Thursday, September 9, 2010

Recap: Auburn defeats Miss. St., 17-14

Auburn opened
SEC play this season with a win over SEC West opponent Mississippi State, 17-14. Either team could have run away with this one and/or loaded up with a lot of points if it weren't for turnovers. Both teams lost a fumble and threw an interception that seemed to stall any momentum they possibly had at the time. Both offenses seemed to sputter just five days after showing up to the extreme, undoubtedly due to this game being an SEC matchup rather than one against a lesser team.

While Auburn's offense didn't show the same game they have in the past, the defense did step up. Nick Fairley had to be the defensive star, recovering a fumble, intercepting a batted ball, and coming up with a handful of tackles. On the offensive side, Cameron Newton showed he is a one-man playmaker, single-handedly converting several third downs with his legs, but the offense misfired as a whole many times when they could have put the game away.

The game was a much lower-scoring affair than I predicted in the preview, but the margin of victory was just about on the nose. The game really was decided with Mississippi State's failure to convert their last fourth down, a mere 25 seconds left in the game. Up until that point, I wasn't sure we had enough to get the victory, but as they said several times on the broadcast on ESPN, any win in the SEC is a quality win.

The Tigers have a 9-day break before their matchup with yet another southern Tigers team, Clemson, which is scheduled for a 6 pm Central kickoff on the plains. Let's hope Auburn can keep this ride going.

War Eagle!

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