Again, Auburn Shows Its Heart

Just days after being ranked third in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings, Auburn’s road to Dallas ran through Oxford, Mississippi.

With every game now having heavy postseason implications, Auburn faced a daunting challenge: beating Ole Miss and its Landshark defense on the road.

Oxford had already proven too much to handle for the likes of Alabama, and after the way Auburn started its last road game, a loss to Mississippi State, there was certainly cause for cautious optimism about Auburn’s chances against another top-five team.

If ever there was a time for Auburn to pick up its second loss of the season, it would be on the road against another Mississippi school.

But the Tigers showed us that no moment is ever too big.

At the most critical moment of its season to date, Auburn turned in its best offensive performance in a road game.

The Tigers had yet to turn in a truly complete game on the road on offense before last night, putting up only 359 total yards in a win over Kansas State, while turning the ball over four times in a loss to Mississippi State.

Nick Marshall and Co. put up 507 yards and 35 points against an Ole Miss defense that was giving up just 305 yards and 10.5 points per game, good for second and first in the SEC, respectively.

Cameron Artis-Payne, quietly leading the SEC in rushing, had another excellent game, gashing the Ole Miss defense for 137 yards and touchdown. Nick Marshall was his usual brilliant self, running for two touchdowns while throwing for 254 yards and two more touchdowns, including several clutch deep throws to Sammie Coates and Duke Williams.

That gives Marshall 22 touchdowns on the year, by the way, but the most impressive stat of for the Maxwell Award semifinalist is his third down conversion rate.

Auburn as a team converts 54.6 percent of its third downs. The Tigers convert 48 percent of the third downs on which Marshall is running, throwing (usually), or in one case, catching, the ball.

But wait, there’s more! In the fourth quarter, Auburn converts an incredible 76 percent of third downs when the ball is in Nick Marshall’s hands.

Basically, when it’s third down, get the ball in Nick Marshall’s hands. The engine that makes the Tigers’ offense go is as clutch as it gets.

And the defense, playing with a bend-but-don’t-break mentality similar to last season, saved its best for last, forcing fumbles inside its own five-yard line on back to back fourth quarter drives.

Even with their backs up against the wall numerous times, the defense came up big when it had to.

This shootout was what we expected from two of the top four teams in the nation, and the two powers certainly delivered.

Back and forth the teams went, with the lead changing six times, neither willing to yield.

Despite heavy adversity, much of it Auburn’s own doing, the Tigers overcame a hostile crowd, the playmaking ability of Bo Wallace and his receivers, and battled to a hard fought victory.

The win kept Auburn’s SEC championship and College Football Playoff hopes alive and padded Auburn’s already impressive resume.

And we learned something important about the Auburn Tigers on Saturday.

This team will never give up. This team will never quit fighting. If it’s close, they believe they will win it.

Not they can win it. They will win it.

The Auburn Tigers are repeatedly proving that last season’s success was not a fluke, and maybe even something to be expected in the coming seasons.

Auburn can play with and beat anyone in the country right now.

Instead of committing a turnover on 100 percent of its first two plays in this road game, Auburn drove right down the field on Ole Miss’s highly touted defense to put up an early touchdown to silence a raucous Ole Miss crowd.

That score sent a statement to Ole Miss and everyone watching: Auburn was there to play.

Last year, Auburn came up 13 seconds short. This year, they’re playing to make up for those precious seconds.

And after a narrow win over South Carolina, it all started with overcoming an extremely talented Ole Miss team.

Just as they have all season, Auburn played with the heart of a champion.