5 takeaways from Auburn’s Birmingham Bowl victory

Following Auburn’s 31-10 win over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl on Wednesday, a Memphis player appeared to be involved in an altercation involving an Auburn equipment manager.

The postgame antics distracted from an impressive win by Auburn, which held a Memphis team averaging 510.4 yards a game to just 203 total yards.

Auburn’s defense forced three-and-outs on Memphis’ next two drives and the offense capitalized, extending the lead on touchdown runs from Johnson and Robinson to put the game out of reach.

The first half looked grim for Auburn when it gave Memphis 10 points off two botched plays.

Much was expected of Memphis’ Lynch in the second and third quarters, but an interception thrown in the third – only his fourth of the season – derailed the Tigers’ chance of producing any spark.

Ball was seen after the game stealing the game ball away from an Auburn athletic trainer.

It was quite the turnaround for Johnson, who didn’t start because Sean White won that job in practice. Johnson added a 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter as the Tigers were pulling away.

Late in third quarter, Auburn capped an eight-play drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jeremy Johnson to Jason Smith.

Lynch could never get untracked in what might be the final college game for the projected top-five National Football League draft pick. “We just stuck to it and played Auburn football”.

In the second half, Auburn took control, scoring on Johnson’s 11-yard pass to Smith.

There were a lot of positives in this game for Auburn after a disappointing 6-6 regular season.

A blocked field goal and a pair of blown punt return coverages were all huge momentum swingers in this game.

But the story of most of the game was the play of the Auburn defense, which was led by interim defensive coordinator Lance Thompson. Auburn outgained Memphis, 197-91, in the first half but the turnovers stunted its success. For the Memphis Tigers, it was the struggles of highly-touted junior signal-caller Paxton Lynch’s that made headlines. He will replace Will Muschamp who left Auburn after one season to become South Carolina’s head coach.

Worth Noting: Peyton Barber went past the 1,000-yard mark for rushing, stretching Auburn’s streak to seven seasons with at least one player doing that.