Tonight my Auburn Tigers hosted the Mississippi St. Bulldogs in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Coming into the game I think Tigers fans were riding high from a blowout victory at Missouri, but still a bit unsure about the identity and consistency of the Auburn offense. Mississippi St. was also kind of a wild card, I certainly didn’t know how to gauge them. Nick Fitzpatrick’s offense looked good against LSU, but got dominated by the Georgia defense. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and I think most of my fellow Tigers fans felt the same way. Well, here we are at the end of the game, and it’s safe to say that Auburn has shown itself to be the definite number two team in the SEC West. Auburn scored a whopping 49 points to a mere 10 points from Miss. St. Let’s breakdown some post game stats and how Auburn was able to manhandle the bulldogs.
Offense – Auburn was able to put up a total of 511 yards on offense, with 267 through the air and 244 on the ground, with only 25 minutes and 40 seconds of possession time. What does this mean? Auburn was quite efficient on offense with their longest scoring drive taking only 7 plays and lasting 3 minutes and 20 seconds. The offensive line, for the most part, had no trouble with the bulldog defense, and gave quarterback Jarrett Stidham plenty of time to throw 13 completions out of 16 attempts. Four of Stidham’s 13 completions were over 40 yards, while spreading out his completions over eight Auburn receivers. Kerryon Johnson was the leading rusher for the Tigers tonight with 116 yards on 23 carries. Essentially Auburn was able to control the line of scrimmage on offense and keep the Miss. St. secondary on their toes all night.
Defense – The defense tonight played lights out as usual, only allowing 10 points and scoring one touchdown themselves. Javaris Davis and Tray Matthews both had one interception, with Davis returning his 37 yards for a defensive touchdown. One key success for the Auburn defense tonight, was the line of scrimmage. With all-American lineman Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson and linebacker Deshaun Davis leading the defense, they were able to contain Miss. St. quarterback, Nick Fitzpatrick. In their loss to Georgia last week, the bulldog defense was also able to contain Fitzpatrick, making him one dimensional and much less effective. Tonight proved to be no different. The defense held Fitzpatrick to only 56 rushing yards, and the rest of the team to a mere 148.
Like I said above, Auburn has certainly showed themselves to be a force in the SEC West, and I believe they control their destiny from here on out at least until the Iron Bowl in November. I think Jarrett Stidham made some huge strides in his development as a quarterback, but he still has room for improvement. Unlike last season, Kerryon Johnson has emerged as the feature back with Kamryn Pettway playing a more supportive role. Malik Willis has stepped into the backup quarterback position after Sean White was dismissed from the team, and judging from the playing time that he’s received in these two most reason games, he seems to be a very talented player. Auburn will be playing the Ole Miss Rebels next week. Let’s hope they keep up this momentum as their schedule this year won’t be getting any easier.