AUBURN, Ala. — Cam Newton and No. 17 Auburn are hard to stop once they get going.
The Tigers’ 250-pound quarterback rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns and passed for two more scores Saturday night, and Auburn forced four fourthquarter turnovers to pull off another come-from-behind victory as it defeated South Carolina 35-27.
“We’ve got a lot of guys on this team that are relentless,” Newton said.
They’re resilient, too.
The Tigers (4-0, 2-0 SEC) overcame a double-digit halftime deficit for the second consecutive week against a team from the Palmetto State, this time falling behind 20-7. Both of Newton’s scoring passes came in the fourth quarter after fumbles by South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia.
South Carolina (3-1, 1-1) twice drove into Auburn territory in the final minutes behind freshman backup Connor Shaw, but he was intercepted each time. Demond Washington intercepted a pass that deflected off the hands of receiver Alshon Jeffery in the end zone with 33 seconds left to seal the victory.
Newton was 16 of 21 passing for 158 yards and logged 25 carries, including a 54-yard touchdown run after a nice fake handoff in the first quarter.
Auburn racked up 334 yards rushing against a defense that came in giving up a league-low 60 yards on the ground.
The Tigers trailed Clemson 17-0 late in the first half last week before winning inovertime on a missed field goal. They escaped again without needing the lucky break.
“They have the word ’respond’ that we use a lot,” Auburn Coach Gene Chizik said. “Our guys just responded. It’s not always pretty. There’s a lot of things that if we look back on it, they’re not good. But these guys are fighting, clawing, scratching, trying to find a way to win every week.”
He had challenged the offensive line to get more physical after the Clemson game, and Newton felt like they answered.
“They got a beating from Coach Chizik this week,” he said. “They did what they’re coached to do, and it shows in the statistics.”
The Tigers were ball hogs in a dominant second half, running 49 plays to South Carolina’s 22.
The Gamecocks had noturnovers in the first three quarters and four in the final 15 minutes to waylay a bid for their first 4-0 start since 2001. South Carolina was also seeking SEC victory No. 107 for Coach Steve Spurrier, which would have given him sole possession of secondplace behind Alabama’s Bear Bryant. Instead, the Gamecocks left with their sixth consecutive loss in league road games and fifth in a row against Auburn since joining the SEC.
“We had trouble stopping them, but we stopped them enough and then our quarterback fumbled a few times and they scored,” Spurrier said. “But still, we moved the ball. In close games against good teams, if we get good plays we’ve got to make them.”
Auburn failed to get a first down and run out the clock on three consecutive Newton runs, but then it capitalizedon one of the few balls Jeffery didn’t bring down.
He had eight catches for 192 yards and caught two of Garcia’s three touchdown passes. Garcia was 15 of 21 passing for 235 yards but was sacked three times and had two costly fumbles before being pulled in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers’ Michael Dyer (Little Rock) won the battle of highly touted freshman running backs, outgaining Marcus Lattimore 100 yards to 33. Dyer had 23 carries, but Lattimore was stymied early and carried only 14 times after emerging as a workhorse coming into the game.
Dyer gained 78 yards after halftime.
“I asked him before the game, ‘Can you carry it 20 times?’ ” Chizik said. “He just kind of laughed and said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ It seemed like he got a little stronger as the game went along.”
Sports, Pages 30 on 09/26/2010