Auburn football: Final thoughts before Tigers take on Southern Miss

The bottom line for the Auburn football team today is this: Southern Miss can be a no-win situation unless the Tigers step up and play the way we thought they would before the season started.

Is today a win-win, lose-lose or win-lose type of game?

Think about the scenarios for the game today against the Golden Eagles:

1. Auburn wins a close game. The Tigers are favored by 27 points. Anything less than that will raise more questions. You know the questions, the ones we’ve been asking after every game.

2. Auburn wins, but doesn’t cover. Yes, a win is a win, and Southern Miss is not Alabama State or Liberty. But the Tigers should have a lot more firepower and it would be nice to see some points scored by the offense.

3. Southern Miss upsets Auburn. It’s happened before. Any remember a guy named Brett Favre?

4. Auburn wins big. This is what everyone wants to see. This is what will build momentum entering the five-game stretch against SEC opponents.

So that brings us back to the big question: Can this Auburn football team win a game the way everyone thinks it should?

It didn’t finish things against LSU. It beat Arkansas, 34-3, but managed just 225 total yards — the fourth-worst total under Gus Malzahn.

Here’s our checklist of what we’d realistically like to see today:

• Minimum 400 total yards on offense. Minimum. The preference would be to hit 500. But better execution and short fields created by special teams could make 400-plus feel good.
• Jarrett Stidham throws at least 30 passes and goes for 250 yards or more. We understand that the short passing game is a big part of the game plan. But Stidham needs to find more consistency with down-field throws, over-the-middle-throws and the intermediate routes.
• One of the running backs hits 100. That likely would be JaTarvious Whitlow, but the coaches seem determined to share the carries.
• Southern Miss QB Jack Abraham has been very good this season. In three games, he has 10 TD passes and 1,048 yards. Unless Auburn wants to see itself get nickel-and-dimed down the field all afternoon, it needs to push Abraham (who’s not the most nimble of QBs) out of his comfort zone. Marlon Davidson, Nick Coe, Big Kat Bryant and T.D. Moultry need to apply constant pressure. That also helps out the defensive backs, who will be matched up in press situations. Pressure up front leads to big plays/interceptions on the back end.
• Better third-down productivity. Auburn was 4 for 13 against Arkansas last week and 0 for 1 on fourth down. That has to get better. Of course, better first- and second-down plays makes it more manageable.
• Better red zone execution. Auburn has scored 17 of 22 times in the red zone, including 13 TDs. Overall, Auburn ranks 102nd in the nation in red zone scoring proficiency. That’s not good.

So there you have it. Prior to the Arkansas game, we wrote how Auburn needed to start collecting style points with its victories. Last week’s game was hit-and-miss in that category. Let’s put that aside this week. It would just be nice to see Auburn win a game the way the Auburn football team knows how to win games.