Back to life

AUBURN - It took less than 4 minutes in the third quarter for Auburn to jumpstart its offense, break a three-game skid and, possibly, revitalize its season.

The Tigers scored 21 points during that stretch and withstood Ole Miss' comeback efforts during their 33-20 win Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

With the win, Auburn (6-3, 3-3) officially became bowl eligible after missing the postseason last year. More importantly, it broke a three-game losing streak that could have sent the Tigers on a similar tailspin they ended on last year.

"That was the question that everybody wanted to know was 'How is your football team going to respond in a tough time?'" Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. "I think today is a great example of the way they were going to respond. They willed that win."

Auburn led 10-7 at halftime, but truly recaptured its offensive stride early in the third quarter. That's when the quick strikes returned.

The Tigers twice covered 60-plus yards in three plays and less than 1 minute.

The first came on their second possession of the second half, capped by Kodi Burns' 14-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Trott out of the Wildcat formation.

Auburn repeated the quick strike on its next drive, getting a 53-yard touchdown run from tailback Ben Tate.

Between the two fast scoring drives, cornerback Walt McFadden added a touchdown of his own on a 29-yard interception return.

The 21 unanswered points left Ole Miss (5-3, 2-3) in the dust and clamoring just to catch up. The Rebels responded with a pair of third-quarter touchdowns in 1 minute, 24 seconds - one on a kickoff return and another on a 79-yard Dexter McCluster run.

Just as Ole Miss threatened to get back into the game, though, Antonio Coleman blocked Joshua Shene's extra point attempt. Demond Washington returned it for a defensive 2-points conversion, giving Auburn a boost and its final 33-20 margin of victory.

Chizik said he couldn't recall any quarters that featured as many momentum swings as the third quarter on Saturday.

"I went from every gamut, every emotional high and low that we could go in 15 minutes - which seemed like 15 days," Chizik said. "It was pretty incredible. Again, there were bad things that happened in the game, certainly after the kickoff return for a touchdown and our kids just never stopped fighting. It was good to see that."

The defense iced the game from there, sealing the contest with McFadden's second interception of the game.

More importantly, the offense that looked impotent in its last two games returned to the high-scoring form it showed through the first five games of the season.

Some of that came from Tate, who ran for 144 yards and the 53-yard touchdown. The 100-yard performance marked Tate's sixth of the season.

"Ben's a warrior. To get (144) yards he got on that defense is very impressive and a lot of them were hard yards too," offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. "He's one of our leaders and he showed a lot of guts and he's one of the best running backs in the country."

Still, Tate produced a couple 100-yard games during Auburn's losing streak. The difference Saturday came from quarterback Chris Todd.

The senior quarterback failed to throw for more than 123 during the three-game losing streak. He responded against Ole Miss by completing 12 of 22 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown.

"He's a very good quarterback and he showed today," Malzahn said. "Made some very good plays in the passing game and he got back on track, so that's very important for the rest of the year."

What's perhaps even more important is that Todd kept the opposing defenses honest by completing a pair of passes to Terrell Zachery for 42 and 41 yards. He also threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Darvin Adams in the second quarter to give Auburn its first lead of the game.

It wasn't until the third quarter, though, that Auburn's offense got back on track.

As a result, the Tigers avoided repeating last year's downward spiral to finish the season.

"Last year we were in a slump and … we started pointing fingers," McFadden said. "That's what we don't have this year. If the offense messes up, the defense says, 'We're going to get it back for you.' That's just how we are now. We're a family."