BY BRANDON HUGHES
FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Auburn (4-2, 2-2) beat No. 1 Georgia (6-1, 4-1), 27-24, on Saturday in Athens, and by any objective measure it should not have been possible.
Consider this: AP No. 1 teams had won 93 consecutive home games against unranked opponents. Georgia had won 53 straight against unranked opponents. And the No. 1 team had not lost to an unranked opponent in consecutive weeks since 1990 (No. 1 Texas fell the week before to unranked Oklahoma).
Then the game started. Georgia led 14-0 after two possessions — 164 yards on 12 plays — moving the ball as if it were playing against air. Unranked teams had lost 195 straight games to the AP No. 1 team when down by 14-plus points.
Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs were a perfect 65-0 against unranked teams when leading by 14-plus points (95-3 against all opponents when leading by 14 or more). Factor in that Auburn had not scored multiple touchdowns in Athens since 2009, and the game seemed over before it really started. It was not.
The Tigers scored 24 unanswered points, their largest comeback since trailing Oregon by 15 in 2019, and finished it when Alex McPherson’s 34-yard field goal sailed through the uprights as time expired in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
It was Auburn’s fourth win over an AP No. 1 team since 1998, the most in the country, and its second on the road against a top-ranked team, joining Florida in 1994. Georgia is now 36-2 all-time as the AP No. 1 team, with both losses to Auburn (1942 and 2026).
“They got scored on twice [and] gave up two explosives on both of those,” Auburn head coach Alex Golesh said of his defense. “But they jogged off the field. Nobody flinched [and] played the next play.”
About the defense finding its feet, Elijah Melendez said, “First quarter, they were running a bunch of different formations and trick plays. Eventually, they had to play football and beat us. They had to eventually beat us at football.”
The turnaround started on offense, and from an unlikely place. Christian Neptune, a wide receiver, threw a 24-yard TD pass to Keshaun Singleton to cut it to 14-7 — his second TD pass of the season, making him the first Auburn non-quarterback with multiple TD passes in a season since Ryan Davis in 2018.
The defense, meanwhile, finally showed up. Georgia’s next two possessions went seven plays and 39 yards, both ending in punts. Byrum Brown tied it at 14-14 midway through the second quarter with a 9-yard TD pass to Chas Nimrod, and when Georgia drove to the Auburn 36 yard line, Jared Smith blocked the 54-yard field goal try.
Auburn turned the short field into McPherson’s 49-yarder and a 17-14 halftime lead. That the defense played as well as it did without Xavier Atkins, the team’s second-leading tackler, who was held out of the game, made it more impressive.
Atkins was ultimately dismissed from the team after the game for undisclosed reasons.
Melendez finished with nine tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss and an interception, and Bryce Deas added a career-high eight; together they made 17 of Auburn’s 56 tackles. Melendez said the two had made a pact. “We made a promise to each other: If we have to, we will die on this field today,” Melendez said.
Brown had his best game as a Tiger, rushing for 115 yards and committing no turnovers. He was the first quarterback to rush for 100 yards in a win over the AP No. 1 team since Vince Young did so against USC in the 2005 BCS National Championship Game.
At halftime, Smart said of Auburn, “They’re controlling the line of scrimmage with their quarterback run game [and] physicality.”
The Tigers opened the second half with a TD drive capped by Brown’s five-yard run to put Auburn up by 10, and the defense continued to get stops. Georgia went seven plays and 51 yards on its first possession of the half before Melendez picked off Gunner Stockton at the Auburn 23 yard line.
Over the second and third quarters combined, the Bulldogs ran 30 plays for 140 yards, threw two interceptions and did not score. But in the fourth quarter, Georgia finished a 14-play, 49-yard field goal drive, and then tied the game at 24-24 with 2:58 left on a 94-yard TD drive.
Things did not look good for Auburn when Georgia took over with 1:12 left; the ending felt inevitable. That feeling lasted three plays. Cody Sigler stripped Stockton at the Auburn 48 yard line, and Sylvester Smith-Reed fell on it with 1:04 remaining.
“Is there anything more Auburn than Cody Sigler?” Golesh said. “[Sigler] said, ‘That’s why I came to Auburn.’”
Five plays, 40 yards and 58 seconds later, McPherson’s teammates carried him off the field. Golesh said he tells his players to stop thinking of games as a three-and-a-half-hour dogfight.
“[If] you think about it as a series of six- to eight-second snaps, and six- to eight-second one-on-one battles, you can play more violent and tougher and more detailed than the guy across from you,” Golesh said.
From that viewpoint, Georgia’s first 12 plays produced 14 points. Auburn outscored the Bulldogs 27-10 over the other 127. Golesh had a message for the fans after the game: “We’re going to build Auburn back to where everybody wants it — one game at a time. Just hang with us.”
Wins like this one are what building looks like. Auburn fans have been asked to hang on for a long time now. On Saturday, they finally got something to hang on to.
By the Numbers
Golesh is now 3-1 in one-score games at Auburn. Auburn was 2-12 in one-score games the previous three seasons, which was the worst in the SEC.
Golesh became the first college football coach to beat a No. 1 team in his first season at a school since Gus Malzahn in 2013.
McPherson’s kick was Auburn’s first walk-off field goal since 2012 against Louisiana-Monroe in overtime, and its first in regulation since the 2011 national championship win over Oregon.
Up next:
Home versus LSU on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m. on ABC.
