AUBURN, Ala. – No. 16 Auburn scored touchdowns on its first four drives to build a 25-point lead but Mississippi State answered with six consecutive touchdown drives to beat the Tigers 43-34 Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
"Everybody's disappointed," Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. "No one's happy in the locker room. We had our opportunities. We started fast but we didn't finish. We've got to be able to start like we did and finish much better than we did."
In a game that featured 792 passing yards, Bo Nix completed his first nine passes and finished 27-for-41 for a career-high 377 yards and two touchdowns.
Mississippi State's Will Rogers completed 44 of 55 passes for 415 yards and six touchdowns.
The Auburn quarterback came out firing, connecting with Shedrick Jackson over the middle for 48 yards on the game's first play from scrimmage.
Tank Bigsby scored four plays later on a 5-yard touchdown run to give Auburn an early 7-0 lead.
After Mississippi State answered with a field goal, the Tigers struck quickly on a 57-yard lateral to Ja'Varrius Johnson to put Auburn ahead 14-3 late in the first quarter.
Auburn extended its lead to 21-3 early in the second quarter on Nix's 4-yard touchdown pass to Luke Deal, the tight end's first career TD.
Eku Leota's sack helped force a punt, leading to Auburn's fourth touchdown, a 15-yard pass from Nix to Kobe Hudson, who made a highlight-reel one-handed catch in the back of the end zone to give the Tigers a 28-3 lead with 6:10 remaining in the second quarter.
"He did a great job," Nix said of Hudson. "He made a bunch of big plays today. We're excited for his growth and maturity."
Hudson had eight catches for 107 yards while Johnson made four receptions for 102 yards, career bests for both receivers.
Mississippi State (6-4, 4-3) took control throwing short touchdown passes on six consecutive drives, beginning on its last drive of the second quarter, taking the lead early in the fourth quarter and extending it to 43-28 with 5:31 left on Rogers' 6-yard TD pass to Malik Heath.
"Our moto is finish and obviously we didn't get that done today," said defensive end Derick Hall, who made three tackles and a sack. "Assess the game and learn from it, take the things you learn, apply it next week, and move on to the next opponent."
"We had chances to get off the field," Harsin said. "We've got to find a way to capture that momentum and get it back. We weren't able to do that in the second half. We've got to continue attacking in the second half. We didn't extend drives and keep ourselves on the field. It comes back to finishing ballgames and finding a way to put teams away."
Auburn drove 90 yards in nine plays, scoring on Bigsby's 1-yard run to trim the Bulldogs' lead to 43-34 with 3:37 to play, but Auburn's 2-point pass attempt was intercepted, then MSU recovered Auburn's onside kick.
Zakoby McClain led Auburn with 14 tackles while Chandler Wooten added 10.
Auburn (6-4, 3-3) plays its final road game next Saturday at 6 p.m. CT at South Carolina on ESPN.
"This loss stings," Harsin said. "What are you going to do about it? How are you going to respond? Are you going to fold your tent, or bow your neck and go get ready to play? That's my challenge, that's our challenge."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer