Tennessee rolls to Auburn with more questions than answers on both sides of the ball as they try to avoid their losing losing streak since the start of the 1988 season when they started 0-6.

For Jeremy Pruitt it starts with offense, can this team find a way to score? You don’t win games scoring less than 20 points. The Vol offense hasn’t scored more than 17 points since the win over Missouri.

How does Jim Chaney generate points? Can he scheme something up? Do they make personnel changes? Pruitt says he wants the ball pushed down the field, how do they do that?

Defensively, that unit has played well in spurts. The first and fourth quarters at Arkansas for example. Can they play four quarters? They haven’t thus far. Stopping Tank Bigsby has to be a priority and forcing Bo Nix into mistakes. Nix has not had a turnover in Auburn wins. He threw three interceptions in a loss at South Carolina.

Auburn is the favorite and should be. It feels that the Tigers are improving while Tennessee’s development seems stuck in the mud.

Auburn 28 Tennessee 17

It’s been a long two weeks since Tennessee dropped a tough game at Arkansas. The questions around this team loom large heading to the plains. Who will play quarterback? What will the offense look like after Jeremy Pruitt called for a different look? How will the defense stop passes across the middle?

Pruitt has discussed how much energy the team has had over the last week or so. But until I see it for myself, it’s hard to believe they will look that much different from the last time we saw them in Fayetteville. Tennessee has prepped Harrison Bailey the last two weeks to get a real opportunity. Will he start? I certainly think it’s a real possibility. I have no faith that the other younger talent actually gets on the field in meaningful snaps until it happens.

I think Tennessee’s defense does make some strides and plays better. This Auburn team is solid but not great in my opinion. Even with that said, I don’t think the Vols can score enough unless they look drastically different and that’s hard to imagine.

Auburn 27 Tennessee 19

If I’m a Tennessee fan I’m more worried about my own team than Auburn this week. The Tigers are a decent squad coming off of two straight wins but they’re not as talented as they have been in the recent past.

The Tennessee team that fans watched for the first 10 quarters of the season would be capable of going in on Saturday and winning. They probably wouldn’t be favored, but it wouldn’t be much of an upset if they pulled it off.

However, we haven’t seen that Tennessee team in well over a month, not since the first half at Georgia. This Tennessee team is a deserved 10 point underdog.

If the Vols don’t better quarterback play they’ll be fortunate to keep it that close. Auburn can score points, they’ve put up 30+ in three of their last four. Tennessee hasn’t done that since the second game of the season. They haven’t scored two offensive touchdowns in any game of the current four game losing streak.

Does that change on Saturday? Maybe, but I don’t think it changes enough.

It’s reasonable to think that Tennessee will have made some improvements with an extra and unexpected open week. But with the nosedive this team has taken over the last six weeks and after what we saw in the second half against a very beatable Arkansas team the last time out I don’t see it.

Auburn 31, Tennessee 17