Auburn waited out a two-hour weather delay before knocking off Southern Miss 24-13 on Saturday.

Coach Gus Malzahn was pleased with his defense holding Southern Miss to just 2-of-13 on third down. But the Tigers mustered jut 96 rushing yards on 36 carries with one touchdown.

“We’ve been talking about playing good third down defense and our guys did,” Malzahn said. “Offensively, I think we had a little trouble protecting, and at times it made things a little bit ugly as far as that goes. Running the football, once again, we’ve got to be more consistent with that.”

Malzahn said because the delay came about four minutes before halftime, the flow of the game because a bit disjointed, but there’s no excuse.

“That’s part of it,” he said. “We just need to come out ready to play.”

Malzahn said he would like more consistency from his offense, though he was glad it hit a couple big plays.

“Any time you can run the football, it helps everything else, and we had trouble running it,” he said.

Auburn will return to action next week at Mississippi State.