Auburn’s offense was looking for a signature performance to kick off what it hopes to be its best season since 2013.

And Saturday, on the road against a hapless Missouri squad, Auburn believes it found what it was searching for, battering the hosts 51-14.

“We talked about how we needed to play up to our potential,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said during his postgame press conference. “We talked about how we needed to play as a team and play good in all three phases. I think we did that.”

Starting quarterback Jarrett Stidham echoed Malzahn, saying he and the rest of his teammates felt it was just a matter of time before the offense put its best foot forward.

“We figured at some point, our breakthrough game was gonna come,” Stidham said. “Tonight, we felt like this was the night.”

The defense once again continued its torrid pace, and after a few early-season bobbles, All-America kicker Daniel Carlson nailed a pair of field goals beyond 50 yards. But it was the offense that did the heavy lifting, especially running back Kerryon Johnson, who returned from injury to score five touchdowns.

For Johnson, the injury he suffered in the opener against Georgia Southern is simply the cost of doing business in his chosen sport.

“It’s just football,” Johnson said, according to Auburn’s 247Sports site. “If I could go every game and not get injured I would. If anybody could do that, they would. It’s just football, it happens. Rehab, you just got to attack that. That’s what I did, and luckily I was back in two weeks.”

Though he found the end zone five times, the yards didn’t come easily, as he finished with just 48 on 18 carries. Regardless, Malzahn was pleased with Johnson’s effort.

“I thought it was big,” Malzahn said. “He wasn’t 100 percent, but he was close. He practiced last week, practiced this week.  … I thought he did some really good things.”

The same goes for starting quarterback Jarrett Stidham.

One week after completing 32 of 37 passes against Mercer, he went 13-for-17 Saturday, finishing with 218 yards and a touchdown that went to Nate Craig-Myers.

“I thought we executed all the way around,” Stidham said. “I thought we executed the game plan really well. It was a great night for us.”

Auburn gained 483 total yards against Missouri, running for 263 and throwing for another 219. The showing, Stidham said, “absolutely” was a confidence-booster for the offense.

“The main thing for us today was we just wanted to come out and execute,” he said. “We felt like we executed last week. It was just the turnovers that killed us. Those were the two emphases heading into this week. So I thought we did really well.”

And it wasn’t just offensive players who were thrilled with the output.

“It amped us up even more, because we’re already turned up,” senior safety Tray Matthews said of the offense’s performance. “But when they’re scoring and having fun, it just brings us to another level. It’ll get scary, now that the offense, they’re doing big things now.”

Stidham couldn’t agree more, believing the best is yet to come for Auburn’s offense.

“I think there’s a lot to build off in this game,” he said. “But there’s also a lot to learn. Obviously (Sunday) we’re going to go back and see what we can do in the film room. But I think the main thing is just to keep executing, whether it’s running the ball, throwing the ball — whatever phase of the offense it is, we just want to execute it.”