Auburn Football: 5 Reasons the Tigers beat the Rebels

3. The Rebels won’t be able to run the ball

The SEC is a league won in the trenches. While the evolution of the spread offense has taken some of the luster out of the ground and pound offenses of a decade ago, the ability to run the football is still paramount to long-term success. That’s where things become doubly favorable for Auburn.

The Tigers boast the fifth best rush defense in the SEC. They allow 116.8 yards per game on the ground against them. On 196 attempts the Tigers’ opponents have managed just 2.98 yards per carry. That’s stingy, especially when compared to an Ole Miss rushing defense that allows 5.33 yards per carry and 229.25 yards per game. Night and day.

Auburn has been a suffocating run defense. Most of their rushing yards allowed came in garbage time against Mississippi State last weekend. Auburn smashed the Bulldogs 49-10, so the 194 yards on the ground were rather inconsequential. A better measuring stick would be their Week 2 loss against Clemson. In that game the Clemson Tigers were held to 96 yards on 36 carries. Now that’s more like what this defense is capable of.

Ole Miss is averaging just 74.25 yards per game rushing. The talk of Patterson being a dual threat quarterback was either erroneous or irrelevant, given the pressure he’s been under so far this season. Either way, Auburn controls the line of scrimmage in this one and forces the Rebels to be one-dimensional.