Link sAUsage: Puppies

Okay, we beat Texas A&M. We were supposed to win, and we did. It’s a nice step forward for a road game against a team that’s given us some trouble in the past. It was a flat-out blowout until they scored a garbage touchdown late and we only won by fifteen.

The team faced some adversity. Not everything went right. A lot went wrong, and we still ended up with a two-touchdown win against a team that had Bama sweating.

Now that the Aggies are out of the way, it’s just Georgia and Alabama. And then maybe Georgia again if we get that far. And if we get through that, maybe Alabama again. Oh, and possibly Clemson. Shit. That’s rough. Still, it’s all to say that our goals — every single one of them — are still on the table. SEC West, SEC Championship, Playoff berth, National Championsip... they’re all still possible!

And it starts this week against Georgia at home. In his time on the Plains, Gus Malzahn is 1-3 against the Bulldogs. By far our best team in that span needed a miracle win to get by one of Mark Richt’s more middling teams. Georgia hasn’t even been an insurmountable opponent in any of those years. We had the wind taken out of our sails in 2014 after losing to Texas A&M, then in 2015 and 2016 we were a hollow team walking with injuries galore.

It’s safe to say that Gus Malzahn needs this win over Georgia to turn the affection of many Auburn fans.

What’s facing us this Saturday? Georgia’s got two of the best running backs in the country, but we’ve got a good one ourselves.

With home field advantage and a pretty good team behind us, we’re still a slight underdog to Georgia as the gamblers have set the odds for the coming weekend. The money’s shifted to the Bulldogs, but that’s a promising line either way.

And the claim made in the following headline is probably not inaccurate. I’ve said multiple times that Gus needs to show us that he can beat our biggest rivals to get my full support. I don’t expect he’ll get fired if he fails to do that (especially with where they’re ranked), but it’ll put him at the brink heading into next season.

And we had better go into this game thinking about last year and how much it pissed us off. It’s time for them to lose an inexplicable game as the higher-ranked team.

In other news, Braden Smith got a nice honor from the league for his play in College Station...

And we at least know that you’ll all get to head home early from the Plains for a nice Thanksgiving leadup to the Iron Bowl. Our game time for Louisiana-Monroe next weekend has been announced.

More to come, War Eagle. Beat Georgia.