One consistent theme during the Gus Malzahn era at Auburn has been a dominant rushing attack.

The Tigers led the SEC in rushing in 2016 and 2013, and was in the top five in 2014 and 2015. Auburn appeared to be on track for another strong season after the season opener against Georgia Southern when the Tigers rang up 351 yards rushing while averaging 6.62 yards per carry. That was good for 10th in the nation.

Since then, though, it’s struggled, and now it’s ranked 62nd in the country. The mustered 38 yards on 42 attempts against Clemson, and churned 146 yards against Mercer on 43 attempts with three touchdowns.

“That’s my biggest concern right now,” Malzahn said of the run game, according to AL.com. “We’ve got to be able to run the football better. Obviously, Clemson has a great defense and they shut us down in the run game, but last week we didn’t execute like we need to. We’ve got to do a better job of executing in the run game because you get in league play, you’re going to have to run the football effectively to win consistently. Our coaches understand that, and that’s been a big point of emphasis.”

Malzahn also said this week that the coaching staff expects to use more running backs this week at Missouri as the Tigers have exclusively run Kamryn Pettway. Kerryon Johnson is expected to return from missing the last two games after he suffered a right hamstring injury. Kam Martin hasn’t appeared since he had 136 yards against Georgia Southern. Another member of the backfield is Malik Miller, who hasn’t played the last two games.

Through the struggles, Malzahn refuses to blame the offensive line.

“I’m going to just say it’s an overall execution of everything,” Malzahn said. “But you know we weren’t able to run the football effective enough Saturday playing the opponent that we were playing.”

Given Missouri’s run defense, which is No. 92 in the country, and 11th in the SEC, it appears Auburn is poised for an improvement.