All offseason, we heard that Nick Marshall had improved as a passer and the Auburn offense would be more balanced this season.

Maybe he is, and maybe it still can be. But so far through two games, we’ve seen no semblance of that being true.

In the season-opener against Arkansas, Marshall completed just four passes. Yes, he did not play the first half, but Marshall attempted just six passes out of 37 second half plays.

That’s not balanced.

In 2013, the Tigers ran the ball more than 65 percent of the time, according to cfbstats.com. For most other SEC teams, that number was between 45 and 55 percent. That was the main adjustment Malzahn wanted to make during the offseason.

“That was probably the number one priority in the spring,” Malzahn said at SEC Media Days in July. “We led the country in rushing last year. When you do that, defenses have to take some chances. We’ve got to do a better job this year of making them pay when they do take chances.”

Against the Razorbacks, Auburn threw for 293 yards and ran for 302. But 243 of those passing yards came from Jeremy Johnson in the first half.

In Saturday’s 59-13 rout of San Jose State, the Tigers threw for 135 yards and ran for 363. That’s more akin to the Auburn offense we saw during last year’s run to the national championship game.

A lot had to do with Saturday’s game plan. Nick Marshall played most of the game – well into the fourth quarter – and his strength is running the zone read. Also, the game never really was close forcing the Tigers to throw the ball and they were trying to waste clock toward the end of the game.

But for a program whose focus was balance in the offseason, those numbers catch your attention.

Marshall completed 10 of 19 passes for 101 yards and got off to a quick start, completing four of his first five passes. But from there, his consistency and accuracy faded. He went through a stretch of five straight completions, and of Marshall’s 10 completions, only five were for 10 yards or more.

But are we missing the point of the role of the passing game in Gus Malzahn’s offense?

“People say, well, you didn’t have many passing yards, but it’s not passing yards, it’s passing efficiency,” Malzahn said Monday night on his radio show.

Malzahn’s happy with Marshall, and has cited protection when talking about his quarterback recently.

“There were a couple times that we let some people in his face that you don’t see,” Malzahn said. “We didn’t protect him.”

Johnson, the team’s best passer, is number two on the depth chart and didn’t see action until garbage time late in the fourth quarter on Saturday. Malzahn has said he and his staff will have a role for Johnson this season, but that wasn’t made clear in Saturday night’s win.

“You never know what the season may present,” Malzahn said Monday night when asked about possibly crafting a formation with both Marshall and Johnson on the field at the same time.

You know that whole “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage? That seems to be the Tigers’ philosophy.

“We just need to do what it takes to win,” wide receiver Ricardo Louis said after Saturday night’s win. “If that means running the ball the whole game, it’s fine with me.”

But Malzahn’s in charge and he insists on balance. If we see that moving forward, the success of the offense will come to down to Nick Marshall’s ability to throw the ball.

“We definitely need to throw the ball to keep balance to keep things honest, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to go with what got you there and we were a running team last year,” running back Cameron Artis-Payne told espn.com.

“Whatever coach calls we’re going to run,” Artis-Payne said. “He’s a genius as far as picking apart defenses and seeing their weaknesses.”