Auburn is playing its best football to date. It’s been a long, convoluted path to arrive at 4-2 and return to the AP Poll, but what really is an Auburn football season void of hot-seat speculation, official conspiracy theories and quarterback complaints?

The Tigers head into their first idle week after thoroughly beating LSU in just about every way imaginable. Bo Nix had arguably the most complete game of his career while spreading the ball around to all 3 of his top receivers and Tank Bigsby continued to roll over defenders and average close to 5 yards a carry.

A Kevin Steele defense absent of its best player held the No. 12 offense in the FBS to just 1 touchdown and forced 3 turnovers along the way. Even the kicker got in on the action.

With 4 games left in the regular season, there are several directions Auburn’s season could tilt. Is this the team that blew a 2-possession lead to South Carolina or the one that needed just 3 quarters to blow the doors off the reigning national champions?

Here’s a look at how their next 4 games could play out:

Nov. 14 at Mississippi State

After Week 1, this looked like a potential big-time matchup with the way the Bulldogs dismantled LSU. Oh, how things have changed with Mike Leach’s ship quickly sinking.

Teams have solved the Air Raid puzzle, and Leach has shown an inability or stubbornness to change. Saturday, he suffered his 1st shutout in 19 years as a head coach despite having an extra week to prepare.

Auburn might not be able to limit the Bulldogs to 0 or 2 points, but the Tigers are allowing the 4th-fewest points in the SEC. Most important when playing Leach, Auburn’s pass defense ranks 4th in the conference allowing just over 236 yards a game.

Mississippi State’s defense has sort of flown under the radar as one of the better units in the conference, but the versatility and balance of Chad Morris’ offense in the past 2 weeks should be enough to outscore the Bulldogs.

Prediction: Auburn 30, Mississippi State 21

Nov. 21 vs. Tennessee

Much like the tide has turned in Starkville, the mighty have fallen in Knoxville in recent weeks. Jeremy Pruitt’s offense has been outscored 28-24 by opposing defenses in the last 10 quarters, and Tennessee has quickly turned the conference’s longest winning streak into 3 consecutive 20-plus point blowout losses.

Tennessee’s defense is 1 of 5 SEC teams to allow over 30 points a game and it lacks the QB capable of covering up those defensive flaws.

This should be the last real winnable game for the Tigers before things turn up another level to close out the season.

Prediction: Auburn 35, Tennessee 17

Nov. 28 at Alabama

Can this be the first team since Ole Miss in 2014 and ’15 to beat Nick Saban in back-to-back seasons? If Bo Nix can channel another Cam Newton-like performance and the offense averages over 7 yards a play, then anything can happen, but the Tide are just in a completely different stratosphere than the rest of the SEC this season.

Auburn’s offense should be able to score against Alabama, but the Tide have too many weapons to slow down, even without Jaylen Waddle.

Malzahn is 1 of only 2 active coaches in America with 3 wins over Saban, but he has yet to beat the Tide in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Expect Saban to hold serve on his home turf and end Auburn’s overall 4-game winning streak.

Prediction: Alabama 49, Auburn 24

Dec. 5 vs. Texas A&M

This is a fitting end to a season for both teams, pitting a pair of high-profile coaches with somewhat polarizing quarterbacks against each other in a battle for 2nd place in the SEC West.

The Aggies and Kellen Mond are similarly hitting their offensive stride with Mond surpassing Johnny Manziel as the program’s all-time leader in total yards.

Texas A&M is pretty balanced, averaging 174.2 yards on the ground and 252.2 yards through the air, which will make it more difficult for Kevin Steele to scheme against than what one-dimensional teams like Mississippi State and Tennessee present.

A&M’s defense has been fairly comparable to the Tide’s this year, so Nix and Bigsby should still be fairly effective. This game is a coin-flip and may just simply come down to which team fields a more complete roster at the end of the season.

Prediction: Texas A&M 28, Auburn 27