Auburn football: Three troubling stats that Tigers need to rectify

The No. 8 Auburn football team opened as 3.5-point favorites against Mississippi State.

The Tigers travel to Starkville, Miss., for a Saturday night kickoff (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in what will be Auburn’s second game this season away from Jordan-Hare Stadium, but its first true road game.

Auburn has won two in a row after beating Southern Miss on Saturday, 24-13. Mississippi State is on a two-game skid with back-to-back losses against top-25 teams Kentucky (last week) and Florida (on Saturday).

Auburn expects to have its hands full with MSU QB Nick Fitzgerald. He’s a dual-threat quarterback, but has struggled in the past two weeks.

But Auburn (4-1, 1-1 in SEC) has plenty of concerns of its own entering the game.

Here are a few of the numbers that have us concerned entering the matchup Saturday:

2.7

That’s how many yards per rushing attempt Auburn averaged against Southern Miss. Now, that is skewed a little because Jarrett Stidham was credited with minus-26 yards rushing because of sacks. But the final rushing line for Auburn reads like this: 36 rushes, 96 yards.

Yuck.

Let’s look at the yards gained by each ballcarrier:

Kam Martin (24-90): 3, (-3), 9, 0, 2, 2, 4, 8, 2, 0, 6, 3, 7, 0, 3, 13, 0, 8, 4, 4, 6, 4, (-2), 7

JaTarvious Whitlow (4-23): 3, 1, 4, 15

Anthony Schwartz (2-8): 2, 6 (TD)

Shaun Shivers (2-1): (-3), 4,

Jarrett Stidham (x-minus 26): 0, (-10), (-7), (-9)

In case you didn’t look too close, that’s two carries of 10 or more yards out of 36.

9 for 78

That’s the number of penalties and penalty yardage Auburn had against Southern Miss. And to be honest, it’s pretty amazing that it wasn’t worse because most of that accumulated in the first quarter:

1: Derrick Brown, 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct. He was penalized on USM’s opening possession for hands to the face. It did not appear intentional and was more bad luck than anything. The drive stalled and USM punted.

2. Prince Tega Wanogho, 10 hards for holding on third-and-7 at the USM 30.

3. Jack Driscoll, 5 yards for false start on the next play. Now, third-and-22 at the USM 45. After starting the drive at the USM 33, Auburn ended up punting.

4. KJ Britt, 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct on the kickoff. USM takes over on its 40 instead of 25.

5. Mike Horton, 9 yards for holding. On third-and-4 from the Auburn 17, the Tigers are pushed back to their 8.

6. Marquel Harrell, 4 yards for false start. On the next play, it became third-and-17 from the Auburn 4. The Tigers punted.

And that was just the first quarter.

5 for 16

That’s how many times Auburn converted on third down Saturday night.

Here’s how many yards Auburn needed on third down and if it converted or not:

8: Failed
22: Failed
17: Failed
7: Converted*
15: Converted*
1: Converted*
8: Failed
6: Failed
5: Failed
2: Converted
20: Converted
7: Failed
8: Failed
13: Failed
6: Failed
8: Failed**

* All on Auburn’s second TD scoring drive
** Auburn kicked field goal

That’s 153 yards on the 16 attempts or an average of 9.5 yards needed on third downs.

There were two issues Saturday: penalties and poor first and second down execution. Auburn only had two third-and-short situations and converted both of them. The Tigers have to make things more manageable on third down for the offensive line and Stidham.