Hold It! Hold It!

Hold up in that car nice gentlemen. I’m not exactly putting too much stock in the loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Embarrassing? Yes. Disgraceful? Sure. Funny as all wholly hell? No doubt. However, let’s not forget that this Alabama team is talented and this Auburn team is prone to bad plays, terrible decisions, and scratch your head play-calling. All of these will cause Auburn to get beat on Saturday.

What does the ULM loss mean? Nothing. Zero. Nada. I told Junior last week that I thought Auburn would be about a 5.5 point favorite against Alabama. They are a six point favorite. Let’s face it. Alabama wasn’t as good as they looked against Tennessee and LSU. But they aren’t as bad as they looked against ULM and FSU. Conversely, Auburn isn’t nearly as good as they looked against Florida and LSU. Nor are they as bad as they looked against Mississippi State, Georgia, and South Florida.

I would say the benchmark games for both schools are Arkansas for Alabama and Kansas State for Auburn. Both victories at home. Both down to the wire. Both featuring good defense and adequate offense. Nothing spectacular positive and negative. My sense is that Auburn is the better team and the better team normally wins the Iron Bowl. However, if Auburn as a team seriously thinks that they can roll into Jordan-Hare and win on Saturday night, they are mistaken. I really don’t think that is the case, but I guess we will find out around 7pm (Eastern) on Saturday.