Gus Malzahn was livid over the targeting foul on Derick Hall that erased Roger McCreary's pick-six. He dug into the officiating crew all the way until the halftime break. Postgame, the head coach maintained that he thought it was the wrong call when he saw it, though he added he'd watch the play more later.
But even though Auburn didn't score on McCreary's seismic run-back — which made the 17,490 gathered in Jordan-Hare Stadium sound like a capacity crowd — Malzahn still thought it the sequence of the day for his Tigers in their 29-13 win over Kentucky on Saturday.
"I thought probably the play of the game was right there before halftime," Malzahn said postgame on a Zoom call with reporters. "They had the ball on the half-foot line and we picked it. Of course, we went for six and it got called back but still just the momentum and not giving up any points. We still had the lead at halftime, which was huge."
Auburn had its most takeaways in a season opener since 2013, with McCreary's pick, followed by two fumble recoveries by Jamien Sherwood and Owen Pappoe in the fourth quarter, helping the Tigers to win going away.
Auburn also thwarted a Kentucky fake punt in the final quarter. Bo Nix threw his third touchdown pass of the day two plays later to put the Tigers up three scores.
"When you look at it that way, it was four turnovers," Malzahn said of the fake-punt stop by senior safety Jordyn Peters.
Although McCreary's interception didn't lead to points, it was a back-breaker for the Wildcats, coming three plays after they thought they'd taken the lead with a goal-line rushing touchdown right before halftime.
"I really feel like that was a momentum-shifter," Sherwood said of McCreary's play. "I feel like if they would have scored that touchdown before the half that probably would have given them momentum to keep fighting throughout the game. That interception, I feel like it killed them. We came back after halftime and I feel like the defense really stepped up."
Still locked in a 15-13 game, Sherwood grabbed a fumble by Wildcats quarterback Terry Wilson on Kentucky's drive of the fourth quarter, setting up Nix and company in plus-territory for Seth Williams' second touchdown. Pappoe snatched up a loose ball, poked out by McCreary, on Kentucky's final drive, allowing Auburn to kneel out the clock.
"My fumble recovery killed them," Sherwood said. "That last one we got at the end of the game was the final one. It just killed everything. Even though they were down two scores, that touchdown right there just shut the game out.”
But the Tigers ultimately drew the most confidence, they said, from their goal-line stop and McCreary's interception.
Until that point, Kentucky was dominating the pace of the game, eating up time of possession and proving nearly unstoppable on third downs, converting 8-of-10 attempts in the first half.
After the half, the Tigers tightened up in a big way, stopping five of UK's nine third downs over the final two quarters and allowing almost 100 fewer yards than the first half.
"After that, we knew that we were the better team," Peters said. "I feel like. I feel like we feel we knew what we had to do at that point, and we were going to do it, and nothing was going to stop us.”
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