Auburn Football: What the Tigers Need to Improve to Beat Mississippi State

The Auburn Tigers play their first conference game of the season on Saturday when they host SEC West rival Mississippi State. The Bulldogs enter this game ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll, which Auburn fell out of after a narrow win over Utah State last weekend.

Despite occurring only a week into the season, this game could be considered a must-win for both teams. Auburn is looking to show that they are better than last week’s performance where they nearly lost to a supposedly overmatched Utah State team. Mississippi State’s program is reaching its highest level of relevance in some time, but the Bulldogs' momentum could be cut short with a loss.

It’s obvious after last week’s game that the Tigers need to show a lot of improvement on both sides of the ball if they are going to compete with Mississippi State. Here are five things Auburn must improve if they are going to win on Saturday.

Stopping The Rush

Auburn’s run defense struggled against Utah State, so they’ll need a much improved effort against Mississippi State, who features two capable rushers in running back Vick Ballard and quarterback Chris Relf.

The young defensive line (four sophomores) will need to bring all they have against a solid Mississippi State offensive line that helped the Bulldogs rack up 309 yards rushing against Memphis.

Running Back Production

Auburn running back Michael Dyer found the end zone twice against Utah State, but overall it was a disappointing day for the running game. The Tigers will need to bounce back after compiling only 78 yards rushing last week. They need to get past two tough defensive tackles in Fletcher Cox and Josh Boyd. The rebuilt Auburn offensive line should be better now that they have a game under their belts.

A Better Pass Rush

Any member of the Utah State offensive line probably wouldn’t be recruited by Auburn, but they held the Tigers to only one sack last week. Auburn is taking on a much more experienced quarterback this week in Relf, so the Tigers need to bring a little more heat if they are going to have a shot of winning the game.

Tighter Pass Coverage

Auburn wasn’t very aggressive with its coverage against Utah State, and it resulted in 22-31 passing for 221 yards. They are going to have to tighten it up against Relf and Mississippi State, who features a dangerous playmaker at wide receiver in Chad Bumphis. This will become much harder if the Tigers can’t put the clamps down on Mississippi State’s potent running game.

Get Philip Lutzenkirchen Involved

Lutzenkirchen made a big impact with his late touchdown against Utah State, but overall he didn’t get many chances to make plays. Auburn will try to get him more involved on Saturday and give the Mississippi State defense more things to worry about.