The Auburn Tigers (6-3, 4-2 SEC) finished their October gauntlet with a 3-2 record capped off with a 41-23 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels (2-6, 0-5 SEC). In front of a crowd of 85,347, the Tigers followed a road loss at LSU with their best offensive output of the month, matching their scoring total from the last three games combined.
The Tigers, led by sophomore running back Michael Dyer who carried the ball for 178 yards on 27 carries and one touchdown, pounded away at the Ole Miss defense. Dyer continues to climb Auburn's all-time rushing list, ending the game with 2,082 career rushing yards and passing Lionel James for 13th all-time.
Coach Gene Chizik sat down with Dyer earlier in the week and praised him for his attitude through this tough offensive stretch.
"We had a good discussion, him and I, about how proud I've been of him," Chizik said. "He's had some tough sledding over the last couple of weeks. He's had the greatest attitude. I told him your time is going to come. We're working on getting better, and we're going to get you the ball a lot. You've just got to keep chopping wood. I'm really proud of him."
Auburn struck first with touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Clint Moseley to junior tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen and senior wide receiver Quindarius Carr to jump out to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Ole Miss countered with a 17-3 run of their own to close the first half, sending the game into halftime tied at 17-17.
Ole Miss was able to control the line of scrimmage offensively in the first half, rushing for 172 yards on 27 carries, but Auburn's halftime adjustments were successful as the Tigers held the Rebels to 48 rushing yards in the second half.
Auburn scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, stretching the lead to 41-17 before Ole Miss added a touchdown with time expiring.
The Tigers ran 17 plays in the third quarter totaling 141 yards while holding the Rebels to 42 yards on 12 plays.
In his second career start, Moseley was an efficient 12-15 for 160 yards and four touchdowns. Moseley said he felt more comfortable this week after getting his first start under his belt last week at LSU.
Moseley credited the success of the offense in the second half to the unit not making the same mistakes they made in the first.
"It wasn't a huge change in the game plan or anything," Moseley said. "It was just us not making mistakes."
Moseley got a boost from his No. 1 wide receiver, junior Emory Blake, returning to the starting lineup after a three-game absence. Blake totaled 5 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown in his first game back from injury.
"Clint looked real good," Blake said. "He made some nice throws. I told him to throw it my way, and I would make the play."
Blake also thought the offense was clicking with the exception of a few mistakes early in the game.
"We had some turnovers in the first half that held us back from driving down the field, but besides those two drives, I think the offense played really well tonight," Blake said.
Chizik praised his quarterback-receiver duo and complemented Blake's ability to play through injury.
"I thought tonight, with us throwing the football down the field and Emory being in the game, you can see the impact he has with our offense," Chizik said. "And Emory isn't 100 percent right now. He's got a long way to go to get to 100 percent. You can see out there, he's still playing a little bit beat up. But he was ready to go. And Clint did a great job of getting the ball where he needed to get it."
Coaching against his former boss, Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn put the offense back on track, averaging more than six yards per play.
"We had a decent feel for how they were playing us, and they went out and executed," Malzahn said. "We made some timely throws, and we were able to run the football, that was the big part. That's what we knew we had to do."
The Tigers played a sporadic defense in the first half, but senior linebacker Eltoro Freeman was one of the bright spots throughout the game. Freeman, who has previously rotated with Jake Holland at middle linebacker, was the sole player at the position. Totaling 11 tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and a forced fumble, Freeman made his presence known from the first drive on.
"I feel that it's my job as a senior linebacker to lead out there," Freeman said. "I just thank God for blessing me. I'm having a lot of fun out there. I'm having fun, and I'm looking forward to every week to go out and help my team win."
Chizik has watched Freeman grow into a mature leader since he arrived in 2009.
"Really, really proud of him," Chizik said. "He's preparing well every week. I told him during the game that you're learning how to prepare, you're learning how to get in a football game and calm down and see the game. He's getting better every week at absorbing the game plan and trying to execute the game plan. He's playing with energy and passion, and he looks like he's having fun out there."
Even with a 3-2 mark in October and some media outlets wondering if his team would win a single game, Chizik doesn't want his team to be satisfied with anything other than perfection.
"I'd like to say our goal was always 5-0," Chizik said. "We've come a long way. We're very proud and pleased to win three games. But the goal around here is always five games, that's the way it is. When the outside world is saying, 'Boy, how are you going to win any in October?', that's all well and good, but in our locker room, and what we talk about, is 5-0. So we're not happy that we didn't."
Freshman Gabe Wright made his first start of the season at defensive tackle and was in the backfield repeatedly in his 50 played snaps. Wright said he settled into the game after the first snap, and he began to recognize more what the offense was going to do.
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof praised Wright for his play tonight and said he hopes he will continue to improve throughout the final month of the season.
"That's what we recruit him for," Roof said. "He's going to do nothing but continue to get better."
Chizik had high praise for Wright as well, saying it was "his time" and that his maturation process from August to now has been huge.
The Auburn defense made up for the offense's two fumbles by forcing three turnovers of their own, which Chizik thought was a key to the game.
"Coach Roof and the defensive staff did a really good job adjusting," Chizik said. "We're going to take a lot of positives away from the game. Defensively, getting turnovers, that's huge. Obviously, we're disappointed we turned the ball over twice ourselves, but I think we negated that by getting turnovers."
Chizik stressed post-game that he was proud of his team for not "letting one loss beat us twice." The Tigers' three losses have come against top-10 teams on the road, but Auburn has followed each with a win the next week.
"I've very proud of our coaching staff, and I'm very proud of our team after coming off a very difficult loss," Chizik said. "Up to this point, we haven't lost twice in a row. For a young football team, that speaks highly of them."
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