AUBURN, AL. (EETV) – I know what you’re thinking: The same Auburn football team that lost to Cal, Arkansas and Oklahoma can’t possibly have a chance against a team like Georgia! To that I say, dear reader, allow me to present a perfectly possible hypothesis – I just ask that you listen to me fully.

I can’t imagine it’s a hot idea to call this year’s Auburn team much more star-studded than last year’s. Massive offensive additions in the offseason included WRs Cam Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, Perry Thompson and breakout senior KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who along with the consistent production of RB Jarquez Hunter have made Auburn’s offense a truly formidable opponent.

Additionally, the Tigers added players such as true freshman LB Demarcus Riddick, who led the team in tackles in the first game and logged a significant number of snaps; He bolstered an already dominant defense led by captain and star LB Eugene Asante, who made his mission clear: “I have to inspire our guys in big moments… to play better on Saturday (against Georgia).”

Many Auburn fans will remember last year’s matchup against Georgia, in which a rebuilding, pre-recruited Auburn team beat the Georgia juggernaut to the finish, forcing the Dawgs to rely on Brock Bowers, the current NFL player to leave to win even though Auburn only had 88 passing yards of its own.

A common thread in Auburn losses, aside from turnovers, is simply having no answer for a player against the opposing offense. Last year against Georgia it was Brock Bowers; vs. Alabama, although most only remember Isaiah Bond’s reception that ended the game, it was really the rushing attack of Milroe (a matchup I’m looking forward to this year, by the way, with Auburn’s new Riddick QB spy system ), which broke them apart in this game.

Therefore, a critical defensive key for Auburn to win this game will be to quickly identify the aspect or “problem player” of Georgia’s game that will cause significant problems and quickly block it before it gets out of control. My guess is that, similar to last year, there will be one receiver that Beck will primarily target – likely senior WRs Dominic Lovett or Arian Smith.

Georgia looked incredibly human against Alabama last week, and even more so the week before that against Kentucky. In fact, Auburn fans will sympathize with the problem that caused Georgia to lose the game against the Tide – turnovers.

Georgia turned the ball over five times against Alabama, and if the Auburn season has taught us anything, it’s an incredibly difficult, quick change to fix. Referring to an earlier point, if Auburn can hold on to the “problem player,” we will likely see more panicked passes from Beck that result in more turnovers.

That’s not me complete delusional, however; I’m aware of the glaring issues Auburn faced throughout the year, but I’m also seeing significant improvement in those issues, which gives me the impression that this team is preparing to shock the world.

Turnovers were undoubtedly Auburn’s biggest offensive problem, yet they were able to limit our game against Arkansas to just one, which came on one play. Freeze admits that he “should have just run the ball and punted” to control the clock. Sure, that shouldn’t have happened, but the rebuilding years are about learning and adapting your team – players and coaches alike – and Coach Freeze did a fantastic job in my opinion.

Offensively, Auburn had nothing close to this passing attack last year against Georgia, yet they still had an incredibly close matchup despite only allowing 88 passing yards the entire game. That’s not to say they didn’t try to throw it – in fact, Payton Thorne led the team in rushing yards, gaining 95 yards on the ground at a staggering 7.7 yards per rush.

So we know that when Payton isn’t being seen well by any of his receivers, he’s more than comfortable following the “Oh Crap” rule that Coach Freeze mentioned in his press conference, putting his leg in the ground and taking off. It worked out last year with a better Georgia team, so I have no reason to think it won’t work out now.

I get it, it sounds far-fetched to think that Auburn has an incredibly real chance of winning this game in Athens; However, when you consider the numbers, the history and, most of all, the complete and utter unpredictability of the Deep South’s oldest rivalry, I think it may be easier to leave Athens with a win than most believe.