It was right there begging to be picked up.
Situated in front of Montravius Adams, alone on the manicured turf of Davis-Wade Stadium and not 15 yards from the maroon-tinged end zone, was the football.
Nobody from either team was aware a fumble had occurred. Nobody, that is, but Adams. He scooped the ball up before anyone had a chance to react, rumbled forward and broke the plane of the goal line to score.
It occurred just like he had seen in his dreams Friday night, the night before Auburn pummeled Mississippi State, 38-14.
“To be honest, I dreamed about it last night,” Adams said. “I always said, ever since La-Tech, if I ever got it again I wasn’t going to let nothing stop me from getting a touchdown. Once I got it, I knew I was going to get that touchdown.”
Adams nearly scored on a fumble recovery against Louisiana Tech in 2014, but he was tripped up a few yards short of the pylon. This time, he encountered no such trouble. With Auburn leading 28-0 in front of an already shellshocked Mississippi State crowd, Carl Lawson rocked Bulldog quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, jarring the ball loose and causing it to roll behind the offensive line. Adams plucked it off the ground, and the rest was history. The lead ballooned to 35-0, effectively ending the game before halftime.
Through those first 30 minutes, Auburn outgained Mississippi State 335-91. The Tigers found the end zone on three consecutive drives at one point, creating a crater of a lead the Bulldogs couldn’t recover from. By halftime the stands at Davis-Wade were emptying by the minute. The deafening, droning roar of cowbells, which Mississippi State is infamous for, were nearly absent. And if there were still any ringing, they were barely more than a whisper.
“It was a wonderful feeling,” said offensive tackle Darius James. “At halftime, the fans are gone, and they’re not your fans. Your fans are still there cheering and everything, so that was a good feeling.”
For a few minutes early in the game, the blowout was almost entirely different. On the Tigers’ first drive, shades of Auburn’s loss to Mississippi State in 2014 emerged when quarterback Sean White was picked off on the third play from scrimmage deep in Auburn’s own territory. Tony Stevens let the ball slip through his hands and into the waiting arms of Mississippi State’s Kivon Coman.
Auburn’s defense stood tall, though. It forced a field goal attempt, and Bulldog kicker Westin Graves hooked his only attempt of the day wide left, a 28-yard chip shot that would’ve given Mississippi State a 3-0 lead. The Tigers responded by marching 80 yards down the field in nine plays capped by a 3-yard scoring pass from White to Ryan Davis, and Auburn didn’t look back.
For the last few weeks, Gus Malzahn had been harping on his offense’s inability to convert inside the red zone. Prior to Saturday’s game, Auburn was tied for 98th in the nation in red-zone conversion percentage. Out of 27 trips inside the 20, the Tigers had scored touchdowns just 11 times, and a four of those came a week ago in the 58-7 obliteration of Sun Belt foe Louisiana-Monroe.
But Saturday, the progress they had shown carried over. Auburn reached the red zone five times and capitalized with a touchdown on four of those, all in the first half.
Three scores alone came from the legs of Kamryn Pettway, who churned out 169 yards on 39 carries in the stead of Kerryon Johnson, who exited with an ankle injury early in the game. Pettway’s 39 carries are the fourth-most in Auburn history, and he was instrumental in keeping those early drives going.
The 38 points Auburn scored are the most against a Power 5 opponent in regulation since the 2014 Iron Bowl, and it was the first time the Tigers have topped 20 points against a Power 5 foe in regulation in nearly a year, dating back to the 30-27 win over Kentucky in 2015.
Before Auburn could enjoy a win in the first road game of the year, though, the defense had to hold off a rally by the Bulldogs in the second half. Mississippi State outscored Auburn 14-3 in the final two quarters and outgained the Tigers 198-97.
“We just started to get a little complacent there towards the end,” said linebacker Tre’ Williams. “That’s something we can’t do. We gotta fix it, and we’re not going to let it happen again.”
With half of their schedule in the rear-view mirror and a bye week coming up, Williams and the defense can get some time to fine-tune and correct the wrinkles that allowed Mississippi State to get back in the game, along with some much-needed rest.
“I’m glad that we have the off week now,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn. “I really like the momentum that we have. We’ve talked about getting better each week, and we’ve done that. I think we’re in a good spot. We’ve gotta heal up, we’ve got a lot of guys that are banged up.”
The prognosis on the team, sitting at 4-2 with two conference wins under its belt, is markedly different from what it was just three weeks ago, when Auburn had won just once in its first three games.
“We’re getting better,” Malzahn said. “Our team knows it, our coaches know it. We gotta continue to do that, very few teams in college football actually continue to get better throughout the year, and we’ve got a chance to be one of those teams.”
A five-touchdown lead in the first half is certainly one way to get better, but letting up in the final two quarters isn’t. After a three-game win streak and wire-to-wire bludgeoning of Mississippi State in Auburn’s first road game, though, Malzahn can afford to dig into that Sunday.
“We were up 35 to nothing,” Malzahn said, laughing. “Ain’t gonna be no negative from me today.”
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