Auburn knocks off Florida; no more SEC unbeatens

VIDEO PLAYLIST

• Florida vs Auburn Replay

WERE YOU THERE?

Did you attend this game? If so, start chronicling your sports memories today with ESPN's Sports Passport. Enter the games you attend, upload your photos and share your memories! I was there »

Top 25 Overview

It was over when... Eric Brock picked off Chris Leak at the Auburn 46 with less than three minutes left to play. The turnover led to an Auburn field goal that put the Tigers up 21-17. Gameball goes to... John Vaughn and the Tigers defense. Kicker Vaughn made 4-of-5 field goal attempts; the Auburn's defense was responsible for both of the Tigers' touchdowns. Stat of the game... 118: Florida's use of two quarterbacks -- Chris Leak and Tim Tebow -- was labeled genius before Saturday's 118-yard, two-TD combined output. Complete Top 25 Overview

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	18	19
Total Yards	279	315
Passing	108	182
Rushing	171	133
Penalties	5-33	4-40
3rd Down Conversions	1-7	6-16
4th Down Conversions	0-1	1-1
Turnovers	3	1
Possession	23:17	36:43

Individual Leaders

Florida Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Leak 9/17 108 1 1	Auburn Passing   C/ATT YDS TD INT Cox 18/27 182 0 0
Florida Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Harvin 5 66 0 35 Caldwell 3 47 0 27 Wynn 11 46 0 16	Auburn Rushing   CAR YDS TD LG Lester 17 94 0 33 Irons 13 67 0 19 Stewart 3 7 0 4
Florida Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Baker 4 62 1 32 Caldwell 2 25 0 16 Casey 2 17 0 11 Moore 1 12 0 12	Auburn Receiving   REC YDS TD LG Taylor 5 37 0 16 Smith 3 33 0 14 Rodriguez 3 26 0 13 Irons 2 17 0 9

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER				FLA	AUB
	FG	9:00	JOHN VAUGHN 22 YD FG Drive info: 13 plays, 85 yards.	0	3
	FG	4:21	CHRIS HETLAND 22 YD FG Drive info: 8 plays, 75 yards.	3	3
SECOND QUARTER				FLA	AUB
	TD	14:17	DALLAS BAKER 15 YD PASS FROM CHRIS LEAK (CHRIS HETLAND KICK) Drive info: 8 plays, 69 yards.	10	3
	S	10:14	TEAM SAFETY	10	5
	FG	4:58	JOHN VAUGHN 31 YD FG Drive info: 11 plays, 50 yards.	10	8
	TD	4:10	TIM TEBOW 16 YD RUN (CHRIS HETLAND KICK) Drive info: 3 plays, 80 yards.	17	8
	FG	0:30	JOHN VAUGHN 34 YD FG Drive info: 9 plays, 55 yards.	17	11
THIRD QUARTER				FLA	AUB
	TD	10:51	TRE SMITH 15 YD BLOCKED PUNT RETURN (JOHN VAUGHN KICK)	17	18
FOURTH QUARTER				FLA	AUB
	FG	0:32	JOHN VAUGHN 39 YD FG Drive info: 4 plays, 6 yards.	17	21
	TD	0:00	PATRICK LEE 25 YD DEFENSIVE FUMBLE RETURN	17	27

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Auburn's defense was getting run over again, this time by No. 2 Florida and it's two-headed quarterback attack.

Coach Tommy Tuberville had seen enough and challenged his defenders at halftime.

There's no 'O' in Auburn
Auburn's 27-17 victory over Florida knocked the Gators from the ranks of the nation's unbeaten and returned to the Tigers to the fringe of national title discussions. And yet, Auburn struggled again offensively in a conference game, getting one touchdown from its defense (on the last play of the game) and one from its special teams unit. To be fair, the Tigers' offense did perform better on Saturday than it has so far in '06, but that's still a far cry from what we saw a year ago. Here are Auburn's offensive stats in SEC games, comparing 2005, 2006 and Saturday's game. (Note: 2006 stats do not include Saturday's game)
	2005	2006	Saturday
PPG	32.8	18.8	27
Total YPG	413.6	272.5	315
Rush YPG	197.6	92.5	133
Yds/Rush	4.6	2.6	3.3

The Tigers responded, scoring on a blocked punt and a last-play fumble return and making a pivotal late interception to beat the Gators 27-17 on Saturday night and leave the Southeastern Conference without an unbeaten team.

"We couldn't slow them down in the first half, and they couldn't move it in the second half," Tuberville crowed. "Offensively, we didn't score a touchdown. How do you do that and beat a team like that?"

In the end, that merciless SEC claimed another victim as Florida became the fourth team ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25 to lose this season, joining Texas, Notre Dame and Auburn.

The 11th-ranked Tigers (6-1, 4-1) turned the tables on Chris Leak, Tim Tebow & Co. in the second half, benefiting from the quarterback's fumble deep in Auburn territory that killed a chance for at least a go-ahead field goal.

Florida coach Urban Meyer challenged the call arguing that it was an incomplete pass but replay officials let the play stand -- and it turned the game around. It also cost the Gators their final timeout, but he didn't grouse about the call after the game. Neither did Leak, though he said he thought his arm was going forward.

"We will go back and watch it on TV, but obviously there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call on the field," Meyer said. "We have to live with the call and we have to get better."

Eric Brock's interception of Leak's pass set up the last of John Vaughn's four field goals, a 39-yarder with 31 seconds left after missing a 45-yard attempt on the previous possession.

"We needed a big play at that moment," Brock said. "We played lights-out the entire second half."

GAME OF THE WEEK
ESPN Classic will air Florida at Auburn on Sunday at 9 a.m. ET as the ESPN College Football Game of the Week.

It was just another chapter in the topsy-turvy saga of SEC front-runners this season, with Auburn beating LSU, Arkansas beating then-No. 2 Auburn last week and Florida (6-1, 4-1) toppling Tennessee and LSU. The internal battering has threatened to leave the league without a strong national championship contender.

Auburn hardly looked like the same team that was physically whipped in that 27-10 loss to the Razorbacks -- at least in the second half.

Tuberville's halftime scolding of the defense worked.

"He just said it looked like they were playing scared," said quarterback Brandon Cox, who passed for an efficient 182 yards. "He told us we had just as much talent on defense as they had on offense."

The Tigers have now won six consecutive home games against top-10 opponents and eight of nine overall. The Gators had won five in a row against ranked opponents, one shy of the school record.

Trailing 21-17, Florida got a final attempt from its own 20 with 31 seconds left. Three incompletions later, Leak hit Dallas Baker across the middle and Baker lateralled to Jarred Fayson, whose own lateral attempt turned into a fumble recovered by Patrick Lee. The defensive back raced 20 yards into the end zone to place an exclamation point on the Tigers' win.

Many Auburn fans lingered in their seats well after the finale, and a number of players headed to the student section to celebrate with fans before heading to their locker room.

An elated Tuberville wanted to join Auburn fans in the traditional toilet papering of Toomer's Corner downtown.

"Where's my toilet paper?" he said. "I'm going to Toomer's Corner. What a game! Good gosh!"

Auburn's other touchdown came when Tre Smith returned a blocked punt 15 yards early in the third quarter to give Auburn an 18-17 lead.

The Gators appeared poised to retake the lead early in the fourth. Leak hit Baker on a 32-yard pass down the right sideline and receiver Andre Caldwell gained 27 yards on an option pitch.

On third-and-3 from the 6, Leak started to throw then decided to hold on as Auburn's Quentin Groves applied pressure. The ball squirted from Leak's hand and linebacker Tray Blackmon scooped it up. Blackmon was playing in his first game of the season after a six-game suspension.

Meyer said there was plenty of blame to go around despite Leak's uncharacteristic mistakes.

"When you face a pass rush like that in this type of environment, bad things can happen," Meyer said.

Florida managed only 85 yards and five first downs after halftime. Leak completed just 9-of-17 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown.

Leak and his back-up Tebow both accounted for TDs en route to a 17-11 halftime lead. Leak hit Baker for a 15-yard scoring pass and Tebow ran 16 yards into the end zone on his only play of the half.

Brad Lester ran for a career-high 94 yards and Kenny Irons gained another 67. Groves had three sacks.

Even Auburn's mistakes turned into points.

Florida's Derrick Harvey, who had 2½ sacks in the first half, recovered a fumble by tight end Tommy Trott on the Florida 3. Left guard Jim Tartt was called for holding in the end zone on the next play, giving the Tigers a safety.

The Gators were left nursing wounded national title hopes, and hoping for a rematch in the SEC title game.

"That is real bitter, but we are going to move forward and stay focused on the SEC championship," Caldwell said.