Malzahn's starting quarterback, Jeremy Johnson, was heading into the locker room 6-of-12 passing for 36 yards and his sixth interception of the season.
Johnson also had a fumble on this miserable pass attempt against No. 13 LSU, as Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee noted, which kept his completion rate at 50 percent:
So when CBS sideline reporter Allie LaForce approached him at the break, Malzahn called it like he saw it, per Brandon Marcello of AL.com:
While the Auburn head coach may have been on the money with his description of Johnson's first half, his apparent halftime talk didn't change anything for his quarterback depth chart.
Johnson stayed in the game and played the rest of the way.
To his credit, the struggling junior quarterback broke a 65-yard touchdown run—Auburn's longest of the young season by a large margin—and recorded two touchdown passes, including a somewhat controversial one of the "pop" variety to Melvin Ray.
But even with those two scores, Johnson finished the game with 141 total yards, a lost fumble and another near-interception in a 45-21 loss at the hands of LSU.
In Auburn's first loss of 2015, the Malzahn offense that terrorized opponents in two different runs to the national championship game and ranked No. 10 in yards per play last season, per cfbstats.com, was largely held in check.
Although Johnson's passing and decision-making improved when LSU already had the game in hand, the results didn't flip the narrative for a quarterback who was once listed as a preseason Heisman contender by the folks in Las Vegas.
But with the way Johnson has now opened his last two starts for Auburn, with one against FCS program Jacksonville State, the calls for at a change at quarterback grew even louder Saturday, including those from former Auburn assistant Jack Crowe:
At halftime Saturday afternoon, Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee said Malzahn should "bail on the Jeremy Johnson experiment."
And those calls sound valid. Johnson looking better against a rotating defense during a blowout doesn't mean too much if a bad beginning is what got the game there in the first place.
With Mississippi State and star quarterback Dak Prescott coming to the Plains next Saturday, Auburn can't afford to see if Johnson can grind through another bad start. The much-maligned Tigers defense simply won't allow the offense that luxury.
Johnson's backup on the current depth chart, freshman Sean White, might lack collegiate experience. However, he's a pocket-passing arm who wouldn't have any mental blocks Johnson may possess—and he received rave reviews in the spring.
"You don't have to tell Sean to put more trajectory on it," Malzahn said in May, per Marcello. "He just knows it, and he can deliver the football, and he knows when to take something off, when to throw it hard. He has the "it" factor as far as throwing the football from the quarterback position."
And that "it factor" sounds exactly like what Auburn's offense needs right now.
That could easily be empty coach speak from Malzahn, considering White stayed on the sidelines when Johnson was struggling.
But at this point, how big could a drop-off with White be for a team scrambling to salvage its hopes of competing for anything major?
Johnson's inability to hit receivers in the first half handcuffed a rushing offense that showed flashes of good play in the second half against LSU.
Auburn has weapons in Peyton Barber, Roc Thomas, Jovon Robinson and Saturday bright spot Kerryon Johnson, but the rushing attack was held to 34 yards on just 14 carries before halftime.
Like LSU, other SEC defenses will be able to load the box and force Johnson to make throws he just hasn't been able to complete when the game is still competitive.
Benching Johnson won't necessarily relegate him to Kiehl Frazier territory, where he'll never be heard from again as an Auburn quarterback.
Putting in another signal-caller doesn't guarantee improvement, and Johnson could benefit from having the pressure eased off of him for a while.
Johnson's first three performances of 2015 should be a big enough sample size for Malzahn to seriously consider trying someone else at quarterback.
If Johnson's early struggles continue against Mississippi State next Saturday without even a mere flinch in White's direction, a move at quarterback will be way past due.
According to Charles Goldberg of AuburnTigers.com, Malzahn said after the loss that the Tigers are going to evaluate all positions after Saturday:
Now it's time to see if Malzahn backs up some more of those tough words for his prized quarterback position.
All game stats courtesy of LSU's StatBroadcast.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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