Alabama vs. Auburn: Tide Will Roll over Inferior Tigers

Alabama is going to embarrass Auburn in the famed Iron Bowl. They are vastly better on both sides of the ball, and Auburn is weak in all the areas the Crimson Tide like to exploit. 

Auburn's Struggle to Score

The Tigers are going to have a hard enough time just scoring, let alone winning. Auburn is coming off of a 35-point performance against a weak Samford team, but in the five games prior to that, the Tigers only scored more than 17 points in one game. That was a 41-point effort against Ole Miss.

Now they must try and muster some points off of the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation. Making matters worse for Auburn is the fact that they like to run the ball to get their offense going.

Teams simply do not run on Alabama. The Tide have allowed just 821 yards at 2.5 yards per carry this season.

They will all but eliminate Michael Dyer and the Tigers running game from this one. That will force Auburn to throw the ball much more than they would like to, which will lead to three-and-outs and turnovers.

Big Day for Trent Richardson

Trent Richardson is going to run over and through the Tigers defense. This is nothing new for Richardson. He has gone over 100 yards in all but three games this season. Richardson has run for 1,380 yards at 5.8 yards per carry this season.

He will be facing an Auburn team that has allowed 5.6 yards per carry on the season.

The Tigers have also allowed 17 rushing touchdowns. Richardson has hit pay dirt 20 times this year, and he will add to that number in this game.

Throw in the fact that Richardson will have over a month to recover from this game until Alabama will play again, and you get a running back that is going to have plenty of carries and big numbers.

Prediction for Richardson: 185 yards rushing, 3 touchdowns

Third Down Dominance

Auburn is not going to be able to extend their drives in this game. Alabama will stuff their runs on early downs and force them into passing situations. That is not an area where Auburn is built to succeed.

This is going to compound the problems they are already having on third down. The Tigers are converting just 37 percent of their third downs. Meanwhile, Alabama is allowing just 25 percent conversions on third down.

On the other side of the ball, things do not look any better for Auburn. Richardson's power running will lead to numerous third and shorts. Alabama is converting 48 percent of their third downs, and they will better that number in this game.

Auburn's weak run defense has led to them giving up a 47 percent third-down conversion rate.

Score Prediction: Alabama 37, Auburn 6