Gus Malzahn and Auburn weren’t going to win any style points in Davis Wade Stadium.
A listless offense slogged through three-plus quarters of action. Penalty flags littered the field in Starkville, Miss., for much of the night. And a fourth-quarter special teams lapse led to a momentary crack on a defense that had played lights out all night.
Ultimately, the lack of style points didn’t matter — at least not Saturday night. Auburn got the job done in its regular-season finale, defeating Mississippi State, 24-10, Saturday night in an ugly slog of a game. The Tigers finish the season at 6-4, and while they left town with the result they wanted, the manner in which they picked up that win isn’t going to do much in the way of silencing the noise that has surrounded Malzahn and his job status after eight up-and-down seasons.
Here are AL.com’s key takeaways from the game:
Defense takes care of business
Auburn’s defense played about as well as one could hope against the Air Raid, and it gave the Tigers the upper-hand Saturday night in Starkville.
Kevin Steele, whose teams had struggled in three prior matchups with Mike Leach offenses, gameplanned the Bulldogs to perfection. Auburn was able to generate a strong pass-rush and affect quarterback Will Rogers without having to bring extra blitzers, finishing the game with a season-high six sacks.
The Tigers held Rogers to 30-of-51 passing for 221 yards, including a pair of interceptions—one each by Roger McCreary and Smoke Monday—which marked Rogers’ first since Halloween against Alabama. That included just 12-of-22 passing for 68 yards in the first half, when Auburn limited Mississippi State to 78 yards of total offense and a lone field goal.
Auburn also tightened up its biggest problem area of the season—third downs, when Auburn has been the worst in the SEC and among the worst defenses nationally this year. After allowing three straight teams to convert at least 60 percent of third-down attempts, Auburn limited Mississippi State to just 4-of-16 on the money-down, including just 1-of-7 in the first half.
Auburn’s offense reverses course
Auburn’s offense couldn’t do much against Mississippi State for the better part of three quarters, totaling just 178 yards and averaging 3.6 yards per play heading into the fourth quarter. The Tigers three times settled for field goals after getting into Bulldogs territory, including two red-zone drives that stalled out.
Auburn didn’t have a drive longer than 40 yards through the first three quarters, and the team had a trio of three-and-outs through its first nine drives. The Tigers had another drive that went four-and-out, as well as a turnover on downs on a four-play possession in which Seth Williams dropped a pass from Bo Nix after the team lined up in its pooch-punt formation. Nix completed just 12-of-28 passes for 61 yards through three quarters.
Simply put, it was ugly.
But unlike last week, when Auburn’s offense enjoyed three quarters of success before going stagnant in the fourth quarter against No. 5 Texas A&M, the Tigers reversed course against the Bulldogs. Auburn scored 16 points and had 165 total yards in the fourth quarter alone, with Nix hooking up with Williams for a 32-yard touchdown, and the quarterback scoring another touchdown on the ground to make it a 14-point lead with 6:03 to play. The Tigers’ two late scoring drives totaled 95 and 75 yards, respectively.
Tank Bigsby carries the load
Tank Bigsby hasn’t been full strength since injuring his hip during Auburn’s win against Tennessee last month. On Saturday, the freshman running back looked like himself again—and it couldn’t have come at a better time for a struggling Auburn offense.
Bigsby rushed for a career-high 192 yards against a stout Mississippi State run defense. The Bulldogs entered the day with the SEC’s No. 4 rushing defense in terms of yards per game but the league’s No. 2 in terms of yards per carry (3.28). Bigsby chipped away at that defense Saturday, though, rushing for 80 yards on 10 carries in the first half before breaking down the wall in the second half.
Bigsby had 112 rushing yards after halftime — including runs of 27, 15, 15 and 24 yards in the fourth quarter alone — to buoy Auburn’s offense. He finished the game averaging 7.4 yards per carry.
Player of the Game: Bigsby, who became the third Auburn true freshman running back to put together four 100-yard games in a season, joining Bo Jackson and Michael Dyer in that exclusive club.
Play of the Game: Nix’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Williams early in the fourth quarter felt like a breakthrough for Auburn’s offense in what was an ugly game to that point, and it gave the Tigers some needed breathing room down the stretch.
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
