Offensive keys for the Auburn Tigers ahead of Saturday's game at Georgia

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The Auburn Tigers are looking to pull off the biggest upset of the college football season on Saturday.

After the bye week, they return to take on No. 1 Georgia on the road. The Bulldogs are coming off a huge win, defeating Alabama 20-17 last week. Auburn lost their last game 24-14 to Tennessee and enter the game with a 3-2 record in the first year under Alex Golesh. The Tigers have not beaten the Bulldogs since 2017, when they won 40-17 in the regular season.

Here are three keys for Auburn's offense to pull off the upset on Saturday.

Auburn must stay ahead of the chains

For Auburn to defeat the Georgia Bulldogs, they will have to stay away from being behind the chains. That means they will need to win on first down. This Auburn team cannot afford to be in third-down situations where they need a lot of yards to gain a first down. This season, the Tigers are 47.3% on third down. They struggled against Tennessee, going just 5 of 14. They are five of nine on fourth-down conversion attempts.

Establish a run game

This ties into Auburn not being in third-and-long situations. It has been a theme through the first five games, but Auburn has struggled to get the running backs more involved in the running game. They will need to get that going early, but that is not an easy task against this Georgia defense. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 2 in the SEC, allowing just 74.7 yards per game on the ground. Auburn is No. 9 in rushing offense at 180 yards per game, with a big chunk of that coming from quarterback Byrum Brown. Auburn did find some success against Tennessee with Omar Mabson running the football. He had nine carries for 62 yards in the loss, and more of Mabson would be a good idea.

Protect the football

Auburn cannot make things easy for the Georgia Bulldogs. That means they cannot give up any extra possessions. Through five games this season, the Tigers are minus one in the turnover category. They have nine turnovers and have only forced eight. Seven of those turnovers have come from Brown throwing interceptions. The formula for any upset in football is winning the turnover battle. If Auburn is on the wrong side of that statistic, they are looking at a long day in Athens, Georgia.

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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Offensive keys for the Auburn Tigers ahead of Saturday's game at Georgia

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