AUBURN, Ala. – There was 1:14 left in the fourth quarter. Leading 20-14, the Auburn offense had picked up a couple critical first downs to flip the field, and now it was the defense's turn. They had to make one more stop, one more stand, to seal the victory.
The mindset was simple.
"Protect the house," freshman linebacker Owen Pappoe said. "Don't let them in the end zone."
The task in front of them was not made any easier with senior leaders Marlon Davidson (back) and Jeremiah Dinson (virus) both unavailable for the game. Davidson, a two-time SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week this season, came into Saturday's contest leading the team in tackles for loss (9). Dinson was the team leader in tackles (61).
That didn't deter this group, though. There's a standard that's been set regardless of who's playing, and through the first 58 minutes, the defense was playing to that standard.
"We're a bunch of fighters," linebacker K.J. Britt said. "We've got people who step up when their name is called. We just wanted to fight. Even though they were down, we couldn't let it affect us. They were really big players who would have had a big impact on the game, but at the same time, we just have to play. That's why people come to Auburn."
"The guys that are behind them know that they have to step up," added Pappoe. "When one man goes down, the next man has to be up, be ready."
The "next man up" in this case was freshman defensive end Derick Hall and sophomore safety Jamien Sherwood. They both earned the start in place of Davidson and Dinson. For Hall, it was his first career start at Auburn. Sherwood was out there on that final drive.
The drive itself started at the Ole Miss 31. After a holding penalty, the Rebels picked up 37 yards on back-to-back plays to move into Auburn territory. They completed two more short passes, and then following an incomplete pass, it was 4th-and-2 with 17 second left, the outcome hanging in the balance.
Quarterback J.R. Plumlee took the snap and scrambled to his right to avoid pressure. He then ran back to the left side of the field where Pappoe was waiting. The freshman linebacker took off after him and wrapped him up, but as Plumlee was going down, he threw the ball up for grabs.
The stadium held its collective breath for what seemed like an eternity, but when Auburn cornerback Christian Tutt pulled down the errant throw, the place erupted. It was Tutt's second career interception.
"I was just trying to do my job," Tutt said. "I did my job, I did my job, saw him scramble. I saw the wide receiver go back to the field where he was by himself, so I tried to get to him as quickly as I could. The quarterback rolled back that way and made a bad pass. I caught it and I was thinking about getting down until I saw all that space, and I was like, 'Yeah, I'm about to take this.'"
Tutt nearly did take it back for a touchdown, returning it 57 yards before running out of gas, but at that point, it didn't matter. The clock read 0:00. The game was over. The Auburn defense came through when it mattered the most.
Would it had helped having Davidson and Dinson on that last drive? Of course. But it was all about that 'next man up' mentality, and other guys stepped up.
"We had some guys step up and do an excellent job," Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. "Their quarterback is dynamic on the ground. The defense, when they had to, they stopped them when the game was on the line. I'm really proud of the offense flipping the field, and I'm really proud of the defense ending the game at the end."
"We would've liked for the game to be way out of reach, but sometimes you have to be in a dog fight," senior safety Daniel Thomas said. "I feel like that's big for our team going forward. We have a bye week, and then we have Georgia. We'll take it one day at a time."