It's a bad fit. Let's start there.

Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham is a pocket passer, and Auburn's offense is better suited for a mobile quarterback. It's painful to watch. Auburn is ranked 12th in the SEC in total offense, and 13th in third-down conversion percentage.

Only Arkansas has been worse six games into the season, but at least Arkansas is improving. The Hogs racked up over 400 yards of offense against Alabama on Saturday. Auburn is going in the opposite direction. The Tigers had 79 yards of total offense in the first half against Mississippi State, and were 0 of 6 on third downs.

Sure, it got better, but only because it couldn't get worse.

At this point, with the SEC championship out of the picture, should Auburn bench Stidham in favor of backup Malik Willis?

Stidham is a talented quarterback. He proved that in big games last year, and against Washington in the season opener, but something is terribly wrong at this point. Some of his misses against Mississippi State were no one's fault but his own, and he's playing like he's hurt, or trying to avoid injury.

If there's a better option to win games, and build for the future shouldn't Auburn at least consider it?

Willis' skill set fits Malzahn's run-heavy offense. Stidham is a better passing quarterback, but Willis can scramble for a first down, and extend drives. There's no magic fix, but keeping Auburn's defense off the field is just as important to Auburn's success at this point than getting more out of the passing game.

Mississippi State dominated time of possession in the first half, 20:20 to 9:40. Auburn's defense didn't have anything left for the third and fourth quarters, and gave up 200 yards rushing in second half.

Can Malzahn do more to help Stidham succeed? Finding a running game is the obvious answer, but Auburn is averaging 92.3 yards rushing per game over the last three weeks. The Tigers couldn't even break the 100-yard mark against Southern Miss.

Messages like this from the Twitter account of the brother of Stidham's guardian makes you wonder how bad things have gotten in the locker room.

The comment was posted on Saturday, and liked and retweeted by Stidham's fiancee, Kennedy Brown. (Copeland later deleted his Twitter comment after this column was published.)

Stidham's camp isn't doing him any favors by expressing their frustration with Auburn's offense on social media. It's not my job to defend Malzahn, and of course I've been critical of him in recent weeks, but he's not a "dumb coach."

Stidham fumbled the ball 10 times last season, so he's not even a threat to run at this point. It puts Malzahn's offense on the wrong side of the math strategically, but Malzahn didn't completely revamp his offense this offseason because he didn't have the personnel to do it.

Is Auburn more likely to lose to Tennessee with Stidham or Willis at quarterback? That's the biggest question facing Auburn this week. Stidham is still Auburn's best option at quarterback, but if Auburn struggles in the first half against Tennessee things are going to get ugly inside Jordan-Hare.

A loss against Tennessee would be catastrophic from a perception standpoint. Auburn is a 16.5-point favorite, but an upset isn't out of the question if Malzahn can't get more out of his offense.

Malzahn isn't this bad of a coach, or at least he hasn't been to this point in his career. He has a new contract with a very large buyout, so outside of a complete football apoclolypse, he's not going anywhere. The way he's bungled this season so far with a talent of Stidham's caliber can still have long-term consequences, though.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He's on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr