Auburn makes a major statement, exposing Georgia in the process

AUBURN, Ala. — The best team in the Southeastern Conference isn’t Georgia, that much we know. The Bulldogs began Saturday atop the College Football Playoff poll and will enter Sunday as one of college football’s great enigmas: Is Georgia for real or a pretender?

Let Auburn give an answer. There was no magic here at Jordan-Hare Stadium, no tipped-pass touchdown as time expired, and there was no fluke. One team, Auburn, just beat the hell out of another team, Georgia, without doing anything extraordinary.

“We’re Auburn. They’re Georgia,” said sophomore offensive lineman Marquel Harrell. “You come to Auburn for a reason, and that’s the reason why.”

So there’s the response to the question. Georgia is not for real, in the sense that this is a team that can win the national championship. And if the Bulldogs are for real — and Saturday says they are not — Auburn is the best football team this side of the NFL. The Tigers destroyed Georgia. They’d do the same tomorrow, next Saturday and on the first Saturday of December, should the two meet again to decide the SEC championship.

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“That was a statement we wanted to make,” said Auburn linebacker Darrell Williams. “Polls may not say that we’re No. 1, but we believe we’re No. 1 just by how we prepare and how we come out to play. So that’s just our mindset. If they don’t have us No. 1, then that’s just motivation to become No. 1.”

Four seasons ago, Auburn went from the backburner of the championship race to the front of the line by stealing a win against Georgia and then breaking Alabama’s heart — even the Tigers’ most fervent supporter would admit that there was some magic there, some higher power that helped blaze the program’s trail to the Rose Bowl.

If the Tigers make a similar run during the next three weeks it won’t be because of any magic, or luck, or one fortuitous bounce. It’ll be because this team is good enough to do so: Auburn showed itself as a major player on Saturday, in the sort of performance that should reverberate from here to Tuscaloosa to the headquarters of the College Football Playoff.

“We’ve been talking about championship urgency, and they’re doing it,” Malzahn said. “They carried it over to the field tonight against one of the better teams in America and we beat them soundly.”

We’ve known for weeks that Auburn had this potential, at least on paper. It was because of this schedule that the Tigers had a chance: Georgia this Saturday, Alabama in two weeks and then, with a win against the Crimson Tide, a rematch with the Bulldogs in early December. The Tigers were given the opportunity; not very many other teams on the outskirts of the top four were so fortunate.

But it’s one thing to be given the opportunity and another to take advantage. Auburn was still discounted as a legitimate threat, in large part because of five quarters of play: the entirety of September’s 14-6 loss to Clemson, as ugly and putrid an offensive showing you’ll ever see, and the fourth quarter in last month’s 27-23 loss at LSU, when the Tigers coughed up a two-possession lead.

“We knew we were getting better,” Malzahn said. “Obviously, this is a game that’s light years away from (Clemson) and the second half against LSU.”

As it turns out, that LSU game was the aberration. The team that showed up against Georgia looks like the real Auburn, and the way the Tigers owned the Bulldogs — in coaching, in offense, defense and special teams — supports the idea that this team is not only capable of beating Alabama in two weeks but any team in the entire Football Bowl Subdivision.

“A lot of people counted us out,” said junior linebacker Deshaun Davis. “They didn’t think we’d come in and do it. But we’re still together as a unit. Offense, defense, special teams, we’re a collective unit and we believe in each other. We didn’t let anyone come in and spoil our party.”

Meanwhile, Georgia’s reputation takes a significant hit. For two months — a stretch spanning more than 440 minutes of game time — the Bulldogs hadn’t trailed and hadn’t tasted an ounce of adversity, thanks to an easy stretch of games against the trash heap that is the SEC East Division. As it turns out, there’s something to be said for being tested: Georgia hadn’t needed to play four quarters since Notre Dame, and it showed against Auburn.

The Bulldogs melted. They embarrassed themselves. They committed idiotic penalties. They botched individual plays, entire series. Georgia was outplayed and substantially out-coached. Georgia looked ready for anything but a football game, and after Auburn responded to the opening touchdown drive the Bulldogs wilted. So forget about Georgia being the best team in the FBS — this isn’t even the best team in the SEC.

“When you face adversity, either you get better from it or you fold,” Malzahn said. “And our team got better from it.”

But it’s not over for Georgia. The Bulldogs have won the East Division. They’ll get one of Auburn or Alabama in Atlanta, and with a win can claim the conference title and lock themselves into a national semifinal, even as the top seed. The question is whether the team that lost by 23 points on Saturday — and looked nothing like a true contender in the process — can rally and recover.

Auburn can only hope to get another game at Georgia. It’ll take a win against Alabama, something this program hasn’t done since 2013, and to beat Alabama will take Auburn’s absolute best. But haven’t we seen that already? Maybe the conversation should shift: If this Auburn team shows up in two weeks, do the Crimson Tide have a shot?

That’s the takeaway from the program’s most impressive win in years – and a win the Tigers needed to have, that Malzahn desperately needed to have. Auburn isn’t only in this championship hunt by default, because of a schedule loaded with opportunity. Instead, the Tigers have earned a seat at the table: Auburn is good enough to win the national title.

“I’ve said it before: The top teams in the country this time of year, they find a way to get better,” Malzahn said. “We have a great opportunity right now. Our goal was to win the SEC championship and here we are, Nov. 11, and we’re in the middle of it.”

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