5 Keys to Victory for Auburn Football at Ole Miss

Here we give our give keys to victory for Auburn football as they travel to face Ole Miss in just their second road game of the 2016 season.

Auburn football will play just their second road game of the 2016 season today as they take on Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss.

Coming into the season Auburn football was viewed as a pretty heavy underdog for this game, but after eight weeks of play the Tigers enter the game as a 4.5 point favorite.

The Rebels have dropped two games in a row and are on the verge of having their season spiral out of control.

Meanwhile, Auburn football is on a four game winning streak and ranked inside the top 15.

Let’s take a look at five things Auburn football must do right in this game to beat Ole Miss.

Run the Football

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first, Auburn is great at running the football and Ole Miss has been terrible at stopping the run.

With a healthy Kerryon Johnson ready to play this weekend I expect the Auburn running game to be just as deadly this weekend.

Against Arkansas we saw some of our wide receivers spread the field on runs to the outside, but I think we leave that to Kerryon Johnson in this game.

Then pound away with Kamryn Pettway up the middle.

If Auburn is able to rush for over 250 yards, I think they’ll be in good shape to win this game.

Get to Chad Kelly

Much like they did with Austin Allen last weekend, the Auburn defensive line has to get pressure on Chad Kelly and bring him down.

There is no denying that Chad Kelly is a very good quarterback, maybe the best in the country, and if you give him time to throw he will pass all over you.

However, I think our defensive line is good enough to make Kelly uncomfortable and force him to get rid of the football before he’s ready.

If you can keep Kelly from chunking the football down field, you can limit his effectiveness.

Limit the Explosive Plays

On that note, Chad Kelly and the Ole Miss offense rely on explosive plays. A lot of the times Kelly just throws it deep and hopes either one of their talented receivers makes a great play or gets a pass interference call.

The Auburn linebackers and defensive backs will have to do a good job of limiting these explosive plays and making sure they tackle their big receivers whenever they do make a catch.

The defensive line can also help out with this by getting to Kelly and making him get rid of the football before his receivers work downfield.

But you can bet that Kelly will take his fair share of shots downfield, I just hope our guys are ready to defend them.

Redzone Touchdowns

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This is something we can mention almost every week, but it’s especially important for the Auburn offense to convert redzone trips into seven points against Ole Miss.

The Rebels are most likely going to put up points, and each time we have to settle for a field goal keeps them in this game.

The Ole Miss defense has not been great in the redzone this year, while the Auburn offense has gotten much better. We need to take advantage of that weakness and make sure we get in the endzone when we have the chance.

Avoid the Storm

Ole Miss has scored 71 points in the first quarter and 101 points in the second quarter this year, compared to 34 points in the third quarter and 53 in the fourth quarter.

This Ole Miss team is notorious this year for getting out to great starts and then slowing down in the second half.

Auburn has yet to face any adversity on the road this year, so I’m not sure how they’ll respond if they get down by a couple of scores early.

The Tigers will need to be prepared to survive an early storm from Ole Miss and make sure they don’t get down or let the game get out of hand.

Next: Auburn Football vs. Ole Miss: Matchup and Prediction

War Eagle!