Auburn (2-3,0-2) visits the number five ranked Georgia Bulldogs(3-1,1-1) in their first road test of the season. The Dawgs host in their SEC home opener coming off their first regular season loss in years. It will be a tall task for the Tigers to pull off an upset. Still, with a simple approach, they may be able to replicate their success last year when they took Georgia down to the final minutes falling just short in their upset bid over the then top-ranked Bulldogs.
Auburn is still searching for its first SEC win on the season and its first win over a Power Five conference opponent. Auburn will stroll into Athens as heavy underdogs, as both programs are looking for bounce-back wins.
The Tigers are coming off a disappointing loss to Oklahoma where they fell just short in their upset bid over the number 21 team in the country. The contest came down to the final moments when an unfortunately timed mistake from Payton Throne resulted in an Oklahoma pick six giving the Sooners the lead in the waning minutes.
Outside of this mistake, Thorne looked good in the loss throwing for over 300 yards on 21 completions in the game. The key when trying to hang around the dogs this year will be the run game, last year against Georgia Thorne only attempted 19 passes for 82 yards but he rushed 12 times for 92 yards and coming off a game where the Bulldogs allowed over 100 rushing yards to a quarterback AUburn may look to capitalize on this potential weakness.
In last year's last-gasp loss, Jarquez Hunter rushed 19 times for 59 yards, he will likely see an increase in carries as while the Georgia defense at times has seemed flawless, struggled to stop the run last week.
Famously the Georgia defense has been incredible at setting the edge and containing both QBs and sweeps alike but struggled to do so against Alabama allowing Jalen Milroe to skate around defenders. If Auburn has any chance of staying with Georgia it will be critical to establish a dynamic look on offense, balancing the pass and run keeping first down positive, and winning 3rd downs.
On defense, the Tigers are staring down the barrel of an offense that is coming off one of its best and worst games. In the first half, the Bulldogs looked horrible and in the second they looked nearly unstoppable. If Auburn can learn anything from last week's matchup it is that Georgia is prone to the turnover. The Bulldogs turned the ball over four times including three picks and a lost fumble all from quarterback Carson Beck.
While Auburn did not generate any turnovers last week they did well against Arkansas keeping a sputtering offense in the game by forcing turnovers, this will be crucial again for Auburn as they look to pull off an upset.
The game will kick off at 2:30 Central time in Athens, Ga. The game will be televised on ABC and streaming on ESPN+.
