No. 17 Auburn suffered its largest blown lead in school history, surrendering 40 unanswered points to unranked Mississippi State in a 43-34 loss at home Saturday.
With 6:10 to play in the second quarter, Auburn led 28-3 courtesy of a 15-yard Kobe Hudson touchdown.
What followed was a historic collapse, the likes of which Auburn football had never seen. The Bulldog offense scored six straight touchdowns. The first half belonged to Auburn, but the game belonged to Mississippi State.
“You got to be able to start like we did and finish better than we did. That was a tale of two halves,” said head coach Bryan Harsin.
Auburn was previously 63-0 when leading by 25 points or more.
“First of all, everyone is disappointed," Harsin said. "No one is happy in the locker room."
Auburn opened about as strong as it could, with quarterback Bo Nix firing a 48-yard strike to Shedrick Jackson on the team’s opening drive that set up a Tank Bigsby 1-yard rushing score a few plays later.
State followed with a field goal, with Auburn’s defense tightening up in the red zone, as it had done for the past two games.
Auburn’s defense had not allowed an offensive touchdown since the second quarter against Ole Miss, six quarters ago.
Auburn’s offense got hot again, with Nix throwing a backward pass to Ja’Varrius Johnson that went in for a 57-yard rushing score.
Luke Deal caught Nix’s first touchdown pass of the game in the second quarter, followed by another Hudson touchdown five minutes later.
Before leaving the game after a brutal collision while running a route, Hudson led Auburn in receiving with eight catches for 107 yards and two scores.
Auburn went up 28-3 but did not score again until 3:37 was left in the game.
“The second half just comes down to finishing a ball game. You can’t be satisfied with 28 points,” Harsin said. “You got to put as many points on the board as you can.”
Auburn’s defense was able to stifle quarterback Will Rogers and the air-raid offense in the first half, but the second half was a completely different game.
At the half, Rogers was 20-for-30 for 144 yards passing and had one passing score.
In the second half, Rogers was 24-for-26 for 271 yards passing and had five passing touchdowns.
"I thought in the first half we got more pressure on [Rogers]. I think their O-line made good adjustments,” Harsin said. “I don't know why he felt more comfortable in the second half than he did in the first half. That is a factor."
Auburn's defense didn't let through little chunk plays and kept all of Mississippi State's receivers below 100 yards receiving, but Rogers and company were able to methodically pick apart Auburn’s secondary and three-man rush for the entirety of the second half, moving the ball efficiently for 30 minutes.
Auburn’s defensive game plan was to rush three and drop eight into coverage, having more secondary defenders than Mississippi State had receivers. This plan simply did not work. Auburn did not force a turnover and only recorded two sacks on the day — one of which caused edge rusher T.D. Moultry to be ejected on a targeting call.
As was expected, the Tigers stifled any rushing game that the Bulldogs tried, holding the visitors to 72 yards total on the ground. But it was head coach Mike Leach’s signature passing attack that spelled doom for Auburn.
“You lose momentum and you have a hard time getting it back,” Nix said. “Next time we got to do a better job making plays and finishing the game."
Offensive line struggles certainly produced a rough day for Auburn’s run attack. Auburn rushed for a combined 106 yards, but only 60 of those came from Auburn’s three running backs.
"As far as the run game goes, there were some assignment errors in there, and it wasn't consistent enough,” Harsin said. “We didn't run it well in the second half because we weren't consistent."
Nix was seen limping during the game and left the game late to be worked on by the training staff. The quarterback said he was “nicked” and will continue to monitor his health moving forward.
Injuries are starting to mount for Auburn.
After being hit near the head, Hudson did not return to the game, and neither did left tackle Austin Troxell. Troxell has been plagued by a knee injury and was absent three weeks ago against Arkansas. Left guard Brandon Council did not play and was replaced by Tashawn Manning. Linebacker Owen Pappoe missed the game as well.
It was an early-morning disaster, and Auburn is going to have to improve to beat South Carolina next week in Columbia.
“The challenge is that right now we are not good enough," Harsin said.
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Henry Zimmer is from Jacksonville, Florida, and is currently in his fifth year with The Plainsman. He is currently the Sports Reporter and can be followed on Twitter here: @henryzimmer
