ performance that none of the numbers you’ve just read is, on its own, all that wild. Auburn didn’t find one hole and exploit it with a single wave of tactical genius. Auburn was just comprehensively better than Georgia from start to finish, and the Tigers ground the Dawgs to dust for four quarters.

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