It was the expected dominant start for Auburn football in its season-opening blowout win against UMass.

Auburn dominated on the offensive ball enough to take Payton Throne out of the game entirely midway through the third quarter. Auburn had over 300 yards of offense and had the rotation that was widely expected.

Nine offensive linemen played for Auburn and four offensive line combinations. Six different players had carries and five had receptions. Auburn had over 20 players register on the stat sheet for the defense. Auburn had more than 10 starters who weren’t on the team last year.

So, this was always going to have hiccups. It too, showed flashes.

Here are our three top takeaways.

Redzone Robby

If this is the Robby Ashford role in Auburn’s offense, Auburn may have found itself a weapon.

In the first half, Ashford was on the field for fewer than 10 plays, taking Payton Thorne’s place at quarterback. Of those plays, the furthest away from the endzone was the UMass 23-yard line.

In the second half, Ashford was used for a full drive with Auburn up by such a large margin.

Inside the red zone, Ashford kept the ball himself for six carries and scored three times. He had 36 rushing yards.

UMass couldn’t match his speed, and that allowed Ashford to get to the outside and find the pylon for his third rushing score.

But what may have been more notable is that even after it became clear how Auburn was going to use Ashford, UMass couldn’t stop it. It didn’t take any fancy scouting to guess Auburn was going to run the ball with Ashford on the field and it didn’t matter. Ashford did throw one incomplete pass and hand the ball off to Damari Alston once.

It did come against a UMass defense was poor against the run last season, but this seems to provide a blueprint.

Auburn wasn’t sure if it had a run offense or bad run defense. Both might be true.

The question rang out throughout the lead-up to Auburn’s first game: was Auburn’s hype in the running back room a result of a bad run defense?

Auburn’s running game was spectacular, with over 200 yards on the ground.

But if Auburn’s first game proved anything, it’s that those two things may not be mutually exclusive.

On UMass’ first possession, the Minutemen had 72 rushing yards on an 89-yard scoring drive. The Minutemen finished with ___ rushing yards and before backups entered the game, UMass averaged nearly 7 yards per carry.

That’s about two yards more per rush than Auburn had at that time, on a day when it ran the ball well too.

When UMass did run the ball, its offense was far more effective. But as Auburn got up by such a wide margin, UMass was forced to throw the ball more, otherwise the rushing total would likely be higher.

Adjust the rushing yards for sacks, and UMass’ total was above 150 yards on the ground.

Auburn was able to generate a lot of pressure against UMass’ pass, but the same didn’t hold true for the running game. This is a continuing issue for Auburn to clean up.

Secondary stands out

Start with Donovan Kaufman. He hadn’t received much buzz in the preseason, but was absolutely stellar as a nickel getting into the backfield.

Kaufman was unlucky to only have one sack. He was very close to bringing down UMass quarterback Taisun Phommachanh multiple more times.

But the pressure and broken plays he caused led to stops for Auburn’s defense. He finished the game with a sack, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

Speaking of which, the guy who recovered that fumble was Jaylin Simpson, who had a great game in his own right. Simpson’s highlight came from a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Cornerbacks Kayin Lee and Keionte Scott each got hits on the quarterback too.

There aren’t many stats of pass breakups or other interceptions on top of Simpson, but that’s largely because Auburn had such solid coverage in the secondary, and enough pressure that the secondary helped create, UMass didn’t surpass 100 passing yards until late in the 4th quarter.

And that was done with without Nehemiah Pritchett, who did not play due to an injury.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]