Auburn fans may want to breathe a sigh of relief after Saturday’s 24-20 win over Mississippi State.
Yes, the Tigers won in the game’s final seconds.
Yes, the win snapped Auburn’s 10-game losing streak in the SEC.
Yes, Nick Marshall, in only his third start, completed 23 of his 34 pass attempts for a career-high 339 yards and two touchdowns.
But the pass that won the game, the 11-yard pass from Marshall to tight end C.J. Uzomah with 10 seconds left, is one that Marshall said he completes only about five out of 10 times in practice every day.
“It was a tough throw because every day in practice, I usually throw it too far out of bounds or too short,” he said. “But I’ve worked on it more and was confident I could make that throw.”
On the play, Marshall dropped back, pump-faked once to allow Uzomah to finish the double-move, and then lofted the pass into the corner, where Uzomah brought it down. Mississippi State’s players pleaded with the officials that Uzomah landed out of bounds, but after the play was reviewed the touchdown stood.
As difficult a throw as it was for Marshall, it wasn’t an easy route for Uzomah, either.
“It’s pretty hard with corners that bite pretty hard, but Coach had confidence in us to execute, and we executed,” he said.
Of course, it was probably easier than throwing a pass to yourself, which Marshall did earlier in the game.
No, that’s not something he practices.
After Mississippi State took a 20-14 lead to open the second half, the Tigers got the ball back on their 11-yard line.
Facing second-and-5 at the 30-yard line, Marshall rolled to his left. A Mississippi State defender rushed Marshall. Instead of pulling the ball down and running, which is what Marshall said he was supposed to do, he attempted a short pass.
The ball hit the defender in the chest and bounced back to Marshall. He caught the pass and took off down the sideline. The officials ruled that he stepped out 37 yards later at the Bulldogs’ 33-yard line. He thought he stayed inbounds.
“I didn’t want to throw another interception, so I just made the play myself,” he said. Marshall finished with two interceptions, one on a pass at the end of the first half.
Marshall, from Wilcox County High, is the first Tigers quarterback to pass for more than 300 yards since another Georgia high school product, Cam Newton, threw for 335 against South Carolina in the 2010 SEC Championship game, which must seem like an eternity ago to Auburn fans.
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said that he’s still learning about his new signal-caller, who was a defensive back at Georgia in 2011. But he liked what he saw Saturday, particularly the calm before Marshall led the Tigers on the 88-yard game-winning drive.
“He looked fairly natural there,” Malzahn said. “I mean he was making all the reads; he was making good balls. I don’t know if he threw a bad ball on that drive, and he led us down the field, and that was huge.”
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