Auburn at Ole Miss game line, pick, prediction: Can Auburn's offense stay hot?

Auburn will be a road favorite in Oxford this Saturday against Ole Miss

By Robby Kalland

Oct 27, 2016 at 6:18 pm ET • 2 min read

Auburn rushed for an SEC-record 543 yards on Arkansas last week en route to a 56-3 wood-shedding of the Razorbacks. Now riding a four-game winning streak, the Tigers look to stay hot as they go on the road to face a reeling Ole Miss squad that has lost back-to-back games to drop below .500 for the season.

Auburn can keep SEC West title hopes alive with a win Saturday. The Rebels, once thought to be a challenger in the division, are looking to avoid a third straight loss that would force them to win three of their final four games just to get bowl eligible.

Auburn storyline: The Tigers' offense was anemic early in the season. Against Clemson, Texas A&M and LSU the Auburn offense was awful at turning scoring opportunities into touchdowns and it looked like the Tigers were destined for another season of offensive frustration. In the past three games the offense has made a dramatic turnaround, averaging 50.7 points with the most recent performance against Arkansas as the most impressive offensive showing from the Tigers in years.

The defense has looked rock-solid all season and now it appears as though the offense has gotten its groove back in the running game. Ole Miss has struggled with tackling all season and just got torched by Leonard Fournette. Auburn should rack up plenty of rushing yards in this one and just needs to keep turning good drives into touchdowns, not field goals.

Ole Miss storyline: The Rebels have to find a way to stop the bleeding. The defense has been bad against the run and that does not bode well against the Tigers. Tackling at the second level must improve and the push from the front four has to be better in order to slow the Auburn rushing attack. However, the issues aren't only on that side of the ball.

Offensively, the Rebels have to run the football to succeed. Chad Kelly's arm can only take them so far, and at some point, if you ask him to throw the ball too often, he's going to make a critical error. In the Rebels' four losses this season they have rushed for an average of 106.3 yards on only 3.4 yards per carry. In their three wins, they have rushed for 205.3 yards on 5.7 yards per carry. Auburn is a tough team to run on, but some success on the ground has to happen for the Rebels to give the offense balance.

Game pick: Auburn -4.5. This line smells and seems like a principle line from the oddsmakers not to make the Rebels a home dog by a touchdown or more, even if the way the two teams are playing currently would seem to warrant a bigger line. I'm not expecting a massive turnaround from the Rebels this week and think the Tigers' offense keeps running the ball with success en route to a comfortable cover and win.