Cox, Tate simply great

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Cox, Tate simply great

Sunday, October 22, 2006

By PHILLIP MARSHALL

Times Sports Staff pmarsh9485@msn.com

No. 8 Auburn overwhelms Tulane on homecoming

AUBURN - Senior wide receiver Courtney Taylor saw it early. Brandon Cox was back.

Cox, Auburn's junior quarterback, might as well have been taking target practice on homecoming at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. He completed 16-of-19 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns. He would have had more if tailback Tre Smith had not dropped what would have been a big gainer in the open field.

"You could tell right off that he was on target," said Taylor, who caught a 23-yard pass for his first touchdown since last season's Capital One Bowl. "Man, you have to tip your hat to Brandon. He played a great game."

When Cox wasn't picking apart the Tulane secondary, he was handing the ball to freshman tailback Ben Tate, who ran 26 times for 156 yards and scored on a 1-yard run. The defense did enough to keep things under control and No. 8 Auburn cruised to a 38-13 homecoming victory before a crowd of 79,837.

Auburn moved to 7-1 on the season and is 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference going into Saturday's visit to Ole Miss. Tulane fell to 2-5.

Cox has played with painful injuries to his left knee and ankle since taking a shot against LSU in the season's third game. Finally, he said, that's over.

"With my ankle and knee being hurt, it's kind of messed up my throwing motion and my mechanics," Cox said. "I've been working on that since I've been healthy. It all came together today."

Cox threw scoring passes for 27 yards to Trott and 6 yards to Smith. Taylor got him another one by breaking numerous tackles to get into the end zone

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