Auburn Football: 2017 Game-by-game predictions
The Rebels are going to be a hard team to figure out this season. They’re serving a self-imposed bull ban and being led by Matt Luke, an interim coach. Neither of those would seem to work in their favor.
Nevertheless, Shea Patterson and the Ole Miss players aren’t going to pack it up and take the season off. This is still football to them, and they have a real chance to play spoiler to the other SEC teams with bigger postseason aspirations. That includes teams like the Tigers.
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Patterson came in to start the final three games of the 2016 and was both poised, and effective. He threw for 880 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions in that span. His first career win came on the road against the Texas A&M Aggies at Kyle Field. He’s a gamer that’s a threat every time he touches the football.
The sophomore quarterback paired with any combination of receivers Van Jefferson, A.J. Brown and DeMarkus Lodge will be a challenge for every SEC defense. The Tigers are going to give up some points in this one, but so will the Rebels. Ole Miss finished dead last in the SEC in scoring defense a year ago, surrendering a whopping 34.0 points per game. That was all-but double Auburn’s defensive average of 17.1 points per game.