Auburn blasts Ole Miss

AUBURN — Two old friends — one from just a month ago and another from yesteryear — returned to Jordan-Hare Stadium just in time for an Auburn team desperate for a pick-me-up.

The deep-threat passing game, last seen somewhere near Knoxville the last time Auburn beat somebody, opened up unseen holes and provided big play after big play Saturday against No. 25 Ole Miss.

That stingy Auburn defense, which has made some big plays here and there throughout the 2009 season but really hadn’t camped out for a full game since sometime last year, overcame the loss of one of its biggest leaders and made sure all the good things that were happening on offense wouldn’t go unrewarded.

Auburn’s 33-20 victory over the Rebels was everything but a Navy Nightmare, providing the Tigers some relief from their three-game losing streak and a reason to believe that 5-0 start wasn’t a fluke after all.

“It doesn’t surprise anybody in our locker room that that’s who they are,” coach Gene Chizik said. “I thought tonight proved to a lot of people that we were going to contend and fight.”

The Tigers, at 6-3 and 3-3 in the SEC, are now officially bowl eligible. It was a perceived foregone conclusion with next week’s game against Furman on the schedule, but it registered as an additional, feel-good incentive for beating one of the hotter teams in the SEC.

“We’ve got Christmas plans,” defensive end Antonio Coleman said. “That’s a blessing.”

“Blessed” was how Chizik described the Tigers’ upset victory, too. But, really, outside of one series and two big plays Auburn would love to have back, the Tigers simply outplayed the Rebels, who have yo-yoed through their highly anticipated season.

A number of players throughout the week said all the Tigers needed to overcome the litany of issues that plagued them throughout their three-game slide was a spark — just something little to go in their favor to rekindle everything that went so right in September.

It turns out they needed two.

Walk-on Chris Humphries jarred the ball loose from Ole Miss’ Jesse Grandy on the game’s opening kickoff. Two or three Auburn players put their body on the ball, but the Rebels maintained possession, albeit pinned just yards away from their own end zone.

The Rebels scored 10 plays and 94 yards later on a 7-yard Jevan Snead touchdown pass to Andy Hartmann, silencing a late-arriving crowd of 84,756 fans.

An audible “here we go again,” might have been heard from outside the stadium if passers-by craned their ears hard enough, but the perspective was different on the Auburn sidelines, players said.

“When things start going bad, usually somebody starts putting their head down and giving up,” cornerback Walt McFadden said. “When it happened on our side of the ball, we had seniors and leaders walking up and down or sideline saying, ‘It’s not over. We’re not giving up. We’re going to keep playing.’ ”

The big play that opened everything up for Auburn’s offense came midway through the second quarter. Chris Todd, previously known as a “dinker and dunker” during the Tigers’ rough patch, hit a double-covered Terrell Zachery with a 42-yard pass down the right hash.

It didn’t put points on the board — Darvin Adams’ 29-yard touchdown catch three plays later did that — but it kept Ole Miss’ defense off balance the rest of the game.

Holes that were marginal in the first half opened up wide for tailback Ben Tate, who finished with 144 yards and a long touchdown run. When Tate got motoring, life became easier on Todd, who connected on a number of downfield passes to finish with 212 yards.

“We were just kind of able to hit them with the one-two punch,” tackle Andrew McCain said.

A first half of jabs morphed into an all-out slugfest in the third quarter, which spanned almost an hour of real time and ended with 36 combined points.

The Tigers scored three unanswered touchdowns before the midpoint of the quarter — two the conventional, big-play way and the other from a fluky McFadden interception return for a touchdown. Ole Miss answered with two of its own in less than two minutes — one coming on a Grandy 82-yard kickoff return and the other on a 79-yard Dexter McCluster run.

The bizarre quarter swayed back in Auburn’s favor for the final time on the subsequent extra point, when Demond Washington ran back a Coleman block for a 2-point conversion.

“That is a great example of how those small things in a game of you playing hard, and doing those things all of the time on every play never knowing when that opportunity is going to come,” Chizik said. “I think that was a huge huge point for us.”

“Huge” was how a number of players described the pass rush that disrupted Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead into an ineffective game overall and a fourth quarter that ended in two Ole Miss punts and McFadden’s game-clinching second interception.

Auburn’s offense, worthy of a breather anyway, took the quarter off, too. Its work through the first three quarters sufficed.

“We needed this,” McFadden said. “Maybe some of us were feeling sorry for ourselves. Today they showed that we believe in each other; we know we can play.”

First quarter
10:31 Ole Miss 7, Auburn 0: Andy Hartmann 7-yard pass from Jevan Snead. (Joshua Shene kick.) Drive summary: 10 plays, 94 yards, 4:29. Key play: Ole Miss’ average play on first down during the drive went for 9.7 yards.

8:06 Ole Miss 7, Auburn 3: Wes Byrum 36-yard field goal. Drive summary: 7 plays, 41 yards, 2:25. Key play: On the first play of the series, Mario Fannin turned in an 18-yard catch and run to get the Tigers into Ole Miss territory.

Second quarter
5:23 Auburn 10, Ole Miss 7: Darvin Adams 28-yard pass from Chris Todd. (Byrum kick.) Drive summary: 6 plays, 90 yards, 1:42. Key play: On third-and-2 from his own 18-yard line, Chris Todd found Terrell Zachery for 42 yards on a play-action pass.

Third quarter
11:37 Auburn 17, Ole Miss 7: Tommy Trott 14-yard pass from Kodi Burns. (Byrum kick.) Drive summary: 3 plays, 61 yards, 0:35. Key play: On the first play of the drive, Chris Todd hit Terrell Zachery with a 41-yard pass down the middle of the field.

11:25 Auburn 24, Ole Miss 7: Walt McFadden 29-yard interception return. (Byrum kick.) Drive summary: 0 plays, 0 yards, 0:00. Key play: The pass from Ole Miss QB Jevan Snead was low and tipped up off the ground by receiver Markeith Summers. McFadden tipped it around, finally controlling it as he tiptoed near the sideline, stayed in bounds and scored. The instant replay review upheld the call on the field.

7:24 Auburn 31, Ole Miss 7: Ben Tate 53-yard run. (Byrum kick.) Drive summary: 3 plays, 67 yards, 0:57. Key play: Three plays, three runs. Tate had two, while Travante Stallworth went for 14 yards on an end around.

7:28 Auburn 31, Ole Miss 14: Jesse Grandy 82-yard kickoff return. (Shene kick.)

6:04 Auburn 33, Ole Miss 20: Dexter McCluster 79-yard run. (Shene kick blocked, Demond Washington recovered and returned for defensive two-point conversion.) Drive summary: 1 play, 79 yards, 0:13. Key play: McCluster wasn’t touched on his way to the end zone.