The 11th ranked Auburn Tigers (6-2, 3-2 SEC) welcome the Ole Miss Rebels (3-5, 2-3 SEC) to the plains on Military Appreciation Night.
1st Quarter (0-0)
On the opening drive of the game, the Auburn defense made a big stop when Ole Miss opted to go for it on 4th and 3 on the Auburn 43-yard line. Bo Nix and the Auburn offense got off to a decent start driving a combine 89 yards on their first two drives of the game only for Anders Carlson to miss a 35 and 49 yard field goals on consecutive possessions. After that, the Tigers seemed a bit rattled when Nix fumbled a snap and Qaadir Sheppard recovered for Ole Miss. On a combine 8 drives, the first 15:00 minutes were scoreless.
2nd Quarter (10-7)
The game stayed scoreless through most of the 2nd before a 72-yard Auburn drive consisting of 14 plays was capped off by a 20-yard field goal from Carlson for the first score of the game [3-0]. The Rebels did not have much of a response only going 19-yards where Mac Brown had to punt it away giving Auburn field position at their own 25. On the second play of Auburn’s third drive of the quarter, Nix found Harold Joiner for 78-yards bring the ball down to the 1-yard line. The very next play, D.J. Williams rushed up the middle for the first touchdown of the game [10-0]. Ole Miss began to get the feel of things where with only 1:06 left in the half, J.R. Plumlee rushed around the right end for a 4-yard touchdown run [10-7].
3rd Quarter (20-7)
The emergence of the Auburn offence and the continuation of great defense was the story of the 3rd quarter for the Tigers. In the Tigers first drive of the quarter, lasted just under 5 minutes where each of the 13 plays were for under 10-yard gains. The drive was capped off by a Bo Nix 1-yard rush around the right side for a touchdown [17-7]. On the Tigers very next drive after a 3 and out from Ole Miss, marched down to the Rebel 20-yard line with the longest gain of yardage was an unsportsmanlike conduct from Qaadir Sheppard for 15 yards capped by a 38-yarder from Carlson [20-7]. Ole Miss had no answer for the stellar defense from Auburn and only held possession of the ball for 3:47 the entire quarter.
4th Quarter (20-14)
It was an exciting end to say the least as those Auburn Tigers sure like to give their fans a closer finish than anticipated. Fast forward to the last five minutes of the game where Auburn struggled to get in good field position following the Snoop Conner 1-yard rush up the middle to bring the game within 6 [20-14]. Anders Carlson had a 48-yard attempt to which he missed wide right finishing the night 2-5 from distance. John Rhys Plumlee and the Ole Miss offense drove down to the Auburn 35-yard line before a Christian Tutt interception on 4th and 3 to seal Auburns 7th win of the season.
