Even though Auburn had 481 yards of offense to South Carolina’s 297, it was three big interceptions by Bo Nix that ultimately swung the tide in the Gamecocks’ favor.

All three of Auburn’s turnovers led to a South Carolina touchdown, accounting for 21 of the team’s 30 total points.

“We played pretty good football, but the three turnovers, obviously, were big,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said after the game.

Overall, the first half was mostly dominated by Auburn.

On their first two drives, the Tigers connected on a 35-yard Anders Carlson field goal and then an 11-yard Eli Stove touchdown.

Just as Auburn got the ball back looking to take a commanding lead, Nix forced a pass into heavy traffic and Gamecocks defender Jaycee Horn picked it off.

South Carolina took over at the Auburn 29-yard line and it ended with a Kevin Harris touchdown run.

The Tigers extended their lead to 16-7 on the next drive and after the defense forced a three-and-out, they were in a prime position to take a commanding lead before halftime.

Instead, Nix’s pass was deflected off Seth Williams and picked off by Jaylin Dickerson and the Gamecocks took over inside Auburn territory again, flipping the script and allowing South Carolina to get right back in the game.

“The turnovers right there were tough. But still, we were still in, I felt, in pretty good shape coming out of halftime,” Malzahn said. “We got the ball coming out. We had the lead, and went down and put 3 on the board, which I thought was big.”

On the third drive of the second half, Nix was intercepted again and this time Horn took it to the Auburn 8-yard line.

The Gamecocks scored a touchdown on the very next play, taking a commanding hold of the game.

Saturday’s loss marked Nix’s first multi-interception game since Oct. 5, 2019, in Auburn’s loss to Florida.

Malzahn’s message to Nix after the loss was simple.

“You know, he’s a competitor and we just need to go back and need to improve. We’ve got to protect the football,” Malzahn said. “We talked about that before we started the game. Really, we’d done what I’d say was a really good job of protecting the football up to this point.”

Before Saturday’s loss, Nix’s lone interception on the season came in Auburn’s loss at Georgia.

The result had a flipped outcome but a similar storyline to Auburn’s season opener against Kentucky. Against the Wildcats, Auburn was the team with less yardage but forced Kentucky into three turnovers.

Today it was Auburn that had more yardage, but ended up being killed by costly turnovers.

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