There were plenty of tense moments for the Auburn Tigers in their Thursday night test at Kansas State, but a combination of mistakes from the Wildcats and timely plays from the Auburn offense was enough to seal the 20-14 victory.SportsCenterpointed out just how notable the win was for the Tigers:Kellis Robinett of The Wichita Eagle had Bill Snyder's thoughts on the loss:Nick Marshall led the way for Auburn with 231 passing yards and two touchdowns, but it was his third-down throw to D'haquille Williams in the final two minutes that put the game on ice. Williams finished with 110 receiving yards and a touchdown.Kansas State was right in the game for the entirety of the contest, but three missed field goals, two interceptions and a lack of production in the red zone proved to be its undoing.The Wildcats have not exactly been dominant against ranked teams and were certainly looking to change that Thursday. Kansas State writer D. Scott Fritchen shared the details:The Wildcats seized the early momentum, but mistakes cost them dearly. They fumbled on a promising drive in the first quarter, as Alex Byington of theOpelika-Auburn News pointed out, and then Tyler Lockett dropped a touchdown pass that bounced up and turned into an interception in the end zone.Brandon Marcello of the Alabama Media Group described that brutal turnaround for Kansas State:Kansas State also missed a field goal at the end of the first quarter. It is incredibly difficult to pull off an upset over a top-five SEC team with miscues like turnovers and missed scoring opportunities. At least the Wildcats had some famous fan support in the form of Rob Gronkowski, whose younger brother, Glenn, plays for K-State:Even with so many Kansas State mistakes, Auburn only led 3-0 after a quarter. SI College Football noted that Auburn was once again finding strange ways to win:Kansas State seized some momentum in the second quarter with an interception but did not turn it into points despite the favorable field position. It did pin Auburn at its own 1-yard line with an impressive punt, but the Tigers would have finished a 99-yard drive with a long touchdown pass had Williams not dropped a perfect strike from Nick Marshall.Marcello described the play:The Wildcats finally made Auburn pay and marched down the field to take a 7-3 lead, as CBS Sports noted:Still, that lead didn't last long, as Auburn answered with a Ricardo Louis 40-yard touchdown catch. It was certainly set up by some poor tackling on Kansas State's part, as Joel A. Erickson of AL.com said.ESPN SEC had a highlight of the play:The Wildcats had a chance to take the lead or tie it up at the half, but Jake Waters took a sack. The team missed the subsequent field-goal attempt, and Auburn led 10-7 at the half.Neither offense got much of anything going at the start of the third quarter. In fact, Auburn had a familiar problem, as War Eagle Extra of theColumbus Ledger-Enquirerpointed out:Perhaps the best offensive factor all game for the Wildcats was the field position they would get every time Auburn punted to Lockett. War Eagle Extra seemed to be frustrated with the proceedings:Kansas State took the favorable field position after yet another impressive punt return and nearly found the end zone. Instead, it settled for a chip-shot field goal to tie the game.Or at least that's what the Wildcats had in mind.Jack Cantele missed his third field goal of the game, which was very unusual, as Kellis Robinett of The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Starnoted:Paul Finebaum of ESPN had a very poignant question:Kansas State likely wanted to avoid making such crippling mistakes heading into this game because of the overall talent disparity that head coach Bill Snyder discussed before the game, via AL.com'sErickson."We don't have the personnel to work against that emulates the speed and the quickness and the strength and the size that they present," Snyder said. "I don't know (what's most difficult to defend). Take your pick."The Tigers held on to a narrow 10-7 lead after three quarters, largely because of Kansas State's mistakes.Eventually, all those missed opportunities were going to come back to haunt the underdog, and that is exactly what happened in the beginning of the fourth quarter. CBS Sports and Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports described Auburn's backbreaking touchdown, while Ralph D. Russo of The Associated Press thought that falling behind 17-7 was the final straw for the Wildcats:The next drive would be critical for Kansas State as it tried to avoid the wrong kind of history for its conference, according to Fritchen:However, Kansas State did the exact opposite of scoreit turned the ball over. SI College Football and ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit both thought that was the nail in the coffin:To Kansas State's credit, it held Auburn to a field goal on the subsequent drive, which stretched the lead to 20-7. LostLetterman.com pointed out that the defense did its part against an explosive Auburn attack that frequently lights up the scoreboard:Mandel added to that notion:As the fourth quarter wound down, Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports pointed out that Auburn was entering some uncharted territory if it could hold on for the win:For all the discussion about this game being over, the Wildcats marched all the way down the field and scored with just less than four minutes remaining to cut the lead to 20-14. All of a sudden, we had a game again.Russo certainly didn't think the touchdown changed anything:Unfortunately for Kansas State, Russo was exactly right. Williams hauled in a deep pass on 3rd-and-9 with less than two minutes remaining to put the contest on ice.It was one of the most impressive throws of Marshall's career and sealed a critical nonconference victory for the Tigers.Chris B. Brown of Smart Football took note of the gutsy play call:Auburn won 20-14.What's Next'Auburn gets a warm-up game against Louisiana Tech after this nail-biting win before jumping back into SEC play with a showdown against LSU. The Tigers still have games against Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M and South Carolina remaining on the slate as well, so this victory was critical in terms of their postseason chances.You simply don't want to lose in nonconference play with so many challenges coming up within the league.Kansas State also has something of an easy game against UTEP next before starting conference play. The Wildcats will have opportunities to pick up the marquee win they narrowly missed out on Thursday against Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State later in the year.
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