AUBURN | A 78-yard pass on the final play of the third quarter and a 95-yard, game-winning touchdown drive at the end of the fourth.

Outside of those 173 yards, Auburn’s defense held Missouri to just 175 in the game and an average of 3.1 yards per play.

Of course, you can’t take anything away from Missouri, which rallied from an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat Auburn 21-17 behind the heroic return of quarterback Brady Cook from injury.

"Defensively, I thought we played probably our most complete game outside of the 78-yard completion where we had rat coverage called, and it should never be. We're just young,” said AU coach Hugh Freeze. “But we're right there, you know? It's a great call by DJ and them. But, yet, they made a play.

“They had a good quarterback, good receivers, and they made the play. We gave up an explosive run that gave them their first score to get back in it. You've got to give Brady credit for coming back and extending plays with his legs, which really hurt us. Then, obviously, they have an 17-play drive to win the game. We were absolutely gassed.”

Leading 17-6, Auburn drove 63 yards on 13 plays but came up without any points after a dropped pass in the end zone and a missed 30-yard field goal.

Cook, who left the game in the first quarter with an ankle injury, returned for the ensuing series and completed the 78-yard pass to Mookie Cooper on 3rd and 10 at AU’s 20-yard line.

Marcus Carroll scored on a 2-yard touchdown run on the next play to open the fourth quarter.

The 95-yard drive took just 3:40 and included a 15-yard pass interference on AU, and conversions on 3rd and 7, 4th and 5, which came after a 13-yard gain on 3rd and 18, and 3rd and 10.

Jamal Roberts finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds left.

Of course, when you're starting and playing as many true freshmen as any team in the country on defense, some of those critical mistakes are just part of the process of those players gaining experience.

“The DB’s, the young ones who have played pretty well at keeping everything in front of them most of the game — man, they got tired. Their technique went,” said Freeze. “Watching it (Sunday) with the defensive staff, it's just the same call was executed three times perfectly in the first half. And my alignment that's supposed to be just outside tip or just inside tip, all of a sudden, in this 18-play drive with the game on the line, everything changed in the way we went about the technique and playing it.

“We did get gashed up front and couldn't get any pressure. Brady Cook did a great job of extending plays and the penalty hurt us also. We had a misalignment by a freshman corner on 3rd and 10 that really hurt in that last drive.”

Auburn plays at Kentucky next Saturday at 6:45 p.m. CT on SEC Network.