These early games of the college football season are so important because they set the stage. Teams can be build up or torn down by how well or how poorly they perform in the first few games. It is always better to start ahead and to keep building on momentum rather than losing ground and struggling to make up for it.
The Tigers are looking pretty good. They beat Mercer 24-10, and one assumes that they were elated to have made up for their previous loss. The Auburn odds to win against Missouri are curious because both teams have something to prove.
Jarrett Stidham did wonders for Auburn in the game against Mercer. He did not singlehandedly beat Mercer but his performance was a crucial factor in Auburn’s victory.
It is easy to lose oneself in the QB’s 364 yards on 32 of 37 passes but one cannot forget Kamryn Pettway and the 128 yards he recorded, not to mention his role in Auburn’s 3TDs.
Going into the Missouri game, Auburn is eager to get to 2-1 and they have plenty of reasons to believe that they will do just that. Will Hastings and Ryan Davis really brought their best in the Mercer game, Will recording 71 yards on 3 receptions and Ryan going home with 68 yards with 9 balls. Ryan fumbled twice but he can be forgiven.
Along with Kyle Davis, Auburn is chockfull of talent. They didn’t score quite as many points as they would have hoped. But their handling of the ball was superb and it is clear that they will do so much more down the line once they iron out a few kinks.
The Missouri Tigers do not have the luxury of a win to take them into their next game. Purdue beat them 35-3. That is the sort of beatdown that stays with you. And that was the second terrible loss they have suffered.
People couldn’t get enough of Drew Lock’s 7 TD performance in the beginning of the season but that athlete was nowhere to be found in week 3. Ish Witter was even more disappointing. JMon Moore was better but not by much. The same can be said about Dimetrios Mason, Jonathan Johnson and a few other names that clearly let Missouri fans down.
One can argue that things against Purdue could have been devastatingly worse. Fortunately, the defense worked really hard to prevent the game from leaning too hard against Missouri.
Maybe Purdue’s offense was simply beyond anything Missouri could handle. Or maybe Missouri is just not that impressive, to begin with. Either way, Missouri needs to recover from that loss and they need to do so by beating Auburn.
In that regard, Missouri could pose an actual threat to Auburn. Sure, they were destroyed by Purdue. But Auburn wasn’t as good as they could have been against Mercer. They should have destroyed that team.
But they fell short. Who knows how well they will perform against Missouri? Of course, anyone that knows anything about football will tell you that Missouri has been fading for quite some time.
If Auburn’s offense is as good as it was against Mercer, they will destroy Missouri.
