I am not high on this Tennessee team right now. That is the honest place to start.
The offense has one real game against a defense that can rush, and it was a mess. Wendell Moe Jr. is done for the year. The next guys in have not shown they can hold a pocket for a full afternoon. I do not trust that line to suddenly look like a different unit because the opponent is Auburn instead of Texas.
That does not mean I think Auburn is good.
They are 3-1 because they stole one from Baylor, beat a bad Southern Miss team, and hung on against Vanderbilt. Florida put 44 on them. Byrum Brown is the whole offense. If he is loose, they can stay close. If he has to sit in the pocket, they look like a bottom tier SEC team that has already shown how it comes up short.
I trust the Tennessee defense to shut the door.
Jim Knowles’ group played a No. 1 team for four quarters and never let the thing get away. Auburn is not that. They do not have the tackles to live on the ground without Brown pulling it. They do not have a receiver room that scares you if the quarterback is throwing on time into a covered window. There will be a bust. There will be a quarter where Brown keeps a couple and the building gets nervous. I do not think Auburn has four quarters of that.
The backs are the part of the offense I still buy.
DeSean Bishop and Daune Morris are going to get loose a few times even if the line is losing the down. Not every carry. Enough of them. A crease here, a cutback there, and Tennessee does not need a clean pocket all day to put points on the board. Faizon Brandon does not have to play hero ball if the defense is holding Auburn in the teens and the run game finds a few.
It will not look like control the whole way. Auburn will be in striking distance in the third quarter. A sack, a drop, a drive that dies on third and long. That is coming. The difference is who spends the day answering those moments and who spends the day creating them.
Tennessee gets control of this one. Not pretty. Not a huge statement. Enough to live another day in the SEC race.
Tennessee 27, Auburn 16.