AU-SC: Turnovers kill Auburn's chances to earn road victory

Auburn’s battle with South Carolina ended with the Tigers’ second loss of the season in Columbia, S.C. (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Media Relations)

By TIM GAYLE

Auburn had three turnovers in Saturday’s game with South Carolina. And the Gamecocks made them pay for each one of them, converting the mistakes into 21 points and a 30-22 victory, their first win over Auburn in 87 years.

“As far as the stat sheet, we played pretty good football,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “But the three turnovers, obviously, were big. They led to 21 points.”

Jaycee Horn, who shadowed Seth Williams all day, had two of the three picks and his second theft of a Bo Nix pass was returned down the sidelines to the Auburn 8-yard line, leading to a Kevin Harris touchdown run on the following play for a 27-19 lead.

“I felt like throughout the week I was going to have a couple of good opportunities to make plays,” Horn said, “because Auburn likes to get the ball to their best receiver, No. 18, and when ‘T-Rob’ (Travaris Robinson) gave me the task of following him I kind of felt like I would have opportunities to make plays on the ball.”

Horn’s defensive efforts in taking away Auburn’s biggest big-play threat may have made the biggest impact on an Auburn offense that moved the ball well early and went stagnant with the game on the line.

“It could be just Game Four and not going through spring, I don’t know,” Malzahn said. “I thought we did very good on third downs in the first half. I think we were one of five or six in the second half but you have to give them credit.”

Auburn’s first four drives resulted in points, although one of the four led to South Carolina’s first touchdown when Horn’s interception at the Auburn 29 led to a Harris touchdown run. The Tigers’ other possessions ended with a field goal and a pair of touchdowns, resulting in a 16-7 lead. Auburn’s response to the turnover was a 44-yard pass from Nix to Williams that set up a touchdown run by Tank Bigsby, who finished with 111 yards.

At that point, Auburn seemed well on its way to its third win of the season.  

But from there, it was all downhill for the Tigers’ offense. Thoroughly outplayed in the first half, South Carolina scored with 35 seconds remaining in the first half to trim Auburn’s lead to 16-14 and the Tigers were never the same, managing just eight first downs and a pair of Anders Carlson field goals on five possessions before a final drive down the field toward a potential game-tying touchdown.

That one ran out of time – and downs – on the South Carolina 9-yard line when Nix’s fourth-down scramble was stopped two yards short of the first-down marker. 

“At the end of the day, they had 83 snaps, played with some tempo, but when we got in the red zone we played really good,” South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said. “They had a hard time throwing it down in the red zone.”

Nix ran for 69 yards and completed 24 of 47 passes for 272 yards and a touchdown, but was forced to direct 13 of his throws to Eli Stove and Anthony Schwartz as Horn held Williams to just two receptions for 19 yards in the final 41 minutes after his 44-yard reception seemed to signal a good day for the Auburn offense.

Horn, however, had other plans.

“The guy’s an outstanding football player,” Muschamp said. “He got two interceptions today (and) he caused the other one on a tipped pass. He and Williams battled all day, it was a great battle. We matched him up on him and felt great about where we were going to be in those situations.”

Now, South Carolina and Auburn are in a four-way tie for fifth place in the conference at 2-2, with the Gamecocks feeling good about a two-game winning streak and a game next week at LSU, while Auburn fans are upset with their quarterback after three turnovers led to their second loss in three weeks.

“Bo Nix is a great competitor,” Muschamp said. “That guy competes his butt off. He’s a very difficult guy to get down in space. When you’re rushing four guys, you’re playing coverage, the most expending thing you do as a football player is rush the passer and we got tired at the end. That guy is a battler. He kept competing in the game. He ought to be very proud of his performance today.”

Auburn (2-2) travels to Oxford next week to play Ole Miss.