Auburn quarterback Bo Nix directed two fourth-quarter
touchdown drives, capped by a 42-yard touchdown pass to Seth Williams with
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1:11 left, to lift the Tigers to a 35-28 comeback win over Mississippi on
Saturday.
“Bo (Nix) and Seth (Williams) have a special bond,” Auburn coach Gus
Malzahn said. “It was down to the end and that’s the way this series has
gone.”
Auburn (3-2 Southeastern) rallied from a 28-27 deficit on its final
offensive series, covering 80 yards in six plays. Williams, finishing with
eight catches for 134 yards, caught Nix’s pass in front of the Auburn
sideline, twisted away from two tacklers and turned up the sideline to
easily race for the decisive touchdown.
“I looked around to see who was around me, and I saw the end zone and kept
running,” Williams said. “That last drive, everybody just came out with
the mind-set that we weren’t going to lose.”
Ole Miss (1-4) reached the Auburn 29-yard line in the final 10 seconds.
Auburn forced an incomplete pass and preserved the win on a game-ending
Ole Miss infraction as quarterback Matt Corral advanced past the line of
scrimmage before throwing a desperation pass that would have counted as a
Jordyn Peters interception without the penalty.
“There’s no pixie dust, you know? You’ve got to make more plays than they
do and execute the situation,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said.. “That’s
what winning teams do. It’s a very disappointing loss. Tough to swallow
because it was right there.”
Tank Bigsby had touchdown runs of 4 and 18 yards and finished with 129
yards on 24 carries as the Tigers finished with a turnover free 462 yards
of total offense. Nix finished 23 of 30 passing for 238 yards, with the
biggest plays reserved for Williams. Shaun Shivers and Nix had touchdown
runs over 1 and 4 yards, respectively.
“We knew with two minutes and 30 seconds, we could go down and make big
things happen,” Nix said. “Seth made a great play. We just never lost
hope.”
Corral had touchdown runs of 5 and 10 yards and was 16 of 27 for 154 yards
passing, including a 6-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Moore. Jerrion Ealy
had a 5-yard touchdown run to give Ole Miss a 28-27 lead with 5:43 left,
setting up Auburns game-winning drive.
THE TAKEAWAY
Auburn: After two failed attempts, the Tigers won a road game. The Tigers
won with fourth quarter heroics for the third time this season, this time
on the strength of the Nix-Williams combination and a 4 for 4 performance
in the red zone. The special teams struggled with a pair of bad snaps in
kicking situations and had a kickoff return touchdown by Bigsby wiped out
on a holding penalty.
Ole Miss: The Rebels rolled up 444 yards, but finished 4 of 6 in the red
zone, including a turnover and an unsuccessful fake field goal attempt.
Sam Williams had 11 tackles, including a sack and three tackles for loss,
but the defense could not preserve a late lead. The remaining schedule
appears to lighten up a bit, as four of the remaining five opponents have
losing records.
BOUNCE BACK PERFORMANCE
Nix has had bouts of inconsistency but there were none against Ole Miss.
Nix directed touchdown drives of 95, 79, 88, 80 and 80 yards and did not
have a turnover after coming off a loss to South Carolina with three
interceptions.
“He responded like a champion. He came back. He fought his tail off,”
Malzahn said. “You protect the football, especially on the road and you’ve
got a real chance of winning and we did that.”
UP NEXT
Auburn: The Tigers host LSU on Saturday.
Ole Miss: The Rebels visit winless Vanderbilt on Saturday.
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