On a night when Auburn’s offense was unable to get anything going the Tiger’s defense took over and led them to a 13-10 victory over Texas A&M Saturday night in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
With the win, Auburn (4-6, 2-5 SEC) snapped a five-game losing streak and gave [autotag]Cadillac Williams[/autotag] his first win as head coach of the Auburn Tigers.
Despite giving up 0 points in the first half, Auburn’s defense kicked it up in the second half. They forced five consecutive three-and-outs and held the Aggies to -2 yards in the third quarter.
The Aggies were without star running back Devon Achane and were unable to get anything going on the ground, they averaged 3.9 yards per carry and were forced to keep turning to true freshman quarterback Conner Weigman to bail them out.
Auburn’s defensive line made sure that did not happen. They may have with 3.0 sacks but they kept Weigman under constant pressure. He never looked comfortable and at one point he missed on 13 straight pass attempts. He finished the night 14-for-36 for 121 yards.
After Auburn nearly committed their fourth turnover of the game, they were clinging to a 10-3 lead late in the fourth quarter and Texas A&M had a chance to tie it up.
[autotag]Colby Wooden[/autotag] had other plans. He beat the left tackle and stripped Weigman and [autotag]Morris Joseph Jr.[/autotag] recovered to give Auburn the ball at the Texas A&M 32-yard line.
Auburn was once again unable to finish the drive with a touchdown but [autotag]Alex McPherson[/autotag] made a 26-yard field goal to give Auburn a 13-3 lead with 3:02 to play.
On a night when Auburn’s defense took over, Wooden led the way. His strip sack was his only tackle but he finished with three quarterback hurries and was constantly in the backfield.
Auburn’s offense was able to move the ball throughout the game but once again failed to finish their drives. They averaged 4.9 per play and crossed the 50-yard line on their first five drives. However, they managed just seven points on those drives.
The biggest missed opportunity came in the third quarter when Auburn started the ball at midfield after a short punt by the Aggies. [autotag]Jarquez Hunter[/autotag] ripped off a 25-yard run to get Auburn right outside the red zone. Two plays later a miscommunication between [autotag]Robby Ashford[/autotag] and [autotag]Tank Bigbsy[/autotag] resulted in a fumble and the Aggies recovered to end the scoring opportunity.
After Texas A&M opened the game with nine straight punts, Ashford was picked off by Edgerrin Cooper to give the Aggies the ball at Auburn’s 39-yard line.
Auburn’s defense once again stood up though and they held the Aggies to a field goal to keep it a 10-3 Auburn lead with 10:38 left to play.
The Aggies had their best drive of the game after falling behind by two possessions with 3:02 left to play. They scored their first touchdown of the game with 1:33 left to play but failed to recover the onside kick and it was over.
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