Inside the day's key match-ups.

The biggest star in the 68th edition of the Iron Bowl is obviously Alabama's thundering tailback, Mark Ingram, but with his nasty defensive counterparts, it's much easier to imagine the Tide winning without a particularly Heisman-worthy afternoon from Ingram or receiver Julio Jones than it is to picture Auburn pulling off one of the upsets of the year without its best effort on offense: The fact for the Tigers and the most generous defense in the SEC is that the offense has had to hit 26 points and 400 yards in every one of their seven wins, and has fallen short of those marks in every one of their four losses.

No team has achieved either this season against 'Bama: Only two opposing offenses, Kentucky (301) and Tennessee (341) have managed 300 yards on the Tide, and only Virginia Tech and LSU have reached the end zone twice with the game still in any kind of doubt. Four of 'Bama's last six opponents haven't reached the end zone at all, and Tennessee only got there after a late fumble by Ingram in the process of trying to put the game on ice. This defense is always gunning for the shutout.

If there's any play-caller who can crack that code, it's Gus Malzahn, who has yet to be shut out of the end zone in four years as a I-A offensive coordinator at Arkansas, Tulsa and now Auburn, and has only been held below 20 points five times in 54 games. For a self-ordained spread guru maintains a hyper pace at the core of his philosophy, Malzahn has been flexible enough to play to the Tigers' strengths in the running game: Auburn has kept the ball on the ground on more than 60 percent of its plays for the year, relying mostly on 1,200-yard workhorse Ben Tate and freshman Onterrio McCalebb but mixing in a liberal dose of Wildcat sets with receiver/quarterback Kodi Burns, options, misdirection and reverses to wide receivers, to great effect: The Tigers have improved from 69th nationally in rushing offense to 11th with the same personnel, and haven't been held below 100 yards on the ground. In two of the three games the rushing attack was relatively stifled, the offense still managed to put up 41 points against West Virginia and 24 at Georgia. Malzahn has found a way to hurt every defense on the schedule -- with the notable exception of LSU, the only D on Auburn's schedule that matches Alabama for raw athleticism.

Alabama hasn't given any indication this season it might have a bad defensive game anywhere in it; then again, neither had Texas before Thursday night's in College Station, where Texas A&M put all the existing numbers against the Longhorn defense to shame. But Chris Todd is no Jarrod Johnson -- the senior is wily enough to exploit defenses knocked on their heels by the Tiger running game and Malzahn's dizzying mix of tempo, versatility and unpredictability, but he's not going to carry the offense if it comes down to his arm against the nation's best-coached secondary and top-ranked pass efficiency defense. Auburn's going to have to control the clock and establish at least a token presence between the tackles to keep the entire playbook open into the fourth quarter, but when you're running into Terrence Cody and Rolando McClain, that's no kind of way to make a living.