Auburn Football: Can Tigers get back on track vs. Ole Miss?

Auburn football travels to Oxford to take on Ole Miss as they look to right the ship and snap their two game losing streak.

Auburn hit rock-bottom in last weekend’s home defeat to a Tennessee team that snapped an 11-game SEC losing streak at the expense of Gus Malzahn’s Tigers. Three turnovers and an inefficient ground game doomed Auburn last weekend, giving them their second straight defeat and third SEC loss already, effectively eliminating them from the SEC race. A season that started with hopes of a conference title and the program’s first berth into the College Football Playoff has now been reduced to clinging to bowl hopes.

Jarrett Stidham entered the season as one of the favorites to be the top quarterback taken in the 2019 NFL Draft, and his return brought hope that the Auburn offense would not miss a beat without All-American running back Kerryon Johnson. Instead, the lack of a consistent running game, along with a patchwork offensive line, has forced Stidham into some uncomfortable situations, and unfortunately the junior QB has made some costly decisions, particularly in last week’s loss to Tennessee.

With another year of being ineligible for a bowl, Ole Miss has been reduced to playing spoiler in the SEC. The Rebels are 5-2, already just one win away from equaling last season’s win total. The Rebels have gotten here in typical fashion, with a high-powered offense that ranks 3rd in offensive S&P, and a tissue-paper defense that ranks 112th in the same metric. Jordan Ta’amu and a slew of talented receivers, even without the injured D.K. Metcalf, lead an explosive Ole Miss offense.

It will be the classic stoppable force versus movable object matchup when the Auburn offense takes the field against the Ole Miss defense. Whichever unit can be the least inept will likely swing the matchup in Oxford.

Here’s how you can Saturday’s matchup between Auburn and Ole Miss:

Date: Saturday, October 20
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Location: Oxford, Miss.
Venue: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN | FuboTV

Keys to Victory

For Ole Miss, Matt Luke and Jordan Ta’amu certainly noticed in film study how Tennessee attacked Auburn’s cornerbacks, giving their big receivers one-on-one matchups on the outside. The Vols had a lot of success offensively with that strategy, and the Rebels have the talent out wide to do the same thing with A.J. Brown and DaMarkus Lodge. They’ll attempt to get those two on an island with Auburn’s corners, and they’ll take shot-after-shot down the field to attack the weak spot of the Auburn defense.

For Auburn, it will be imperative that the Tigers finally get their ground game going. Last weekend’s 126 rushing yards against Tennessee was the first time Auburn eclipsed the century mark on the ground in three weeks. During Gus Malzhan’s tenure, the Tigers haven’t finished lower than 35th in the country in rushing yards-per-game. They currently rank 83rd.

If ever they were going to figure it out, it is this week against an Ole Miss run defense that ranks 112th in the nation and is giving up 210 yards-per-game. With JaTarvious Whitlow questionable, Auburn needs another back to step up. If it’s not the veteran Kam Martin (averaging 3.6 ypc on the season), then maybe it’s time to give one of the freshmen — Shaun Shivers, Asa Martin, or Harold Joiner — an extended look.

Betting Odds

Odds courtesy of oddsshark.com

Point Spread: Auburn -3.5
Over/Under: 63

Prediction

At a certain point, you just are what you are. I think it’s time to face the facts that this Auburn team just isn’t very good — they’ve got real problems up front offensively and in the defensive secondary that are not overnight fixes. The strength of Ole Miss’s offense happens to be the weakness of the Auburn defense. Look for Jordan Ta’amu to take advantage of some favorable matchups on the outside and for the Rebels to hand Auburn their third consecutive defeat, casting a shadow of doubt on the Tigers’s bowl hopes.

Final Score: Ole Miss 37, Auburn 31