In a back-and-forth game, Auburn was able to make big plays in clutch situations to come away with the victory over South Carolina 42-35.
With the Tigers leading by a touchdown, South Carolina was driving inside the Auburn redzone, seemingly destined to tie the score.
But Auburn's defense held strong, as they forced the Gamecocks to turn the ball over on downs with 5:28 remaining.
The Tigers were then able to run down the clock and stop a last minute South Carolina drive with an interception in the endzone.
"It went down to the very end," head coach Gus Malzahn said. "There was a lot of adversity that we faced and our guys found a way to win."
The two teams combined for 1,086 yards, but they did their damage in different ways.
Auburn's offense was paced by the running game, as the Tigers ran for 395 yards, while South Carolina leaned on the passing game, throwing for 416 yards.
"We went into this thing feeling like we needed to run the ball," Malzahn said. "We felt like we could have success with the read zone, which we did."
Cameron Artis-Payne led the Auburn attack with 167 yards and a touchdown, averaging 6.7 yards-per-carry.
"(Artis-Payne) was patient in the zone read and he was just hitting the holes how he was supposed to," quarterback Nick Marshall said.
Marshall also added 89 on the ground and three touchdowns, as well as 139 passing yards and a touchdown.
For South Carolina, Dylan Thompson's 402 yards and five touchdowns fueled the offense, and Mike Davis also added 88 yards on the ground.
After looking out-of-sync against Mississippi State, the Auburn offense finally looked like the offense of a season ago.
The Tigers put together scoring drives of 92, 93, and 88 yards, as they were able to find a rhythm in Gus Malzahn's hurry-up offense.
"We were back to playing Auburn football," Marshall said. "In the bye week, we went back to the basics and focused on getting our edge back."
The Tigers were 6-8 on third down, and they were only forced to punt on the first and last drives of the game.
The Auburn defense could not match the play of the offense though, as they forced South Carolina to punt only once. Malzahn is confident that they will improve though.
"Our defense has played well up to this point and we'll correct it and get better," Malzahn said.
While Auburn held South Carolina to 5-13 on third down, the Gamecocks were able to convert on 5 of 6 fourth-down conversions, keeping key drives alive.
"They made it just about every time," Malzahn said. "It was frustrating being on the other sideline."
The Gamecocks' offensive success can be attributed to Steve Spurrier though, who Malzahn has much respect for.
"Their coach is one of the better coaches to ever walk the sidelines," Malzahn said. "I think you saw that with the fourth down calls and the tricks plays tonight."
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