Auburn took Georgia into the fourth quarter on Saturday before a long D’Andre Swift touchdown run essentially ended any hopes of a late Tigers comeback against the best team in the SEC East. The Tigers need a rebound effort here against Liberty, a new FBS team that is an Independent.
By Steve Wright
Here are the three keys:
Run the ball
Auburn’s running game has been just miserable in 2018. The Gus Malzahn offense relies on enough balance to keep defenses honest, but those defense have been able to stack up against and tee off on quarterback Jarrett Stidham as the Auburn ground game has failed to get going week after week.
The rushing attack finally managed to break the 100 yard barrier against Georgia, rushing for 102 yards in the loss. In the previous six games, the Tigers had failed to hit the 100 yard mark on four separate occasions.
That lack of balance has killed Auburn’s ability to move the ball on offense, with teams sinking off of the run and playing the passing lanes immediately after the snap. This would be an ideal game for the rushing attack to break out ahead of the Iron Bowl.
Don’t look ahead
An Auburn team with the offense that Malzahn wants could afford to hit the cruise control in this one and focus on the Iron Bowl and a shot at ruining Alabama’s run at a perfect season.
The problem is simply that Auburn hasn’t been good enough in 2018 to look ahead in this way.
If the Tigers come into this game against Liberty lacking focus then things could get messy in a hurry. The 4-5 Flames aren’t a good FCS team by any stretch of the imagination, but they have enough players to cause Auburn a scare if the Tigers show up and play at half speed.
The focus level of the Auburn players here will tell us a lot about how Malzahn is controlling his group.
Stidham must take over
Liberty will be feisty enough to stay with Auburn until Stidham takes over the game.
The Liberty secondary has been torched at times in 2018, allowing 540 yards passing to UMass and being torn up for close to 400 yards repeatedly over the last month and a half. Stidham and his receivers should have a field day finding holes in the Liberty back seven if the quarterback is protected well enough to sit in the pocket and go through his progressions.
Stidham is more than due a monster game. If it doesn’t happen this week, then he might have missed his last chance to light up the scoreboard with the Tigers.
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