Rebels look to cure road worries in Auburn

It’s crazy how much of a difference a few days can make. Just a week removed from a crushing loss to Memphis, the Rebels bounced back and dominated Texas A&M 23-3, shutting down the Aggies offense to a mere 192 yards.
“I’m proud of our team’s response last week – the staff and the kids,” Hugh Freeze head coach, said. “Everyone that’s in this building I thought had really good focus, and we had good practices. It’s always great when the scoreboard validates your efforts. That’s not always the case in life or in football, but this time it validated our efforts and performance. The goal and the challenge is to carry that over to this week, to carry the positive things that we do really well and continue to build upon them and correct the negatives.”
Freeze said he was especially impressed with the defense, as Texas A&M’s offense had been electric in the games prior to their meeting with the Rebels. Freeze also noted that improvements had to be made for the next game.
“I thought it was our most complete defensive performance of the year,” Freeze said.
Freeze said the Rebels had to improve on their offensive performance against Texas A&M next week to be successful on the Plains of Auburn.
“Offensively, we were balanced. We had too many penalties and didn’t take care of the football, which has to improve particularly going on the road against a very hungry Auburn team. This will be our ninth straight game; that presents its own challenges with just trying to manage, in my mind, what is best on how to adequately prepare our team, having played that many games in a row,” Freeze said. “We’ll sit down and formulate the final plan this afternoon. I’ve got a lot of thoughts but remain physical because I think our team responded to that last week.”
To put it bluntly, Auburn has had a very disappointing season.  Picked by many to be the SEC champions, the Tigers have struggled this season and sit at 4-3 on the season with only one conference win. While Auburn is down right now, there’s still plenty of talent on the squad that, when coupled with Ole Miss’ recent road struggles, makes for an uncertain outcome this weekend.
“This Auburn team is a scary team. Coach Malzahn does a phenomenal job with a great staff. His kids are right there at the edge and are really close to having the success that they desire,” Freeze said. “They have playmakers, and their quarterback is playing really well right now. It will be a great challenge. Again, on the road we have not been ourselves, so that’s another challenge that we’re anticipating answering.”
Freeze said he felt even if Auburn had been struggling recently, including a four-overtime loss to Arkansas last week, they would be ready for their matchup this Saturday.
“Knowing Gus (Malzahn) like I know him, he is going to have his kids ready to play. They’ll have a great plan and be hungry for success at home,” Freeze said. “There’s nothing like returning at home in front of your people to help you get that boost of energy that you need. I expect we’ll see the best Auburn team of the entire year.”