AUBURN
Yes, there is still life left in the Auburn Tigers. That was evident in Saturday’s improbable comeback over Texas A&M at Jordan-Hare.
Two touchdowns in the final five minutes of a game that looked like it was destined to go the Aggies’ way not only made Auburn bowl eligible for the sixth consecutive season under head coach Gus Malzahn, but also pumps some optimism in what could have been a disastrous situation had the result gone the other way.
“We’ve been talking all week about just playing Auburn football, the fight and the character and everything that goes with it,” Malzahn said after Saturday’s victory. “That’s really what defined the win for me. A lot of times how you win can help you moving forward. That will definitely give us momentum.”
It’s a much needed lift in what has been an up-and-down season to this point heading into a big game Between the Hedges against SEC East champion Georgia next Saturday. The No. 5 Bulldogs clinched a second consecutive division title with a win over Kentucky.
The two teams renew the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, a matchup that began in 1892 and has become an annual tradition since 1919. The Bulldogs have won 10 of the past 13 meetings and hold the overall edge 58-56-8.
Here are five keys to victory for Auburn in its hopes of upsetting the Bulldogs and winning in Athens for the first time since 2005.
1. QB Jarrett Stidham
The last five minutes Stidham, not the first 55 minutes Stidham. Turning him loose and letting it fly like he did in the comeback against Texas A&M just might be the way to go against the Bulldogs. This isn’t the normal way Auburn does things, but there’s no Kerryon Johnson to rush for 167 yards as he did in last year’s thrashing of the Bulldogs at Jordan-Hare.
You’ll remember in last year’s game at Jordan-Hare, Stidham completed 16-of-23 passes for 214 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also ran for another. It’s going to take at least that much to win on the road this season.
Granted, Georgia ranks second in the SEC against the pass (170 yards per game average), but Stidham is capable of doing just that as backed up by his credentials. In leading the comeback victory over Texas A&M, he recorded his fifth 200-yard passing game of the season (239) and 15th at Auburn while surpassing 5,000 and moving into sixth place on the Tigers’ all-time passing list with 5,111 yards. Keep in mind, this is just his second season on campus.
He’s the fastest player in Auburn history to reach 5,000 passing yards (23 games), accomplishing the feat in one fewer game than Pat Sullivan. Stidham is also the sixth player in Auburn history with 400 career completions.
So, lacking a viable running game, it will be up to Stidham to open up the Georgia defense with the pass and then hopefully the run game will follow.
2. Pressure Georgia QB Jake Fromm
In last year’s regular-season victory, the Tigers sacked Fromm 4 times. In Georgia’s only loss so far this season, LSU harassed the Bulldogs’ QB, also sacked him 4 times, and took him out of his game.
Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Four sacks could be the magic number that gives Auburn the advantage. For the season, Georgia has allowed just 13 sacks, or 1.44 per game on average. The Tigers are second in the SEC with 29 total sacks, or an average of 3.22 per game. Only Alabama, with 31 sacks (3.44 average) has more.
So that number isn’t out of the realm of possibility, and sophomore DL Nick Coe has been on fire as of late. The team leader by a wide margin, Coe now has seven sacks on the season and will be a key factor on Saturday.
3. Line play
The Tigers held Georgia to 46 rushing yards last season at Jordan-Hare, the fewest by Georgia in the series since at least 1967, and it will take another Herculean like effort from the defensive front to hold back the Bulldogs on Saturday.
A much-maligned offensive line will be key as well in giving Stidham time to find open receivers as well as opening holes for the run game.
It will be critical for Auburn to hold its own in the trenches on both sides of the football if they have any hope of pulling the upset.
4. Scoring first
Scoring first has been a winning formula for the Tigers in the Malzahn era. Auburn has scored first in 23 of the past 27 games, including seven times this season. It has played a bigger role than some might think. The Tigers are 39-13 under Malzahn when scoring first.
5. Win the turnover battle
Sounds easy enough, but this statistic has proven crucial for the Tigers. In last year’s game with the Bulldogs at Auburn, the Tigers came up with the only turnover of the game, a fumble recovery.
And in the four games in which Auburn has won the turnover battle, the Tigers are a perfect 4-0.
So taking care of the football and coming up with big defensive plays are going to play a major role in the outcome of Saturday’s game.
The Tigers are not playing at Auburn and will not win.
I agree Auburn gets the miracles when playing at home. However, there is a huge chip on the shoulder mentality when teams go to opposing stadiums. You want to shut the crowd up so to speak. Not saying Auburn is capable of that this year but I dont think it’s as big of a deal as people think. I think UGA has a letdown. You just beat the worst #9 ranked team. Your coach acts like you won the championship. Auburn is gaining momentum and they will play with s fire under their as…literally their coach has a fire under his as…
Dixie, Kirby did just win a Championship, the SEC Eastern Division Championship. It even comes complete with an invitation to the SEC Championship game.
Georgia easily beat Kentucky. Auburn had to fight for their lives to beat T A&M. Georgia has more to play for. Auburn spent more emotional energy in their last game.
There will be no UGA letdown. That has already happened. It won’t happen again this season…
UGA is still young and could start out with a hangover before getting into the game. Auburn will need to stake an early lead and then play some stout D in the second half to have a chance. Doubtful but possible.
Auburns pass rush is the only reason I think this will be a close game.
#4, Scoring First, is not a recipe for success with these teams.
Regular Season – UGA Scores first, loses the game
SEC Championship – AU Scores first, loses the game
That’s a small sample size, though. I think the author was going by Malzahn’s overall coaching success, not just the DSO Rivalry.
Seems like Auburn has usually scored first against Georgia. Was it 2-3 years ago that Auburn scored on the first drive, and then was shut out for the rest of the game? Smoke and mirrors. Then the smokes clears and it’s just football.
The team that runs the ball better almost always wins this game. Georgia being RBU has gone a long way in it’s dominating the series over the last 13 years. That’s not going to change this Saturday in Athens Ga.
Auburn is getting a huge break with almost all of Ga’s O-line either out, or playing with injuries, and their replacements being almost all Freshman. That could go a long way to helping Auburn somewhat contain the run game.
With that said, I think the patchwork O-line will be as good as Auburn’s D-line.
Dawg’s win. The best Auburn can hope for is, they don’t pull away before the fourth quarter. By then, if not before, Ga’s run game will take it over, just like it usually does. Dawg’s by 17 if not more.
Your as arrogant as you are stupid. Auburns D-line will tear apart a unhealthy group at O-Line. To say your back-ups are as good as Auburns starting d-line is just dumb. Auburn has several NFL plays on that front line.
At least Tim Rupert is using facts. You are all about “perception”. AU d-line really tore apart TAM. They only gained 203 rushing. Really tore up Ole Miss, only gave up 447 total yards. Not to mention tearing up the WORST passing attack in the SEC, UT went for 328 passing. I hope that is the kind of “tear apart” you talking about.
Alabama Renegade. Seems you Bama fans are much better at calling people names than you are with arguing points. You are the one who’s going to look stupid late Saturday night.
You won’t like this, but here goes: LT Andrew Thomas grades out as the best LT in CFB, even while playing most of the year injured. C Lamont Gillard has been called the best center in the SEC by several coaches. He got injured early against UK. His replacement Trey Hill, a 5-Star recruit held up nicely while playing most of the game against a very good defense.
Maybe you can find some Larry Burton OL rankings that say it differently. It won’t change the outcome of the GA-UA game.
Your second favorite team is about to get Gorilla Stomped, again, (11 of the last 14) by Kirby’s Dawg’s. And his very young and banged up O-line is going to play a great part in it.
Good luck with getting your foot out of your mouth after this game. UGA by 17+.
Auburn has a very talented defensive front 7. It will test UGA more than Florida or Kentucky.
And you are talking about the same team that lost to Mississippi State and Tennessee?
Fair enough. But offense also played a large role in those loses too. Auburn’s front 7 has the raw talent and size to cause UGA problems, especially depending on injuries to the OL.
Everything changes week to week. So yes, Auburn did lose to those teams but they could still put everything on the line just to upset UGA and I think that’s capable of being done. So say what you will about who somebody has lost to but that wont matter alot come saturday when Malzhan pulls out everything he can to save his future. Besting UGA again would save his job for another year.
Malzahn saved his job last week against A&M, and besides, they owe him too much to fire him now.
If your second favorite team hadn’t gave Malzahn, an average coach at best, that enormous contract, they would be able to hire the perfect Auburn coach.
Hugh Freeze would actually be a good coach, something that Auburn hasn’t had in years. And he would also have no problem signing Rodney Garner’s payment ledger. Too bad…
Tim, Freeze is being discussed in the media as a potential assistant. I shared my opinion on Freeze on a diff thread. Bottomline, I’m opposed to the hire.
Even though the game means nothing in terms of winning the East and Georgia may be a bit flat you can still count on the personal nature of the rivalry stoking the fires and Georgia will win. I hope they win by eight touchdowns so we can hire a real coach and real coordinators instead of the useless bunch we now have. The AD is from Syracuse and I hope he can bring in their coach and soon. Auburn quit Saturday. A&M simply found a way to lose.
Dawgs cover
It’s pointless to keep comparing to last year’s game. The Dawgs are a different team and so is Awbarn. Dawgs will win this one between the hedges! GO DAWGS!
AU has only rushed for more than 150 yds once all year – Ole Miss. Whitlow’s ankle is trashed. Pointless to attempt a lot runs. I’d rather see an empty backfield and let Stidham try to dink & dunk all day. Force UGA’s LBs to cover Shivers and Schwartz and let Slayton, Davis and Williams flood the zone routes.
Stidham has to make quick decisions, throw on target and show some mobility.
All the UGA folks are quite arrogant going into this game. I believe Auburn will give Georgia a much bigger challenge than Ke tucky did. In fact, with Auburns D-line causing some raucous in the backfield for UGA it wont be so calm and quite back there for Fromm. I expect Fromm to struggle. This will be a very close. I think Auburn shocks everybody again. They do enough on offense and the D is lights out saturday. Auburn wins 31-28. Malzhan gets off the hot seat for about a week. Kirby will then be led to look further into his QB situation and sadly for Bama I think Fields will get more playing time after this game.
Bold prediction. Did you see the way Trayveon Williams (TAMU) ran on our defense? Fromm won’t have to throw it around much. Hand it to Swift and Holyfield …
I think AU scores some points, but I don’t know if we can hang for 60 minutes.
If Fromm struggles, it won’t be Bama who sees Justin Fields. Fields, Swift and Holyfield will run the ball. UGA hasn’t been home in a month and Sanford will be crazy. Just because Jimbo gift wrapped a comeback opportunity, that doesn’t change the fact that the AU o-line can’t hold up and your best back is banged up.
Auburn’s front 7 will challenge UGA, no doubt. But Auburn’s offense will have issues consistently putting together drives, especially if the running game isn’t effective.
Auburn is a dangerous opponent, no doubt, but it very much remains to be seen if they can play a solid, 60-minute game without making errors or going flat for extended periods. That said, UGA fans need to be realistic about Auburn and not get carried away with prior victories.
Any AU poster talking smack this week is either a Bama troll posing or an AU fan who doesn’t know diddly. It doesn’t require a high football acumen to look back over the last 9 games and see a team that struggles on offense, gives up huge chunk plays on defense and vanilla play-calling that fools know one.
We have some talented kids but we make too many mistakes and have yet to play a complete game on both sides of the ball. I love our fight and hope our players bring their lunch pails with them — it’ll take everything we have plus some luck to beat UGA in Sanford stadium this Saturday.
AU Alum 91, Well said. Auburn’s been fighting an uphill battle all year with the rebuilding O-line and not having a proven RB returning.
That has put pressure on Stidham from the start. It’s hard to beat good teams while being one dimensional. I think AU’s D-line can hold their own against Ga’s O-line and backs.
I just think time of possession will be in the Dawg’s favor, and it’s going to show up sometime around the 4th quarter.