A game that saw the Auburn Tigers stay competitive for some time in their third road game of the month got out of hand in the second half, sending Alex Golesh’s squad away from Oxford losers to end the month of October.
Auburn fell 45-15 on Saturday to the Ole Miss Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, forcing it to fall to 4-4 on the year and 2-4 in SEC competition.
With the score at 14-9 in favor of the Rebels at the halftime break, two key punts on must-score drives for the Tigers allowed Ole Miss to capitalize and pull away late, thanks to solid play from quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
There were a number of factors that contributed to Auburn falling behind and staying unable to truly progress on the scoreboard, most of which came as a result of miscues in some form or fashion.
The Tigers now head back home to begin the month of November. Before closing the book on this game though, here are five defining factors from Auburn’s loss to the Rebels.
Too many negative plays
One of the critical areas that Alex Golesh and his staff have tried to pride their game on is staying ahead of the sticks and staying on schedule. Needless to say, the Tigers did not do that in critical moments, and the inability to do so may have cost them. Ole Miss put up 10 tackles for loss on Saturday, not allowing many big plays from the Auburn offense.
That was seen on some occasions when there were screen plays called, and the Rebels suffocated it at the line of scrimmage and drove the Tigers receiver back a couple of yards. That forced Auburn into second-and-long or third-and-long scenarios, which have not been favorable for Joel Gordon’s offense all season long. That proceeded to result in punts, giving the ball back to a dangerous Ole Miss offense that got better as the game went on.
Third-down miscues
It was not the make-or-break on every single drive, but the beginning of this game saw this particular trait become magnified. On the second full drive for the Rebels offense, the Tigers had Ole Miss pinned back in third down and forced two incomplete passes, only for them to be wiped off by two penalties and give the Rebels a first down. That was the beginning of Auburn giving up 13 third downs out of 16. That will not get a defense very far, and it certainly did not for the Tigers. It allowed Ole Miss to extend drives, which gave its powerful skill players more momentum to make plays.
Rushing game nonexistent again
Of the things that Auburn needed to exploit to try and get momentum in this game, the poor rush defense of the Rebels was the main area. Much like the rest of the season, the Tigers ground attack was not there, and it hurt. It was a combination of not finding the holes, but also the Ole Miss defense plugging up the run better inside than it had most of the year. Auburn put up 63 total rushing yards, another low mark after only putting up 61 against LSU. It continued to make the offense one-dimensional, and against a team that only continues to go up the longer the game gets, there was not much room to spare in that regard.
Pass defense struggled
The Rebels have one of the most versatile and athletic receiving rooms in the SEC. In order to win this game, the Tigers were not only going to have to stop Chambliss, but also the receivers from getting big gains as well. So when Ole Miss had an average yards per completion of 12 on Saturday, that was a recipe for success. Chambliss overall had 263 passing yards before he exited late in the fourth quarter, making it another solid day for the Heisman Trophy candidate and another rough outing for the Auburn secondary.
Not converting on first down
First down is the most important down when it comes to being on the offensive side of the football. The Rebels made things happen on first down, and the Tigers did not. On first downs, Ole Miss put up 184 yards from scrimmage, while Auburn put up 94. When it was discussed about each team staying ahead of the sticks, the Rebels certainly did just that, gaining chunk play after chunk play. Four of Ole Miss’ big plays came on first-down situations, one of which was a 28-yard touchdown pass. As those numbers begin to add up, it reveals a disparity in the story of a game, which happened in Oxford.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
