AUBURN, AL (EETV) -- Bo Nix has put the college football world on notice. Do not take the Auburn passing game lightly because Nix has finally found his deep ball.
Auburn had their revenge game against Mississippi State after a lackadaisical performance in last year's competition.
The Tigers 56-23 win over the Bulldogs keeps the momentum rolling for Auburn as they now are in the middle of a grueling schedule.
Let's take a look at some of the key takeaways from the game:
1. Complete Offensive Performance
You can look at several stats from the game that would indicate Auburn's dominance, but some of those stats don't tell the whole story.
For example, Auburn had 578 total yards; an impressive number. Dive deeper into how the Tigers got to that number and the story becomes clear.
Nix, 16/21, 335 passing yards and 2 touchdowns, had complete control of the offense. The balance of throwing and running was an evident emphasis in Saturday night's game.
Auburn had nine different ball carriers go for 217 total rushing yards, including 56 yards from the lead rusher; Bo Nix.
300 yards passing and 200 yards running, that's balance. An element that was missing from the offense, and something that Tim Tebow spoke about on Friday.
"If they hit two of those three [deep balls] they missed last week, I think people will be like wow, this offense is opening up," Tebow said.
Bo hit the deep ball and opened up a whole new world for the offense.
2. Holding On To The Football Is Still A Problem
Auburn's sloppy ball handling continues to be an issue that needs fixing heading into The Swamp next Saturday.
The Tigers fumbled the ball four times and lost three of those. Since the season opener against Oregon, Auburn has fumbled the ball at least once in every game since.
They are now tied at 83rd in the country in turnover margins at -1 for the season.
To put that in perspective, every team ahead of Auburn in the AP Poll has a positive turnover margin.
Winning the turnover battle is always a key statistic in any football game, and when the games becomes tight for Auburn, that will be the difference.
3. Misleading Stat Of The Night
Mississippi State (10:25) doubled the time of possession that Auburn (5:35) had in the first quarter, but were down 21-0 within the first six minutes of the game.
In fact, the Bulldogs finished the game with five more minutes of possession than Auburn (32:35-27:25).
Part of that was because of Auburn's defense forcing three straight 3-and-outs to start the game, giving the Tigers great field position to start their drives.
Auburn's first three starting drives started, on average, at the Mississippi State 32 yard line.
4. Up Next
College Gameday will travel to Gainesville to host the once-heated rivalry between Auburn and Florida. The game can be seen this Saturday on CBS at 2:30 p.m. CT.
