In Auburn’s impressive 49-10 win over Mississippi State, four different Tigers reeled in a pass of at least 47 yards.

This is what fans on The Plains have been hoping to see out of coach Gus Malzahn’s offense. Instead of a horizontal passing game that relied too heavily on quick screens and predetermined throws, a vertical element is now in place.

This past season, Auburn finished last in the SEC with 86 completions of 10-plus yards — just 6.6 per game. The Tigers had only 2 passing plays of 50-plus all year long and none of 60 or more. Whether it was Jeremy Johnson or Sean White or John Franklin III, defensive backs simply didn’t respect their ability to beat them over the top.

But their new starting quarterback, Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham, has the kind of talent required to put DBs on their heels.

Will Hastings had a 47-yarder. Darius Slayton had a 49-yarder. Kyle Davis had a 52-yarder. Eli Stove had a 57-yarder. None were cheapies, either. There were no catch-and-run situations with the defense parting like the Red Sea.

No, all of them were downfield strikes delivered by the strong-armed Stidham — including one he fired about 60 yards in the air through a pretty stiff wind. Johnson couldn’t have made that throw. White couldn’t have made that throw. Franklin couldn’t have made that throw. It wasn’t even a spiral, by the way. Even Stidham’s ducks can really fly.

Offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey needed to put his personal touch on Malzahn’s system, and this was the best way.

“One of the focuses in the offseason was to be more explosive and throw the ball down the field, and Coach Lindsey’s really made that an emphasis,” Malzahn said Wednesday on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference. “The last two weeks, we’ve really stretched the field and had some explosive plays in the passing game.”

Offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey needed to put his own personal stamp on Malzahn's system, and this was a point of emphasis.

Stidham played sparingly for Baylor as a freshman in 2015, then sat out all of 2016 due to the NCAA’s transfer rules, so it’s understandable that it took him a while to adapt to the scheme. Fireworks were few and far between originally.

Auburn may have gashed Georgia Southern by a score of 41-7 in the opener, but Stidham didn’t complete a pass that went for longer than 19 yards. It was a similar story in the Week 2 loss at Clemson, when he only threw for 79 — not to mention the fact that he was sacked 11 times — and connected just once for a gain of more than 10.

But back at Jordan-Hare Stadium for Mercer in Week 3, Stidham was a razor sharp 32-of-37 that included a pair of 38-yarders.

If there’s a place to work out the kinks offensively in the SEC right now, it’s Faurot Field. The Tigers began conference play with a 51-14 mauling of Missouri on Sept. 24, and 3 of Stidham’s 13 completions went for 46 yards and beyond.

Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Then there was the mashing of Mississippi State at home last Saturday, when Stidham (above) was super efficient despite limited opportunities to chuck it. For the second straight contest, he only had 13 completions. But those four bombs mentioned above allowed him to average a crazy 16.5 yards on just 16 attempts through the air.

While one or two of them were dialed up from the sideline, sometimes Stidham saw a streaking wideout and made a play.

"Every game you go into that game thinking certain things offensively. But things usually change as the game gets going on, and you just gotta do your best as a coach to predict what you're going to see and try and put your quarterback in the best situations possible." -- Gus Malzahn

“It’s kind of all of the above,” Malzahn said. “I mean, every game you go into that game thinking certain things offensively. But things usually change as the game gets going on, and you just gotta do your best as a coach to predict what you’re going to see and try and put your quarterback in the best situations possible.”

Through five games, he’s now the second-rated QB in the league behind Shea Patterson of Ole Miss. His TD-to-INT ratio remains a mediocre 5-to-2, but Stidham is far and away the most accurate passer and connects at a 72-percent clip.

He’s also doing it with a receiving corps that’s largely unproven. The Tigers have had 15 players grab at least one pass so far in 2017 — not one of them is a senior. Davis, Slayton and Stove are sophomores, as is Nate Craig-Myers. Hastings and Ryan Davis are juniors. Nobody in that group had ever posted more than 292 yards receiving in a season.

Needless to say, the triumvirate of Johnson, White and Franklin didn’t get much out of the pass-catching weapons on campus.

Additionally, it would be unwise for future opponents to play more nickel and dime personnel to take away Stidham’s legit long-range capability. Remember that Auburn features arguably the top tailback tandem in the SEC with Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson.

The Tigers are currently ranked fifth in the conference with 208.4 yards per game on the ground, and that’s with Pettway and Johnson — they suited up together for the first time all year in Week 5 — being at less than 100 percent. If they return to their thunder-and-lightning ways of a year ago, Stidham can launch even more missiles.

Yes, it was foolish to mention Stidham as a Heisman Trophy candidate before he’d ever even worn burnt orange and navy blue.

But since getting trucked by Clemson’s terrifying defensive line, Stidham has appeared to be increasingly comfortable in the pocket. The last three games, his completion percentage has been 86.5, 76.5 and 81.3. That’s no fluke.

Even more important for this particular offense, he hasn’t done it being Captain Checkdown when trailing on the scoreboard. It’s not a bubble screen here and a bubble screen there. Stidham is putting some air under the football and letting the athletes he has out wide — half a dozen guys anxious to be difference makers — run underneath it.

It’s been a while since Malzahn had a genuinely gifted trigger man. It must’ve taken him some time to remember what that’s like.