Previewing Saturday's Week 5 road matchup between Auburn and Tennessee in Knoxville.
Auburn and Tennessee both head into week 5 with a 3-1 record. Neither team can take another conference loss. The Volunteers are coming off an emotional loss to Texas, and Auburn held on against Vanderbilt last week. A win for either team would be a huge springboard into the gauntlet of SEC games that both squads will face in the month of October.
The Tigers won the last matchup 30-17 in Jordan-Hare Stadium in 2020. Saturday's game will be the 55th time the two schools have played with Auburn winning 29 of those games while Tennessee has won 22 times in the series (3 ties). Auburn has gotten the best of the Volunteers recently, but Neyland Stadium will not be as friendly as Jordan-Hare. Byrum Brown will have to lead his team into one of the most deafening atmospheres in college football.
Protecting Brown will be a major key for Auburn. Right now the Tigers give up 3.5 sacks per game on average. Tennessee's defensive front is formidable. Led by Xavier Gilliam, the Volunteer defense has harassed QBs all season. Byrum Brown will look to stay upright behind a new-look offensive line that held its own against Vanderbilt. He will have to extend plays with his feet, but if Tennessee tries to tackle Brown instead of contain him, Auburn could extend busted plays and hold on to the ball longer.
Auburn ranks 136th in the nation in time of possession. Quick strikes by the offense coupled with slow, methodical drives by opponents have exhausted Auburn's defense and the depth just is not there yet for DJ Durkin to have his defense on the field for that long. Tennessee keeps the ball around 30 minutes on average. We will have to sustain longer drives and eat more time off the clock to have a chance in Knoxville.
You might see it mentioned this week that Tennessee is number 1 in the nation in red zone scoring while Auburn is 110th nationally in defending the red zone. This is a misleading statistic. Auburn has had teams move the football against them, but holding opponents to a field goal instead of a touchdown is a win. Tennessee scoring on 100% of their red zone visits just means they were able to kick a field goal. If Tennessee is forced to kick field goals all game (like Vandy) then Auburn will win.
True freshman QB Faizon Brandon has not thrown an interception all season. He hasn't put up crazy numbers yet, but he is a talented player. He has some decent run game support from DeSean Bishop as well. The Volunteer offense is balanced and they avoid mistakes. They average 40 points per game, but were only able to manage 17 against a solid defense (Texas) last week.
Auburn will have to establish a run game, quickly. Silencing the crowd and controlling the tempo of the game will be the key to starting well on the road on Saturday. Creating short 3rd downs and keeping the defense off the field can be accomplished by getting our run game going with Jeremiah Cobb and Byrum Brown. Additionally, the perimeters have been important for both of these offenses. Auburn has Keshaun Singleton making perimeter plays, and the Volunteers have Mike Matthews. Whichever one of those guys has the better game will likely be on the winning team. Tactical execution and resilience in the trenches will be the major keys to victory.