Auburn football: What sort of offensive performance should we expect from Gus’ Tigers?

Auburn vs. Washington

What most people want to see out of Auburn on Saturday in Atlanta against the No. 6 Huskies is production. Auburn has been way too inconsistent early in the season on offense under Malzahn. Even last season after the Georgia Southern win, Auburn turned in a dud against Clemson in a 14-6 loss in Week 2 in which Stidham was sacked 11 times.

But keep this in mind: Washington brings a very good defense to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Huskies were better in scoring defense and total defense than Auburn last season. The Huskies are coming to play with the College Football Playoff squarely a goal of theirs.

Auburn has questions entering the game:

• Will a running back emerge as the go-to back or will Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey experiment with different ones to see who gets hot?
• Is the offensive line ready for this level of competition? Only three starters have starting experience and one of those is a transfer from UMass (Jack Driscoll).
• How will Auburn get the ball to all the playmakers it has at receiver? The Tigers have size, speed and depth and should be able to give Washington a lot of looks despite not having Will Hastings and Eli Stove.
• If it comes down to a game of field goals, is Anders Carlson ready for the big stage? (For the record: Daniel Carlson was 6 for 6 on extra points in his first game and 1 for 2 on field goals with a make from 45 and miss from 42).

The talent is there. We expect this offense to be good, make that very good this season. How it gets out of the gates in the biggest game of Week 1 will go a long away in establishing confidence and building momentum for one of the nation’s toughest schedules.