Auburn players say losing streak will end

AUBURN — Maybe if the numbers were flipped. That might be reason for concern.

The Tigers are 5-2, still in the mix for the SEC West crown — with a whole lot of wins and a few prayers — and by no means discouraged with their season to date heading into tonight’s primetime showdown with No. 9 LSU in Baton Rouge.

They’re not 2-5 — something that Gene Chizik felt needed reminding in the midst of this two-game losing streak that has raised questions about the health of Auburn’s starting quarterback, the increased predictability of Gus Malzahn’s offense and the ever-increasing depth concerns on defense and special teams.

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“Our guys know we have a good football team. They also know that when we put ourselves in a position to win and when we don’t allow ourselves to win with penalties and things of that nature, then the results will be what the results are,” Chizik said. “Our coaches are very positive; our kids are positive. Our kids know that we’ve had a lot of success. They know the things that allow us to win, and they know the things that don’t allow us to win.

“We all know that we have a chance to win every game.”

What got the Tigers to a 5-0 start and brought the eyes of the college football world back to Auburn has seemingly vanished over the past two weeks.

The offense that thrived on downfield passing to set up the run has become a one-dimensional, run-heavy attack that sputters when Chris Todd is forced to throw.

The defense that was thriving on turnovers to overcome a significant lack of depth is no longer forcing those takeaways and looks even more suspect against the run.

And a special teams unit that was considered the team’s most glaring weakness, a laughably bad area at times, hasn’t done much to remove that distinction and will be littered with even more walk-ons tonight.

So, considering last year’s team lost six of its final seven games amid a similar firestorm of woes, is it time to prepare for another second-half swoon?

The short answer from Auburn’s players, still riding high from the first-half confidence boost: No.

“There’s a lot of people upset,” tailback Ben Tate said. “Losing two games back-to-back, that’s never good, but we just see it as an opportunity. There’s probably not going to be a lot of people that expect us to go down there and do too much. But we can upset them and shock everyone and be talked about again.”

Today’s game marks just the second time all season that the Tigers come in as underdogs. That might be good for a team that seemed to thrive early in the season when national attention was at a minimum and, historically, has pounced on vulnerable top 10 teams.

Auburn has won nine of its last 14 games against AP top 10 teams and is 15-9 since 2001. Those numbers resonated little to Chizik and Auburn’s players.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re the overdog or the underdog,” Chizik said. “We don’t pay any attention to it. We know we have to go in and play tough SEC opponents every week, and if we execute then we can win, and if we don’t then we won’t win.”

Confidence, players said, hasn’t been the Tigers’ problem over the past two games. Whether it’s been missed assignments, penalties, missed tackles, bad throws, poor blocks or turnovers, Auburn’s problems all come back to one thing that is completely under its control — execution.

“It should motivate all of us to do better,” Malzahn said. “That’s what competitors do. We’re looking forward to this next game. We’re looking forward to redeeming ourselves, and we’ve got to find a way to do that.”