AUBURN | Smoke Monday is ready to show the country Auburn has one of the best secondary in college football.

He and his teammates have work to do.

Entering Saturday’s game against Mississippi State, the 16th-ranked Tigers are 58th in the nation allowing 224.8 passing yards per game and 91st with just five interceptions in nine games.

“For them to pass the ball 50 times, this is a chance to show people what we've got with our ball skills,” said Monday. “We're prepared. We know that they're gonna throw the ball a lot. They did that a lot last year. We're just gonna prepare ourselves for that type of game. We're just gonna go out and show them that we're one of the best secondaries in the country.”

Auburn’s secondary has played a big part in helping the defense rank 16th nationally and third in the SEC allowing a 45.5 touchdown percentage in the red zone. That bend-but-don’t-break philosophy has AU ranked 24th nationally allowing 19.8 points per game.

The Bulldogs will bring their unique Air Raid offense to Jordan-Hare Stadium averaging 376.2 passing yards per game, which ranks fourth nationally.

Quarterback Will Rogers is third nationally averaging 367.7 passing yards per game. He’s completed 75.2 percent of his passes with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He’s been sacked 25 times, which ranks 98th nationally.

"We've just got to continue to do our job,” said Monday. “Coach (Derek) Mason tells us all the time: You don't have to do nothing special to go out and make plays because the scheme is set up for the plays to come right to you. If you're doing your right responsibility, the ball is just going to hit you in the face.

“That's what we preach all the time. We've just got to continue to keep doing that, and eventually the ball will find us. I feel like this is one of those games that's going to come down to executing the scheme and the calls and being in the right position where we should be, and the ball will hit us in the face.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.