Auburn’s offense would rather forget the past three weeks.

In its opener against Georgia Southern, Auburn allowed three sacks and eight tackles for loss. It was even worse the following week at Clemson, as quarterback Jarrett Stidham was sacked an eye-popping 11 times. In addition, Auburn gained just 117 total yards, the worst offensive performance of Gus Malzahn’s career as a college coach. And then last week against Mercer, Auburn put up only 24 points.

But aside from the well-noted offensive line woes, no topic has drawn more attention than the Tigers’ running backs — or lack thereof. Since Malzahn took over as Auburn’s coach in 2013, the offense has always been built around a strong — and at times near unstoppable — running game.

It has been a different story through the first quarter of this season.

After running for 351 yards against Georgia Southern, the rushing attack has ground to a halt. Against Clemson, Auburn had only 38 yards on 42 carries — a number adversely affected by Stidham’s 11 sacks. And though Auburn scored three rushing touchdowns last week, it gained just 146 yards on 43 carries — a less-than-stellar 3.4 yards per attempt.

A large portion of the blame for the two recent lackluster showings goes to the obvious struggles of the offensive line.

But the bigger mystery has been the reluctance to give the ball to anyone other than Kamryn Pettway. The fourth-year junior has carried 56 times the past two games; no other running back has logged a single carry in that span.

Malzahn was asked about the reliance on Pettway during his weekly press conference Tuesday, and said it was simply a matter of trust.

“It was a close game (last week), and I (wanted) the security of having a veteran guy in there,” Malzahn said. “Now, moving forward you are going to see more running backs like Kam Martin and others get into the game, but that was the thinking in that particular game.”

Martin’s absence has been particularly noticeable given his play in the opener: After Kerryon Johnson left with an injury, Martin stepped in to run 14 times for 136 yards and a touchdown. Johnson, the co-starter alongside Pettway at the outset of the season, had 136 rushing yards and a touchdown at the time of his injury. According to Malzahn, Johnson will return for Saturday’s game at Missouri.

Still, despite Malzahn’s vows to get others more involved, all questions lobbed his way centered on Pettway.

Was Malzahn concerned about Pettway’s durability? Not in the slightest.

Malzahn supported his point by referencing Tre Mason and Cameron Artis-Payne, the Tigers’ starting running backs in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Mason, a Heisman Trophy finalist that season on an SEC title squad, carried 317 times for 1,816 yards and 23 touchdowns. The following season, Artis-Payne carried 303 times for 1,608 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Pettway, in Malzahn’s view, is easily capable of a similar workload.

“He’s an SEC running back. … That’s just the way it goes,” Malzahn said.

Malzahn was resolute: The ground game’s inability to get into a groove the past two weeks is his “biggest concern right now.” The issues against Clemson, Malzahn said, can be largely attributed to Clemson’s defense — specifically, its ferocious defensive line, which may be the best in the nation.

But Malzahn said his offense must shoulder some of the blame as well.

It’s all about execution.

“Last week we did not execute like we need to, and we’ve got to do a better job of executing in the run game, because when you get into league play you’re going to have to run the football effectively to win consistently,” Malzahn said. “Our coaches understand that, and that’s really been a big point of emphasis.”