Auburn fans.. it's time for an honest discussion

We'll begin this week by discussing the offenses of each team.

Auburn
15th ranked scoring offense at 39 ppg

Alabama
17th ranked scoring offense at 38.8 ppg

At first glance, these two offenses look pretty similar in points production. But looking deeper, you can see it's a little deceiving.

Auburn vs unranked opponents 41.3 ppg
Auburn vs ranked opponents 32 ppg

Both, still impressive compared to previous seasons, but a fairly large margin between good competition and below par competition.

Alabama vs unranked opponents 39.4 ppg
Alabama vs ranked opponents 37.3 ppg

Pretty similar results, less than a fg difference between high end and lower competition. Efficiency and the ability to produce consistently seems to be a strength of this offense.

Auburn vs BCS AQ schools 35.5 ppg
Alabama vs BCS AQ schools 39 ppg

Both schools have been efficient, slight edge to Bama here.

Auburn Rushing 3523 yds 6.41 ypr 320.27 ypg
Alabama Rushing 2075 yds 5.78 ypr 207.50 ypg

It appears Auburn has a much more dominant rushing game. At first glance, that is. Let's look a little deeper though.

Auburn rushing vs BCS AQ schools
398 rushes 2289 yds 5.75 ypr

Alabama rushing vs BCS AQ schools
308 rushes 1828 yds 5.94 ypr

While Auburn has more total yds, it has been less effective against good competition, gaining less yards per play than Alabama has achieved against good competition.

While Auburn is a predominately rush heavy team, one would think their TOP would be at the top of the conference, however, another misleading assumption.

Auburn TOP 29:49 per game average
Alabama TOP 33:02 per game average

As you can see, Auburn is much improved over previous years, and expectedly so, with the level of talent accrued by Trooper's questionable tactics in the past. However, as talented as Gus is and has been, it appears that it's still 2nd best in the state at this time. Defensive comparisons will be made, later in the week.

Remember..