Exit Survey: What we learned from the Win

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Auburn Undercover

 

Takeaways From CFB Week 9 (Late Kick Cut)

 

Auburn's defense saved the day down the stretch, with a number of key stops against Heisman hopeful Matt Corral, as Auburn notched an important divisional victory on Saturday night, 31-20 over Ole Miss. The Tigers moved up to No. 12 in the AP poll the following afternoon, setting up a top-15 showdown at No. 13 Texas A&M.

Three of our football reporters — Jason Caldwell, Mark Murphy and Nathan King — took another look at Auburn's win over the Rebels with some superlatives and final thoughts from the game in the Auburn Undercover Exit Survey.

Dive in for our plays of the game, helmet stickers, areas of concern and exiting analysis on the ranked road win in Jordan-Hare Stadium— and how much the result changed our opinion of this team heading into the final third of the season.

Jason: For me it was probably the two plays on the first drive of the game. Facing a third and eight at the Ole Miss 49, Bo Nix ran for seven yards after escaping pressure from the Ole Miss pass rush. With a yard to go at the 42, Bryan Harsin chose to go for it instead of punting the ball to the Rebels. Tank Bigsby gained five yards on the next play and it led to a touchdown. More than that it continued the aggressive style of play for the Tigers.

Mark: With 15 seconds and one timeout left before the end of the half, the Tigers put Jarquez Hunter in motion to the left side of the formation. Nix’s pass to the freshman running back was on target as the Tigers managed to score with 11 seconds on the clock on a perfectly executed play.

Nathan: Nix executed Auburn's 2-minute offense to perfection right before the break. And after a spike, Nix found Hunter out of the backfield for a short touchdown that put the Tigers up by double digits at halftime. Mike Bobo called a great game, particularly in the first half, and most of his best moments came in the red zone, where Auburn was 5-of-5 for the game, including four touchdowns.

Jason: Take your pick. There’s a bunch of them. I’ll go with the play by Colby Wooden and Marcus Harris on fourth and seven on the 13-yard line with Auburn leading Ole Miss 28-20. Wooden got early pressure and made Corral have to just throw the ball away. If he had time there was an opening for a completion and potentially a game changing play.

Mark: Like a bat out of hell on Halloween eve, Jaylin Simpson streaked across the back of the end zone to intercept a pass thrown by Corral, who had scrambled away from the pass rush. With Auburn holding a 31-20 lead and still nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, Simpson’s interception helped prevent a comeback.

Nathan: With just over a minute left in the third quarter, with Ole Miss having its best drive of the second half, the Rebels faced a fourth-and-7 from Auburn's 13-yard line. Harsin smartly called timeout before the play, as the Rebels were looking to snap quickly and get Auburn off balance. The decision might have been worth a touchdown, as Wooden burst through and pressured Corral, who wasn't able to set and find an open target. Ole Miss turned the ball over on downs, and Auburn held onto its one-score lead, 28-20 heading into the fourth quarter. Harsin and defensive coordinator Derek Mason outcoached Lane Kiffin all night, including turnovers on three of the Rebels' four fourth-down tries.

Jason: Tank Bigsby looked the part against Ole Miss, but I have to go with Nix. Completing 22-30 passes for 276 yards and a touchdown with two rushing touchdowns, Nix continues to play at a high level.

Mark: Bigsby was a major factor as the Tigers held the football for 33 minutes and 25 seconds. The sophomore averaged 6.1 yards per carry on 23 attempts as he helped the Tigers move the chains with his physical runs.

Nathan: Bigsby re-emerged for Auburn with his best outing of the season (140 yards). By the time the first quarter ended, the sophomore had more yards than any previous SEC game this season. His confidence and success is vital for Auburn's offense down the stretch of the season, and he looks to be back to the Bigsby that Auburn is used to seeing. He also allowed Bobo's play calling options to expand, averaging 6.1 yards per carry on the night.

Jason: I have to go with Zakoby McClain. Once again he was all over the field from his linebacker position and also added a pair of sacks. The senior has turned into maybe the most important player on defense for the Tigers this season.

Mark: McClain was in on 14 tackles with 10 solo stops. The senior linebacker made two of Auburn’s three quarterback sacks.

Nathan: McClain now has 44 tackles in SEC play, including 29 over his last two games. And he played every single defensive snap against the Rebels, despite Auburn's rejuvenated depth at linebacker with the return of Owen Pappoe.

Jason: It’s becoming a weekly thing for me to pick punter Oscar Chapman and once again that’s what I did. He averaged 56 yards on three punts against Ole Miss and no returns. That’s huge in terms of field position. Chapman is turning into a weapon for the Tigers.

Mark: Chapman has continued to excel with his punting. He averaged 56 yards on three of them vs. the Rebels, who did not have any punt return yardage vs. the Tigers.

Nathan: Chapman's standout season continues, with a 56-yard average on three punts against Ole Miss. Auburn is now up to No. 6 in the country and first in the SEC in net punting this season (43.86 net yards per kick).

Jason: That’s the running game for me. For the first time since early in the season the Auburn rushing attack looked to be in a rhythm. Like everything else offensively, that’s a big key to making things work when running the football. It couldn’t have come at a better time with Texas A&M up next.

Mark: The Tigers ran the ball for 207 yards and 14 of those runs resulted in first downs.

Nathan: Welcome back, Auburn's running game. The Tigers won their first two SEC games almost in spite of inconsistencies by their tailbacks, but Bigsby was highly successful against Ole Miss. There's still some to be desired by players not named Bigsby, though, with Shaun Shivers only carrying the ball once, and Hunter averaging only 3.2 yards per rush.

Jason: I would have to go with the field goal and extra point unit. Anders Carlson missed a 43-yard field goal and the Tigers also had two penalties for a delay of game, one on an extra point and one on a field goal. Those are things that can’t happen.

Mark: There were too many mistakes on special teams with a fumbled punt by Demetris Robertson and penalties on kickoff returns.

Nathan: McClain, Wooden, Simpson and crew made up for it with another stellar second half on defense, but Auburn's offense probably can't beat Texas A&M on the road this coming weekend with only 3 points in the second half. And it's not as if the Tigers didn't move the ball — they had four drives enter Ole Miss territory in the third and fourth quarters — but a missed field goal and a fumble kept them from icing the game with another touchdown.

Jason: For me it’s still the easy throws for the opponents in the quick game. The defense is doing its job by not allowing the big play and in the end that’s the name of the game, but watching Ole Miss tight end Casey Kelly catch seven passes for 81 yards with no defender close to him on any of the receptions is still a surprise to me. With Mississippi State and Alabama still ahead, allowing easy throws to those two teams could mean an extra 10-15 defensive snaps in those games.

Mark: Holding the Rebels to 6-15 third down conversions and 1-4 fourth down conversions was impressive.

Nathan: Auburn's defense found answer after answer against a potent Rebels attack in the second half. Whether it was a defensive lineman applying pressure on a key play, a linebacker making a stop in the open field or a defensive back keeping them off the board with an interception in the red zone, the Tigers on defense played at an impressively high level down the stretch once again against an SEC opponent. If Derek Mason keeps this up and can extend his post-adjustments success into the earlier stages of the game, Auburn has a chance to close out the season with a truly menacing defense on all three levels.

Jason: I thought this Auburn team had a chance to be 8-4 or 9-3 before the season started. That’s still the case, but this is a team that can beat anyone left on the schedule. If they can continue to improve and stay healthy they’ll be tough to beat.

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Mark: It didn’t change my perspective on this team. Auburn has better talent than Ole Miss and was playing at home so the victory was expected, even though the Rebels were the higher ranked team.

Nathan: By just a small amount, and it's because of the impressiveness of the defense. I said all week that Auburn would need its best offensive performance of the season to win. But because of the defense's big stops down the stretch, the Tigers didn't need to. Both sides of the ball are complementing each other well as Auburn enters November, and the team is getting fully healthy at the right time.