AU-SC: Tigers suffer another second-half meltdown in loss to Gamecocks
The Gamecocks of South Carolina defeat Auburn on Saturday night. (Auburn Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
Two plays beat Auburn on Saturday night.
It was the same two plays. Over and over.
The Tigers melted down in the second half for the third consecutive game, blowing an early 14-0 lead and falling at South Carolina 21-17 for their third consecutive loss.
“We played hard,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “In any game, it comes down to execution and putting our guys in the best position to be successful and we didn’t do that enough tonight to win the game. We have to go back and look at things we can do better and address the things that have come up in our training and throughout the season and put an emphasis on those again.”
For the second consecutive week, a Southeastern Conference team earned bowl eligibility at Auburn’s expense.
“We knew this was going to be a physical SEC football game and that’s what it was,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “But just so happy for our fans and so happy for our players. That’s a special group in there. It wasn’t pretty early. We were down 14-0. These guys never flinched. Like always, they just come right back out there and play their rear ends off in the second half. I mean, we lined up and basically ran the same two running plays on offense the entire game.
“It was duo and it was the counter and we ran it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And it was pretty fun to watch.”
Maybe it was fun for South Carolina fans, but Auburn fans dared to dream three weeks ago when their Tigers were 6-2. Three weeks later, the wheels have come off as both quarterback Bo Nix and kicker Anders Carlson were sidelined last week with injuries and their replacements drew mixed reviews in the wake of Saturday’s loss.
T.J. Finley kept his team in the fight for the entire contest, completing 17 of 32 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown in his first start at Auburn, but there were questions why the offense relied so much on Finley in the second half after Tank Bigsby racked up 164 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries.
“I thought he was solid,” Harsin said of Finley. “I’m going to watch the tape and look at the opportunities he had and what he did. At first glance, he did a good job leading, from the sideline.”
Auburn, leading 14-7 late in the first half, decided to go for broke on a fourth-and-one play from their 35-yard line. Finley’s pass was incomplete and the Gamecocks scored with 24 seconds left on a Jason Brown touchdown pass to tie the game.
“We were aggressive and were trying to extend that drive,” Harsin said. “We were on the road and we felt like we needed an explosive play and we felt like that play was a good one in practice and that it was a good opportunity to be aggressive and take the shot opportunity.”
With the Tigers trailing 21-17, Finley converted a fourth-and-16 play with a 19-yard strike to Shedric Jackson, leading to a first and goal at the South Carolina 6. Three plays later, now at the 8, walk-on kicker Ben Patton was wide right on a 25-yard field goal attempt.
Auburn’s next two possessions ended with punts near midfield. The Tigers were poised for one last attempt, but a South Carolina punt ended up in the Gamecocks’ possession with 2:11 left when replay officials overruled the decision on the field and said the ball touched Auburn’s Jaylin Simpson. South Carolina then ran out the clock.
“The explanation was that he touched it,” Harsin said. “That’s really what it comes down to. I didn’t see it on the field. We’ve all had scenarios where players on your team or the other team touch it and the direction of the ball changes. They didn’t call it on the field, so that was an overturn. They determined he touched it somewhere.”
The Auburn offense was outscored in the final three quarters 21-3 by the Gamecocks, using the same two plays over and over.
“They did run the same plays,” Auburn linebacker Chandler Wooten said. “We had a couple of issues fit wise. I felt like we shored up in the second half and made stops when we needed to.”
In three weeks, Auburn has been outscored 78-23 in the final three quarters by Texas A&M, Mississippi State and South Carolina. Now all that’s left in the regular season is a home game with Auburn next Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
“We’re obviously disappointed with the way the game ended,” Wooten said. “All we can do is come back next week and get to work. We’ve got a big game next week and we always want to win that game. We have a one-game season at this point, so we’re going to lay it all on the line.”