Rapid Reaction: Deuce breaks loose, leads Auburn to win in historic debut
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Auburn started its third quarterback of the season on Saturday against Mercer. As the clock ran out on a victory, Auburn fans were left wondering why it took so long to get him on the field.
True freshman quarterback Deuce Knight made his first career start, and it was a doozy. He scored 6 total touchdowns and produced 401 yards of total offense in a 62-17 win over Mercer.
Knight became the first freshman in program history to run for at least 150 yards and 4 touchdowns in a game. He ran for a 75-yard touchdown on Auburn’s first snap of the game. He had a 51-yard rushing touchdown later in the first quarter. He also had a 91-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Simmons.
The touchdown pass to Simmons was the longest pass play of the season for Auburn. The 75-yard run was the longest rush of the season. In his first 3 quarters of action, Knight produced 3 of the 4 longest plays from scrimmage Auburn has had all year.
Jackson Arnold replaced Knight with 6:46 to play in the game. Arnold also had a 56-yard touchdown run in the game; Mercer didn’t put up much resistance. Knight finished with 239 passing yards and 2 scores while completing 15 of his 20 attempts. He had 162 rushing yards on 9 attempts.
As a team, Auburn finished with 277 rushing yards.
Jeremiah Cobb tallied 35 yards, giving him 939 for the season. If Cobb reaches 1,000 yards next week against Alabama, he’ll give Auburn 1,000-yard rushers in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the Tigers’ SEC-record 9-year streak ended in 2018.
And it’ll be all hands on deck next week. The Tigers welcome the Tide to Jordan-Hare Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. ET kick. Should they win the Iron Bowl, they’d lock up bowl eligibility and put their rivals’ College Football Playoff hopes on life support.
Perhaps just a few weeks ago, few thought Auburn would be able to give Alabama a fight.
Then Deuce broke loose.
Now, there’s hope on The Plains.
Auburn 62, Mercer 17
Here’s the Auburn-Mercer box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
