'Typical Auburn'

DALLAS -- Style points were nowhere to be found in Monday's AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic, but that's nothing new for Auburn.

Aided by several big plays from the Auburn defense, the 10th-ranked Tigers did just enough on offense to edge No. 22 Nebraska 17-14 before an announced crowd of 66,777 at the Cotton Bowl.

"It was just typical Auburn," Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville said, "we win and win ugly."

The game was tied at 14 at the half following a back-and-forth first two quarters, and the only points of the second half came on a John Vaughn 42-yard field goal into a stiff headwind with 6:20 left in the third quarter.

Auburn (11-2) picked up its 11th win of the season despite producing just 178 yards of offense, despite being held to just 67 yards rushing and despite having the ball six minutes less than the Cornhuskers (9-5).

"We didn't do a lot offensively, but one thing we did do is run time off the clock in the second half, which gave our defense a break," said Tuberville, who was coaching his 100th game at Auburn.

Playing in his final game, Auburn senior wide receiver Courtney Taylor was named the game's Offensive Most Valuable Player after finishing with six catches for 70 yards.

His fourth catch of the day, a crucial 9-yarder from quarterback Brandon Cox late in the third quarter that came on second-and-10 from the Auburn 1-yard line, gave Taylor the program's all-time record for receptions. Taylor finished his career with 153, breaking the previous record of 150 held by Karsten Bailey (1995-98).

On a day when little else was working for Cox (10-for-21, 111 yards, TD), who was sacked five times, Taylor always seemed to get open and to make the catch that had to be made. He had three on the drive that started at the Auburn 1, helping give the Tigers some breathing room and chew up clock on what resulted in a 14-play drive.

It was simply that kind of game, where the little things mattered more than usual because the big things, the big plays, were hard to find.

"We were just running our game plan," Taylor said after the game, clutching the ball used on the record-setting catch. "Nebraska's defense did a great job early on of disguising what they were doing, but we adjusted and we made enough plays to win. It's not always pretty, but that's what we do -- we make enough plays to win."

Early on, it looked like the Tigers weren't going to make any plays. Nebraska took the opening kickoff and thoroughly dominated Auburn's defense on a 15-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Zac Taylor (14-for-26, 126 yards) to Nate Swift.

On that drive, and throughout the first half, running back Marlon Lucky was unstoppable. At halftime, he had 61 yards rushing, five catches for 57 yards and a 21-yard kickoff return. Auburn's defense didn't give him much room to work in the second half and Lucky finished with 88 yards on the ground.

Auburn's defense also did most of the work on the Tigers' first touchdown.

Nebraska had gone 4-for-4 on third down during its opening drive and the Cornhuskers faced a third-and-3 on the Auburn 42 late in the first quarter. Zac Taylor threw to his right and cornerback David Irons tipped the pass. Auburn linebacker Karibi Dede caught the ball and hurried the other direction, running 52 yards before being dragged down from behind at the 9.

"David got his hand on it and it seemed like it was in the in the air forever," Dede said. "I was under the ball just waiting and it came down. Unfortunately, on the runback I ran out of gas."

His teammates told him it was a lineman that caught him, but Dede quickly refuted that claim.

"I don't know who it was that ran me down, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a lineman," Dede said with a big smile.

Actually, it was Swift, an 195-pound wide receiver.

After the momentum-changing interception, Auburn scored two plays later from the 9 when Cox tossed a short pass to fullback Carl Stewart, who was wide open on the left side.

Early in the second quarter, Auburn got the ball back on the Nebraska 14 after Cornhuskers coach Bill Callahan called for a reverse on fourth-and-1 on the Nebraska 29. There was a fumble on the play and Tristan Davis recovered for Auburn on the 14.

A Courtney Taylor catch moved the ball to the 2 and Stewart scored again two plays later to put the Tigers up 14-7 with 12:22 left in the first half.

Nebraska responded on its ensuing possession, driving 72 yards and scoring on a 20-yard run by Brandon Jackson to tie the game at 14.

Nebraska had 157 yards of offense in the first half, but was held to just 73 and five first downs in the second.

"Their defense was stalwart," Callahan said of the Tigers in the second half. "They stiffened up at the crucial time to shut us down."

John C. Frierson can be reached at 740-5730 or john.frierson@timesdaily.com.