Sports - Colleges - Ole Miss

Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Auburn’s offense comes alive in victory

AUBURN, Ala. — Treat. Definitely a treat for Gus Malzhan.

Auburn’s struggling offense gave its coordinator a 401-yard game in a 33-20 win over No. 24 Ole Miss before 84,756 fans at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.

Auburn was held to less than 200 yards in a 31-10 loss at LSU last week and hadn’t reached 100 yards passing in its last two games.

But the Tigers got open for big plays against an Ole Miss secondary that was ranked No. 3 in the nation in pass defense efficiency with a 90.9 rating.

Malzahn left Arkansas with a bad taste in his mouth in 2006 after one season as coordinator for then-Razorbacks coach Houston Nutt. Facing Nutt for the first time in a college game, his play-calling twice sucked in Ole Miss defenders, as Auburn quarterbacks Chris Todd and Kodi Burns threw touchdown passes of 28 and 14 yards. The Tigers added a 53-yard touchdown run by Ben Tate and a 29-yard interception return by Walter McFadden en route to a 31-7 lead in the middle of the third quarter.

Ole Miss players said the motion and misdirection of Malzahn’s offense helped to slow their pass rush against Todd, who was sacked three times but not once until 5 :06 remained in the third quarter.

“We practiced all week against trick plays,” defensive end Kentrell Lockett said. “We couldn’t just pin our ears back and rush. They kept us on our heels and kind of in between with trick plays.”

With four games remaining Ole Miss (5-3, 2-3 SEC) needs two wins to qualify for a bowl game. Six would qualify most seasons, but the Rebels need seven, because they have two lower-division teams on the schedule, one of them next weekend’s home game against Northern Arizona.

Malzahn found no special significance in beating Nutt.

“There’s not,’’ Malzahn said. “We’re the Auburn Tigers, and we were needing a win desperately.”

Auburn (6-3, 3-3 SEC) scored more in the third quarter, 23 points, than any team has scored this season against Ole Miss, which began the game giving up just 13.6 points a game, ninth in the nation.

“It wasn’t what we’d seen the last two weeks on film. They executed today. They did a good job,” Nutt said.

While Todd was protected most of the game, Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead had a rougher go of things. He was sacked three times, hurried others, and didn’t handle the pressure well, completing 16-of-35 passes for 175 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.