By: Robert Craft

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Auburn wrapped up their five-game home stand to start the season. Auburn prepares to travel to No. 2 Georgia and No. 9 Ole Miss in back-to-back travel weeks.

Offseason discussions centered around what the Tigers needed to produce during the first five games to position themselves for a successful season. The consensus was no worse than 4-1.

After Auburn blew another double-digit lead, they finished their five-game stretch at 3-2, with two of those wins being single-digit victories over San Jose State and Missouri.

Auburn is one of the worst turnover margin teams in college football, sitting at -9 for the season. The Tigers’ average of -1.80 per game has them 129th nationally, ahead of only Temple and Stanford.

Looking to the near future, it’s time for Athens: a place Auburn hasn’t won since 2005 off a last-minute kick off the foot of John Vaughn.

In total, the Tigers are 3-14 in this rivalry, including their recent five losses. Auburn has lost eight of nine games in the series, and has failed to top 14 points in each of their eight losses.

To make matters worse, Auburn hasn’t scored more than 10 points in Athens in any of their last five trips. The last time the Tigers scored more than 10 points in Athens was a 31-24 loss in 2009.

Nobody predicted Robby Ashford would throw for 337 yards and 2 touchdowns in his second career start, one week after throwing for barely over 100 yards. Eight completions accounted for 270 of Ashford’s 337 yards. Ashford’s other 11 completions accounted for 67 total yards. Also, to note, six of those eight big plays came in the first half.

Can Auburn’s offense create more big passing plays? Was the first half indicative of confusion in the secondary (does LSU ring any bells)? We will certainly know more after playing the 18th-ranked pass defense in Georgia. The Bulldogs allow 175 yards per game through the air and have six interceptions in five contests.

Auburn’s defense in their last two games (Missouri and LSU) produced an average of 3.5 sacks per game. If this were compared to the national average, it would rank top ten.

In the same two games, the Tigers have 15 tackles for loss, which would rank them top 15 nationally by the same comparison.

Auburn takes positive defensive momentum facing Georgia, who ranks 12th nationally in sacks allowed (4 total) and 11th nationally in tackles for loss allowed (16 total).

We’re entering week three of negative noise surrounding Bryan Harsin’s job security as Auburn’s head coach. When the clock hit all zeroes following the 41-12 loss to Penn State, Harsin’s fate appeared all but sealed.

The most common question is: when will a change be made? Auburn faces two tough road tests before a bye week.

Auburn returns home against Arkansas following a bye week. If a change is to be made during the season, and if minds are made up (which we believe they are), heading into the bye week looks like a logical inflection point.

The Dawgs come into this next game as 29.5 point favorites over Auburn.

Georgia doesn’t like looking bad, and this game against one of their biggest rivals should fire them up.

UGA is still probably the most well-rounded team in the nation, yes, Georgia will still be the team to beat in the SEC East. Let’s watch Kirby put the last nail in Harsin’s coffin.

Georgia 52 Auburn 13