Auburn comes out of the bye week to face the #1 Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, with the Dawgs chasing their 10th straight win in the series.
The bye week is over. The coaches have fixed everything. The defense is tackling better, and the penalties will be non-existent. The offensive line is going to protect Byrum, and the #1 Georgia Bulldogs can't do anything to stop us!
Right?
Through 5 games, Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown has over a thousand yards passing and nearly 350 yards on the ground. He leads the team in rushing in fact. Any criticism I've heard about him has only been from people who don't watch the games. His TD/Interception ratio (7/7) is glaring to a stat reader, but for anyone who watches Auburn it's very apparent when Byrum forces the ball into traffic to try and win the game himself. Auburn will not be successful if he has to be responsible for every yard the offense gains.
The bye week should be about correcting things that are correctable. After committing 11 penalties for 94 yards and turning the ball over 3 times against Tennessee, a majority of the issues hurting the Tigers are exactly that—things that can be corrected. The team has played in a hostile environment, so the crowd noise at Sanford Stadium should not be causing the offensive linemen to false start. The good news is that we are traveling with a completely healthy starting offensive line, but they will not get stronger in 2 weeks. Offensive coordinator Joel Gordon will need to scheme up a plan that involves getting rid of the football a lot quicker. Byrum Brown is holding the ball longer than any other quarterback in the conference. Auburn will need to attack the perimeter of Georgia's defense to be successful. Our offensive line will not be strong enough to allow Omar Mabson the room needed to run the ball into the heart of the Dawgs defense.
Georgia is coming off a victory, so it's not as clear to people: UGA played poorly against UAT last Saturday. They were outgained by over 200 yards. While they did manage to sack the QB 4 times, Georgia made a plethora of mistakes up and down the field on both sides of the ball. If they had lost it would be a much tougher matchup for Auburn. Coming off a physically exhausting, highly emotional 20-17 win, they are ripe for an "emotional hangover". If the Dawgs play that poorly against Auburn, and Auburn is able keep mistakes to a minimum: I could absolutely see Auburn stealing this one away from the #1 team. Over confidence and pride could absolutely spell disaster for the Dawgs, but that is a lot of "ifs". Not to mention, Georgia is seeking its 10th consecutive victory over us; denying them an all-time Deep South's Oldest Rivalry record gives this game massive stakes.
A major step forward would be to establish our running game early to keep the Georgia defense honest. Again, traditional handoffs up the middle are not going to work for us (against anyone really, but especially UGA). We need Jeremiah Cobb and Omar Mabson, who both have over 200 yards on the season, to step up and take some of the pressure off Byrum. Screens and option passes (but not on 4th down) will gain yards OR open up the middle of the field. Either one will help Auburn sustain drives. Byrum Brown needs to get into a rhythm early to keep DJ Durkin's defense off the field.
On the other side: Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop ran for 220 yards against Auburn. Georgia managed to put 206 rushing yards on bama last week. Auburn's run defense will be in the spotlight versus UGA. With Xavier Atkins officially confirmed out, we are missing our second-leading tackler and a guy tied for the team lead in sacks. Elijah Melendez and the rest of the front seven will need to find a way to stop the Dawgs rushing attack without him, or it will be another long day for our defenders. Auburn's defense has demonstrated they can create momentum-changing plays, but against elite opponents the Tigers have given up too many explosive plays.
Key questions going into this game:
Finding out the answers to these questions on Saturday will give us an excellent picture of how the rest of the season is going to look for the Auburn Tigers football team.