Leaving Rocky Top 5-0 | Fans of the SEC's Blog

In a game that had all the makings for a loss for the young Auburn Tigers they still walked into and out of Knoxville with a W. It would have been easy for the Tigers to blow it at Neyland Stadium. 108,000 fans, first game on the road, and the offense still had not played 4 good quarters of ball. Yet the great Monte Kiffin had no answer for Gus Malzahn's offense. In the elder Kiffin's defense though when your offense produces as many 3 and outs as Tennesse's offense did fatigue was setting in early in the game.

Malzahn provided some new wrinkles to his offense just for Tennesse including lining up Kodi Burn at running back for a couple of plays just to keep the defense guessing. Ben Tate had a monster game on offense against a very capable defense. For the record Auburn put up more points and more yardage against Tennessee than what the number 1 team in the country Florida did just two short weeks ago.

The balance on offense is amazing to see for the Tigers this year. Tennesse has to do something on offense though. I am not so sure that Crompton is there whole problem. Yes he is pretty bad, but when you have recievers not running correct routes, running lazy routes, and just not catching the ball your offense is going to be in trouble. Hardesty was his normal self for most of the game running hard and picking up good yardage. I don't think he is totally healthy though as he never ran hard two carries in a row. Two plays in the game stand out for me in this game. The first was on a Ben Tate sweep to the right Tennessee's all-everything safety Eric Berry comes up to try and tackle Tate only to eat a nice stiff arm while Berry dived at his legs resulting in positive yards for Auburn. Then later on in the game Berry again trying to tackle Tate with a dive at his shoulders and only knocking Tate off balance a little bit and Tate continueing for positive yardage.

Right now Auburn is spreading the ball out so much on offense there is no one for defenses to key on. This was easily the toughest test to date for Auburn and the game wasn't as close as the score indicated with Tennesse only having two really good drives the entire game at the end of each half. So far so good.

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October 5, 2009 10:08 AM ET

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I can feel the excitement growing on the plains.

josephplumber

Tampa , FL

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October 5, 2009 08:06 PM ET

Auburn will lose to Alabama to end the year and one other game somewhere in between. The easy pick is LSU but I think that LSU won't be able to score enough to win. It will probably be UGA.

osumountie

Bedrock, WV

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October 5, 2009 10:37 PM ET

I won't say Auburn will or wont win another game this season, but what I know is with each win that team is gaining confidence in itsself and that it can play with any team in the country. This was a big test for the offense going against Monte Kiffin and they passed it.

I think as long as the team can stay healthy, especially Chris Todd, they can beat any team they play the rest of the season. Being able to do it and actually doing it though are two different things.

This team was quality QB play from being 9-3 last year instead of 5-7. The only game they were not in last year was the Alabama game. They only lost to LSU by 5, UGA by 4, Arkansas by 3. With a healthy QB they win those 3 games. They were beating WVU at the half only to lose by 17. So they weren't as far away as people liked to say last year. It's been an exciting year and Chiz despite early critisism is proving his doubters wrong.