The Auburn Tigers came into Saturday’s matchup against the Missouri Tigers 2-4 on the season and 0-3 in SEC play, but are holding their own thanks to strong play on the defensive side of the ball.
Neither team scored a touchdown in the first half, but Auburn managed to find the end zone on its first drive in the third quarter, thanks to a remarkable sequence of events from quarterback Payton Thorne.
Thorne advanced the ball 16 yards on a pair of completions to Robert Lewis before a nine-yard gain on the ground ended with a vicious hit – sending the quarterback to the sideline.
Many thought he would be out for the rest of the game, but instead he returned just a few plays later and immediately completed a 47-yard touchdown pass to Cam Coleman to give the Tigers a 10-3 lead with 12:34 remaining in the third quarter.
Missouri is 5-1 on the year and 1-1 in conference play, suffering a 41-10 road loss to Texas A&M two weeks ago. The team’s slim chances of making the College Football Playoff drop to 0.0% if they can’t find a way to come back and knock off Auburn in this one.