No. 12 Ole Miss beat Auburn 45-15 on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and the game turned on third down. The Rebels converted 13 of 16, kept the chains moving and wore the Tigers down in the second half.
Auburn trailed by just 2 points late in the third quarter. Ole Miss answered with four straight touchdowns, and the Tigers never scored again.
How It Happened
Neither team scored in the first quarter. Ole Miss broke through three seconds into the second when Will Echoles ran in from 1 yard out.
Auburn answered at 7:59 with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Byrum Brown to Chas Nimrod, but Alex McPherson's extra point was blocked. Shekai Mills-Knight's 1-yard run made it 14-6. McPherson's 29-yard field goal with 5 seconds left sent Auburn to halftime down 14-9.
Lucas Carneiro's 20-yard field goal pushed the lead to 17-9 at 9:46 of the third. Brown ran in from 7 yards at 6:20, but the two-point pass failed. Add back the blocked kick, and Auburn's missed extra points are the difference between 17-15 and a tied game.
Ole Miss never let the Tigers find out what level would have felt like. Trinidad Chambliss broke a 26-yard touchdown run at 3:25 to make it 24-15.
The fourth quarter belonged to Chambliss's arm. He hit Caleb Cunningham for a 6-yard score at 12:53 and Horatio Fields for 28 yards at 10:23. Deuce Knight's 17-yard run at 3:27 closed it out.
The deeper story is the ground game. Ole Miss ran 49 times for 224 yards, while Auburn managed about 2 yards a carry. That left the Tigers throwing into a defense that knew what was coming, and the Rebels held the ball for more than 32 minutes.
Key Performers
Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss: 26-yard TD run; TD passes of 6 and 28 YDS
Byrum Brown, Auburn: 21-yard TD pass; 7-yard TD run
Lucas Carneiro, Ole Miss: 20-yard FG; 6 PAT
Ole Miss Passing: 22-35, 263 YDS, 7.5 YDS per pass
Ole Miss Rushing: 49 ATT, 224 YDS, 4.6 per carry
Auburn Passing: 29-43, 249 YDS, 5.8 YDS per pass
Auburn Rushing: 27 ATT, 63 YDS, 2.3 per carry
Third Down: Ole Miss 13-16, Auburn 7-14
Turnovers: Ole Miss 1, Auburn 2
Chambliss accounted for three of the Rebels' six touchdowns, including both scores that broke the game open early in the fourth. Brown kept Auburn close with a hand in both Tiger touchdowns, but he got little help from the run game.
Auburn did not lose this on the stat sheet alone. The Tigers piled up 24 first downs and didn't throw an interception, but they lost 2 fumbles and couldn't stop Ole Miss when it mattered.
What It Means
Ole Miss moves to 6-2 and stays perfect in Oxford at 4-0. Away from home, the Rebels are 1-2, and that split is the clearest read on this team so far.
At home, Ole Miss can lean on a ground game that controls the clock and finishes drives. The Rebels overcame 8 penalties for 95 yards and still put up 487 yards of offense.
The final says a ranked team handled an unranked visitor. For three quarters, it was closer than that, and Ole Miss will need this fourth-quarter version on the road.
Auburn falls to 4-4 and 1-2 away from home. The Tigers matched Ole Miss into the late third quarter, but a run game this ineffective leaves no margin for blocked kicks and lost fumbles.