When I saw Auburn get blown out by Georgia in the SEC Championship with a banged-up Kerryon Johnson, a thought crossed my mind.

Wow, the Tigers’ margin for error was small. Really small.

Auburn didn’t have the depth to overcome Johnson’s injury, and it looked like a completely different team from the one that destroyed Georgia just a few weeks earlier. Yes, playing that game at a neutral site had something to do with that, but I came away from that game thinking the biggest difference was a healthy Kerryon Johnson.

Johnson obviously won’t be wearing an Auburn uniform in 2018. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they already have plenty of other absences to overcome in 2018.

Receivers Eli Stove and Will Hastings both suffered torn ACLs this spring. Promising freshman center Nick Brahms is out for the spring with an ankle injury. On defense, Auburn lost 2018 JUCO transfer Daquan Newkirk to a torn Achilles.

And just in case that wasn’t enough, Auburn’s Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback, Jarrett Stidham, is a coin flip to play in the April 7 spring game because he underwent shoulder surgery after the season.

By the way, it’s only April 2.

Credit: Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

With the bevy of major spring injuries already endured, Auburn’s margin for error is going down in a hurry.

Nobody is saying that any of the aforementioned Tigers will have the impact of an SEC Offensive Player of the Year like Johnson. All four of those injured players (not including Stidham) probably would fall into the category of “expected to have an increased role this year” instead of “irreplaceable game-changers.”

What’s troubling is that this isn’t supposed to be the time when guys suffer season-ending injuries. Those usually don’t come until fall camp at the earliest. A lot of teams aren’t even hitting people yet.

Now, the Tigers need to get through the rest of spring and fall camp relatively unscathed to feel like they aren’t in a hole before the season even starts.

No coach wants to think about that. That changes how you practice. When guys are going down left and right in practice — that’s what it feels like for Auburn during spring camp — that comes back to the coach. Fans wonder “why can’t Gus Malzahn keep these guys healthy?”

Besides public perception, there’s a basic premise that all fans can agree on. It’s extremely difficult to win the SEC with a healthy roster, much less one that lacks depth. Not everyone is Alabama and Georgia, who now have more 5-star recruits than anyone in the country. Reloading, and especially with coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, isn’t the struggle that it is elsewhere.

Many will point out the fact that Malzahn out-coached Saban and Smart last year. That’s true. What’s also true is that Auburn has road games against those teams this year. On top of that, Auburn will play Pac-12 power Washington in the season opener and it will travel to face preseason top-25 team Mississippi State. Those are four games away from Jordan-Hare that Auburn will need to be clicking on all cylinders in order to win. We’re talking about Malzahn, who went 9-9 in road games vs. Power 5 teams since that magical 2013 season.

Speaking of 2013, that year might have been the best example of everything working out in Auburn’s favor. The Tigers benefitted from a couple of miracle plays and they stayed healthy on offense (via G4MarchMadnessHD).

Obviously they had plenty of offensive firepower and they put themselves in position to catch a break at the end of a game, but to say that 2013 Auburn had to roll with the punches like 2017 Alabama wouldn’t be fair.

We don’t know if Malzahn’s 2018 squad will have to face a bunch more injuries. We do know that the past 4 years, one thing or another halted his team’s chances of winning the SEC. An underperforming Jeremy Johnson did the trick in 2015. A horrendous passing game was it in 2016. Kerryon Johnson’s injury was it in 2017.

Will Auburn’s roadblock to an SEC crown in 2018 be injuries? It’s still too early to say that. After all, you can’t win a conference title in April.

But you can certainly hurt your chances. It’s hard to feel better about Auburn’s 2018 outlook after the spring that’s been. Nobody knows if Stove or Hastings would have been All-SEC players in 2018 or if Brahms would have been the anchor in the middle of Auburn’s line (he still could be if he returns for fall camp).

It’s a slippery slope in the SEC West, though. Malzahn saw that from 2014-16 when he posted an 11-13 mark in conference play. It doesn’t take much to spoil a season, especially one loaded with potential land mines like Auburn’s 2018 slate.

If the season-ending injuries keep piling on, this can all blow up in Malzahn’s face in a hurry.