Auburn football preparing to face run-heavy Ole Miss offense

The Auburn football team will hit the road again this weekend to face their second top-ten opponent in a row after a disheartening loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens last Saturday. The Tigers will go toe-to-toe with an undefeated Ole Miss team that boasts the #15 offense in the country.

Auburn football’s defense will certainly have a big job ahead of them, especially with key players like Eku Leota out and others bruised up like Derick Hall. However, the Tigers are going to have to work especially hard to keep the Rebels from having unfettered success in the run game– their offense is averaging 242 yards per game.

The Rebs’ run game is led by freshman running back Quinshon Judkins and TCU transfer Zach Evans, and between the two of them, they have already recorded over 1,000 rushing yards.

The Ole Miss offensive line is a strong asset to their team, consistently opening up paths for their running backs and allowing only one sack to quarterback Jaxon Dart all season. Cole Pinkston of Auburn Live reports that Dart is more likely to throw than run the ball himself, and is having quite a successful year as a Trojan-turned-Rebel:

"USC transfer, Dart (2), has completed 91 of 143 passes for 1,358 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. He is completing 63 percent of his passes."

The Tigers’ offense struggled to stay on the field last weekend against Georgia, but they will absolutely have to extend drives and keep the ball out of Dart’s hands for the defense to play lights-out all game, which they’ll have to do to keep Auburn in the game.

Shutting down the run game will be key, but it’s certainly a tall task for the Tiger defense. Auburn and Ole Miss will kick off from Oxford, MS, this weekend at 11:00 a.m. in hopes of earning their first win on the road.