Protecting its house

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Protecting its house

Sunday, September 03, 2006

By GARETH CLARY

Sports Reporter

AUBURN -- The offense didn't always click.

The defense sometimes clacked.

But when you've lost three of your last four season openers and are burdened by the weight of lofty expectations, a win is a win.

John Vaughn kicked a career-high four field goals, Brad Lester scored two touchdowns and Kenny Irons was Kenny Irons -- rambling for 184 yards on 20 carries -- as No. 4 Auburn finally clocked Washington State 40-14 on Saturday night before a crowd of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare Stadium plus a national television audience.

Click. Clack.

"We really played well above the expectations we wished for," said Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville. "We won't have to hear about not winning the first game for a while. We knew we had to play at more of a level. We played our offense and our defense and stuck to our guns. Overall, it was a good game. We even played better than I thought."

For parts of the evening, especially trailing 7-6 after the first quarter, the Tigers performed like another over-exposed, over-hyped team running around in nothing but their Under Armour, which just happened to unveil a television commercial including Tuberville during the ESPN2 telecast.

"We were moving the ball well, we just couldn't finish," said Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox. "We want to finish. We are all about finishing around here and we came out in the second half and did a better job of that."

Vaughn booted all of his four field goals in the first half -- from 31, 44, 52 and 30 yards -- to rescue the sluggish offense. His career-best 52-yarder early in the second quarter gave the Tigers the lead for good, but it was still a 26-14 game in the fourth quarter before the Tigers added two late scores after a gutsy fake punt seemed to break the will of worn-out WSU.

Lester scored on a 34-yard screen pass from Cox in the second quarter and added a 12-yard run in the fourth quarter to help Auburn pull away.

Irons piled up a career-high 223 total yards, including a 42-yard run on Auburn's first offensive play of the year and a 58-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half to give the Tigers a little breathing room from their 19-7 edge at intermission.

Irons electrified the crowd several times with his swivel hips, stop-on-a-dime cutbacks and a spin move that left a Cougars defender grasping air.

"He has my Heisman vote," Washington State defensive coordinator Robb Akey said of Irons. "He is as good as he is billed. He is a damn good back."

Carl Stewart picked up Auburn's final touchdown run on a 1-yard plunge on a fourth-down play with 2:54 left in the game.

"We didn't throw much tonight," said Auburn wide receiver Courtney Taylor. "The running game was on and we were clicking. We made some good plays. It is a good performance to build on."

When WSU quarterback Alex Brink hit favorite target Jason Hill on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 2:09 left in the first quarter, the Cougars owned a 7-6 lead and the Auburn faithful had to suffer a few flashbacks to disappointing season-opening losses to Georgia Tech last year and Southern Cal in 2003.

The only other points Washington State could muster, however, came with 7:14 showing in the third quarter when a breakdown in the Auburn secondary left tight end Cody Boyd uncovered over the middle for a 50-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Gary Rogers.

That cut Auburn's lead to 26-14 and the momentum was starting to shift dramatically when the Cougars' defense stuffed the Tigers on the next three plays.

Auburn lined up to punt from its 16-yard line before Will Herring took a direct snap and Kody Bliss acted like the snap sailed over his head while Herring rambled 42 yards on the fake that got the Tigers back on track.

"The Mississippi gambler is back," boasted Tuberville, who has developed a reputation for trick plays and taking chances. "The fake punt is something that we have been working on. It just set up for us and we kept watching. We had an opportunity to check out of it if we wanted to, but we saw they were lined up for it. I took a big swallow because it was a gamble to run. It went perfect. Even though we didn't score, it got us out of a hole and switched ends of the field."

It certainly caught the Cougars by surprise.

"We got the three-and-out, had good momentum going and they ran the trick punt on us," said WSU coach Bill Doba. "That really hurt, but I think we learned from it."

Vaughn's perfect night was spoiled after the trickery when he missed a 36-yard attempt wide right.

"He is disappointed he missed that one," Tuberville said. "He hit it good, but just pulled it a bit. It is going to be fun to watch him this year."

Despite its early sputtering, Auburn's offense ground out 199 of its 293 yards rushing in the second half.

Cox was an efficient 11-of-18 passing for 191 yards.

"I really feel good about how we ran the football," Lester said. "We made a few little mistakes. We need to do a better job of turning three into seven, but it was the best first game we have had in a while."

The Tigers, who will surely remain at No. 4 in the polls, open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Mississippi State.

[AUwingsfan 1]

I'm glad we got the big first game loss monkey off our back!! One thing that bothers me about that is we lost twice to USC who is considered to be one of the best programs in the nation, and the first one was at Southern Cal and not a shutout, and not coincidentally that year they went on to win the AP national championship. The 2nd year we got spanked at home by USC, but that was the first start for two future heisman winners in Leinhart and Bush....so with the exception of the GA Tech game, which involved a 2nd half meltdown, have we really been that bad in openers lately?? I'm not one for moral victories in losing, but the media makes it seem like we lost to horrible teams in our openers, it was USC and GA Tech who almost pulled off the big upset over the number 2 team in the country..............

oh well, War Eagle!!