Auburn won’t want to remember what happened Saturday against Mississippi State, but it’s a performance that will be hard to forget.
The Tigers squandered a 25-point lead and experience a full-on meltdown, as the Bulldogs scored 40 unanswered points on the way to a 43-34 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It was Auburn’s second straight loss to an SEC West foe, as Bryan Harsin’s team sits at 6-4 overall and 3-3 in league play with two games remaining this season.
Read more Auburn football: Instant analysis: Auburn suffers all-time worst collapse against Mississippi State
Tigers’ defense surrenders 40 unanswered points in loss to Bulldogs
Auburn’s offense loses momentum in second half
Plenty went awry for Auburn against Mississippi State, so let’s dive into some position-by-position grades for the team’s performance that led to the biggest collapse in program history:
Quarterbacks: B+
Auburn’s offense admittedly didn’t do its part in the second half as Mississippi State went on its remarkable run, but Bo Nix deserves credit for his overall performance against the Bulldogs. He threw for a career-high 377 yards, with two touchdowns on 27-of-41 passing — all strong numbers. It was his fourth career game with 300-plus yards passing, and his second against the Bulldogs. He had a few misfires, but there were also a couple of drops from receivers, and he tried to gut through an apparent leg injury late in the second half. The junior was nearly perfect in the first half, as Auburn raced out to its 28-3 lead. He completed his first nine passes and was 15-of-19 for 205 yards and two touchdowns at the break. There were plenty of reasons Auburn lost Saturday, but Nix’s performance was not one of them.
T.J. Finley relieved Nix in the final minutes, as Auburn wanted a quarterback who could more comfortably move (Nix couldn’t, due to his leg injury), but he fumbled the ball away late to seal the outcome for the Tigers.
Running backs: D
Tank Bigsby had an early touchdown to put Auburn on the board, and he was generally effective in the first half, but the Tigers were unable to establish and sort of rushing attack in the second half. Auburn had minus-14 yards rushing in the second half, a number that was only slightly better — minus-4 yards on seven attempts — when you don’t account for Mississippi State’s late sack of Finley. Auburn finished the game with 106 yards on the ground, 60 of which came from the running backs on their 22 carries (2.73 yards per attempt).
Wide receivers: B
A big day from Nix through the air was naturally going to mean a big day for Auburn’s receivers, and boy, was it. For the first time since the 2014 Iron Bowl, Auburn had two 100-yard receivers in a single game, as Kobe Hudson paced the team with eight catches (on 11 targets) for 107 yards and a touchdown, while Ja’Varrius Johnson hauled in four (on five targets) for 102 yards. The last duo to achieve that was Sammie Coates and Duke Williams. Johnson also added a 57-yard rushing touchdown on a play that was originally scored as a pass from Nix but later changed to a run (it was thrown backward on an RPO). Shedrick Jackson added 72 yards on three catches, including a 48-yarder on Auburn’s first play from scrimmage.
Tight ends: C
Auburn’s tight ends continue to be a factor in the passing game, and it’s seemingly always someone new. This time around, Luke Deal found the end zone for the first time in his career on a 4-yard pass from Nix. Tyler Fromm added three catches for 11 yards, while John Samuel Shenker had two for 14 yards. But there were several missed connections with the tight ends, and Auburn’s inability to generate a consistent run game doesn’t fall solely on any one unit, either; everyone deserves some blame, including the tight ends, who are often tasked with creating space in the run game.
Offensive line: D
Auburn looked like it cured its recent offensive woes with a strong first half, scoring touchdowns on each of its first four possessions. Auburn’s offensive line, without Brandon Council for a second straight game, looked in good shape as Tashawn Manning stepped in at left guard. Nix had ample time to dissect Mississippi State’s defense, and the run game was effective. Then the second half happened. Auburn’s offensive line couldn’t create any separation up front, and the Tigers’ run game was nonexistent, as noted above. It stifled Auburn’s offense throughout the second half, with the Tigers punting twice, having a field goal blocked, turning it over on downs and fumbling away their final possession of the day.
Defensive line: F
Auburn’s defense got off to a strong start against Mississippi State in the first quarter, but things quickly went sideways for the Tigers against the Bulldogs’ Air Raid attack. It started up front, with Auburn unable to affect quarterback Will Rogers in the pocket. Rogers got off to an uneven start, but then he settled in and looked comfortable for much of the day. With Auburn seldom blitzing Rogers, the Mississippi State quarterback picked apart the Tigers’ defense as the Bulldogs scored touchdowns on six straight drives after falling behind by 25.
Auburn also struggled to bottle up the run, on the rare occasions that Mississippi State ran the ball. The Bulldogs, who run the ball less often than any team in the country, got 79 yards on 14 carries from their running backs, who averaged 5.64 yards per touch.
Linebackers: D
Zakoby McClain quietly had a big night, with 14 tackles and a pass breakup. Chandler Wooten added 11 stops and two pass breakups. The unit was without its other veteran piece, as Owen Pappoe missed his fifth game of the season due to an undisclosed injury. But with Mississippi State often relying on shorter, quick passes, Auburn’s linebackers had to drop back into coverage more often — and the Tigers just seemed a step behind all game as Rogers dinked and dunked his way to a monster game through the air.
Defensive backs: F
Smoke Monday said earlier in the week that facing an Air Raid offense was a chance for Auburn to show that it is “one of the best secondaries in the country.” Yet the Tigers, who came into the game on a role defensively over the last couple of weeks, couldn’t do anything to ground the Bulldogs’ Air Raid. Rogers completed 44-of-55 passes for 415 yards and six touchdowns. It was the third time this season that Auburn allowed an opposing quarterback to complete at least 80 percent of his passes. Rogers’ 615 yards through the air were tied for the seventh-most allowed by Auburn in program history (tied with Georgia’s Aaron Murray during the 2013 matchup with Auburn). Of the 63 times since 1968 (as far back as Auburn’s record book indicates) that the Tigers have allowed a 300-yard passer, Rogers is the first to throw for six touchdowns in the process. Add in some missed tackles that allowed short passes to turn into explosive plays, as well as a trio of pass interference penalties against the secondary, and it was a long day for Auburn’s defensive backs.
Special teams: D
Anders Carlson is officially in a funk. He missed a 55-yard field goal attempt (which was by no means an easy kick) and had a 35-yarder blocked. He has now missed four of his last six field goal attempts. In the return game, Auburn had some adventures of its own: a fumble (that the Tigers recovered) on the game’s opening kickoff, a block in the back that wiped out a trick play on another return, a dangerous decision by Demetris Robertson to field a punt off a bounce in traffic, and another penalty that wiped out a 30-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter. Add in a failed fake punt, and it was a rough day at the office for the Tigers on special teams. The lone bright spot was a 52-yard punt by Oscar Chapman that was downed at the 2-yard line—but Mississippi State followed that with a 10-play, 98-yard touchdown drive.
Coaching: F
For the first quarter, and really much of the first half, Auburn looked the part of a contender as it tried to keep its SEC West hopes afloat. Once things went sideways, though, they went sideways. While games are decided by the players on the field, the responsibility ultimately falls to the coaches to make sure those players are in a position to succeed — and Auburn’s coaches failed for the most part Saturday. Auburn’s offense was stymied after that blistering start, failing to sustain drives in the second half as Mississippi State surged. The defense had a nuclear meltdown, and Derek Mason and his staff were outcoached by Mike Leach and his guys. It was an overall unacceptable performance that led to the biggest collapse in program history.
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
