Ole Miss was on upset alert for much of Saturday night’s contest against Auburn, but a late push gave the Rebels enough to get past the Tigers and their SEC West title hopes stayed alive.

Auburn had a hot start and the game went into halftime tied at 14, but the Rebels held the Tigers scoreless in the second half and it was enough to hand Auburn its 4th-straight loss.

Here are a few takeaways from the Rebels’ 6th win of the season.

Quinshon Judkins delivers

Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins has been looking for signature performances like the one he posted agains LSU a few weeks ago.

On Saturday, he delivered one.

The sophomore running back, who had more than 1,500 yards in his freshman season, posted 124 rushing yards and added a touchdown. He made Ole Miss’ offense multidimensional by opening up the ground game and forced the Tigers’ defense to prepare for the Rebels to air it out or give it to Judkins.

It’s the kind of performance that Judkins can build off of, and Ole Miss will need more signature performances from him down the road.

Special teams woes

Lane Kiffin has made a name for himself by playing aggressive and taking big risks. That’s worked out well for him for the most part, but Saturday was a different story.

Ole Miss faced a 4th and goal situation with less than 5 minutes to go in the first half, and the Rebels had a chance to take a 17-14 lead with a field goal before halftime.

Kiffin decided to take a risk, however, and called for a fake field goal. The play fell apart quickly and the punter, Charlie Pollock, threw an interception.

Luckily for Ole Miss, the play didn’t come back to haunt them.

The Rebels looked sloppy on special teams all night, as they almost muffed a punt that would have put Auburn in a good position to score.

Defense posts strong 2nd half

Ole Miss’ defense was not going to let Auburn upset the Rebels on Saturday.

Auburn had put together a decent first half, but Ole Miss quickly shut that down, not allowing Tigers’ quarterbacks Robby Ashford and Payton Thorne an inch of breathing room, bringing the pressure almost every play. Thorne and Ashford finished the game with a combined 122 passing yards.

The Rebels came up with a huge interception in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal. Auburn had the ball in a goal line situation, looking to make it a one-score game. Zamari Walton had other plans, picking off Thorne and keeping Auburn out of the endzone.

Auburn scored in the final minute of the game, but it was too little, too late.

The defensive performance in the second half was what Ole Miss has been searching for this year, and what the Rebels will need moving forward.