Auburn Football 2010: Match-Ups That Matter, Mississippi State

On Thursday September 9th Auburn plays Mississippi State in the first away game of the year. Mississippi State can’t line up and score many points on Auburn. They are rebuilding their running game for 2010.

To win this game Mississippi State has to stop the Auburn offense. Auburn has more experienced skilled players returning than Mississippi State. They will have to attempt this by dominating the line of scrimmage on defense.

Mississippi State will be facing the most formidable offensive line of their season in this game. They were able to push teams like LSU and Florida to the wire in their stadium last year.

To have a chance at winning this game the score must be kept below thirty points for both teams. Mississippi State is simply not explosive on offense and can’t afford to try and match Auburn score for score.

My prediction is this game will be very similar to the 2009 version at Auburn. Mississippi State lost several key members of their offense and defense from 2009. They run a rushing based spread attack augmented with a short passing game.

Here are the results of last seasons game between these two teams. Both teams will be in year two of their current coaching staffs. This should lead to improvement in execution for both teams as they should have mastered the system by now.

The match-ups that will matter in this game will be the formidable Auburn offensive line against the Mississippi State defensive line, middle linebacker, and strong side linebacker. If Mississippi State can control the line of scrimmage, they have a shot at upsetting the Auburn Tigers.

    Mississippi State                                     Auburn    

Right D. End Nick Bell           6’3” 265 LBS	Left Tackle  Lee Ziemba Sr                                             6’8” 320 LBS.
Left D. End Pernell McPhee           6’4” 285 LBS	Right Tackle A.J. Greene  Jr.                                           6'5" 291lbs
SS LB Cameron Lawrence                  6’2” 225 LBS.	Right Tackle Brandon Mosley Jr.                                   6’6” 294 LBS
Right Tackle Fletcher Cox                    6”4” 300 LBS.	Left Guard  Mike Berry Sr.                                             6’3” 323 LBS.
Left Tackle Josh Boyd                          6’3” 295 LBS.	Right Guard  Byron Isom Sr.                                         6’3” 310 LBS.
Middle LB Chris White                          6”4” 245 LBS.	Center  Ryan Pugh Sr.                                                 6’4” 293 LBS.

2009 Offensive Statistics

Offensive Category	Mississippi State Statistics	Auburn Team Statistics
National Ranking	65th in the NCAA	16th in the NCAA
Total Yards	4463 yards in 12 games	5613 yards in 13 games
Avg. Yds. Per Play	5.44 yards per play	6.14 yards per play
Avg. Yds. Per Game	372 yards per game	432 yards per game
Points Per Game	26 points per game	33 points per game
Rushing Offense	228 yards per game	212 yards per game
Passing Offense	144 yards per game	220 yards per game
Sacks Allowed Per Game	1.67 sacks per game	1.62 sacks per game
Total Rushing Yards	2731 yards in 12 games	2756 yards in 13 games
Avg. Yds. Per Rush	4.92 yards per carry	5.01 yards per carry
Total Passing Yards	1732 yards in 12 games	2857 yards in 13 games
Avg. Yds. Per Pass	6.51 yards per play	7.85 yards per play