Auburn vs. Ole Miss: The Tigers' Strive for Consistency Continues

Blame it on what you want.

Lack of depth. Penalties beyond belief. Chris Todd’s arm is done. Ted Roof has no clue what he’s doing. Maybe Chizik bit off more than he can chew.

Yeah, at this point, in the midst of a three-game losing streak, those have all been thrown around with reckless abandon.

If you take a closer look, can you really pinpoint one thing that has gone wrong?

Sure, there’s the offense that couldn’t be stopped by the Chicago Bears through Week Six and couldn’t punch the ball in the end zone twice against Kentucky.

They’ve fumbled inside the five with the game on the line, committed false start penalties on drives that could’ve altered the season and Gus Malzahn’s bag of tricks doesn’t look so magical anymore.

The defense has been night and day in terms of when they decide to make a stop, but with four scholarship linebackers, the position that tends to anchor a defense, much more can’t be expected.

There are players playing out of position every week, and when the competition became harder per say, the defense got exploited.

Neiko Thorpe, for example, has been picked on by opposing quarterbacks in the past few weeks, but what defensive back won’t get occasionally get burned when he’s on the field for as long as he is and having to make tackles that should’ve already been made in the backfield?

When they’ve shown flashes of brightness, they’ve turned right around and made foolish mistakes that cost them ballgames. Putting together four quarters of consistent offense and defense has been virtually nowhere to be found.

They are still the Auburn Tigers. They are still the same team who battled with everything they had in front of 87,000 rain soaked fans against West Virginia in a game that many thought would set the tone for the season.

This is the same team that took Mississippi State out to the woodshed. Yeah, the same MSU team that had Florida at its wit’s end last Saturday. This is still the same Auburn team that went into Tennessee with some 25-plus players on the road for the first time and came out victorious in stylish fashion.

In Knoxville, the offense was still there. Onterrio McCalebb was at least somewhat healthy. Now, the offense has seemingly disappeared, along with McCalebb, who darted out of bounds on one of his three carries last week after a seemingly short gain that could have been much more.

Right now, things aren’t like anyone expected after a 5-0 start.

That is anyone except Gene Chizik. He told everyone from the get go they needed to realize what the Tigers would be up against this season. Chizik said depth would play a huge factor, and you were crazy to believe it wouldn’t with the toll the SEC takes. He didn’t expect an SEC title.

Did he have thoughts of one after Week Five? Probably so.

Did he think things would go as south as they did so quickly? Probably not.

What he did know, was that when you have as many things against you as the Tigers do this year, things can’t be good forever. Arkansas finally oppressed that.

With Ole Miss rolling into town for the proclaimed “Navy Nightmare,” Gus Malzahn will look to fool his old boss in Houston Nutt, and get the Auburn offense back into form.

Ole Miss has turned it on as of late, and seemingly destroyed Arkansas last week. Stopping Dexter McCluster will be key, as the Razorbacks saw too much of the back of his jersey last week.

If the Tigers can shut him down, they have a very good chance at stealing this one from the Rebels.

Jevan Snead is a capable quarterback, but one also prone to make the mistake throw. Auburn would love to pounce on that like they did in the early weeks, and provide a spark that the defense has so desperately needed lately.

Ben Tate has been constant for the Tigers, but with a banged up McCalebb, Mario Fannin will look to enter the picture more this week.

Something must give for the Tigers to improve on offense, and Malzahn will look to have fresh look on Saturday morning.

Auburn won’t let this season go down the drain. It’s not over. It starts again on Saturday at 11:21 AM.

Gene Chizik will have them ready, and after three weeks of underachieving, hopefully will be ready to execute for four quarters of football.

With just four games left, this marathon is far from over. Bowl eligibility is on the line, and one big win could spark this team to a highlight reel finish.

As the players know, this is Round Nine. What do October wins get you? Respect. The
Auburn Tigers will look to take that word to heart Saturday and get back in the winning column.