I'm confident the defense will do their job. If only the offense can crank out some long, slow scoring drives that eat up clock. Newton can't make a yard when he's on the sidelines. There are few things as frustrating to an opponent as not being able to get the ball back. Tebow could tell him about it.
I think we give up yards and the D will drop in the rankings. If we win the game, I could care less. What is important is not just how high your defense is ranked, but who you have played. Auburn has a potent offense, they will get some yards. I hope we can control their scoring and secure our ball, then I think we can pull the upset.
On the other hand we have not faced an opponent ranked higher on offense than #55 Mississippi State and #64 West Virginia. Auburn has a top-10 offense.
Auburn's stats are kind of skewed too though, because they haven't scored that much on anyone that has a decent defense. The only team we can compare that we both played is Mississippi State.
Yep, our top ranked D stats took a hit against Michigan. Sometimes you can hold a team to 150 yards less than their average and still give up a ton of yards. Some teams you just gotta outscore.
With the ineptitude of our offense, I would say we could very well have the best defense in the country. It's hard to guage that statistically.
