DeSean Bishop Runs Tennessee Past Auburn With Three Scores
Thirty-four carries, 220 yards, three touchdowns. DeSean Bishop did most of Tennessee's work by himself, and the Volunteers beat Auburn 24-14 while throwing for 86 yards.
The first half was quiet. Tennessee kicked a 36-yard field goal in the second quarter, and Auburn's Byrum Brown ran in from 7 yards to make it 7-3 at the break. That was Auburn's last lead. Bishop took over in the third quarter with a 25-yard touchdown run and then a 44-yarder less than four minutes later, and it was 17-7 entering the fourth. Brown threw a 16-yard touchdown to Arlis Boardingham with 10:57 to play to make it 17-14, and the rest of the afternoon was Tennessee running the ball until Bishop scored from 5 yards out with 3:30 left.
The ground game was lopsided in volume if not in efficiency. Tennessee ran 48 times for 244 yards, and George MacIntyre went 8 of 10 for 86 yards, which is a quarterback's day that never needed to be big. Auburn actually ran for 186 yards on 32 carries (Brown had 107 of them) but gave the ball away three times, two interceptions and a fumble, to Tennessee's two, one of each. Brown's 22-of-33 passing day produced only 159 yards.
Tennessee moves to 4-1 and Auburn drops to 3-2, with the loss coming on a day Auburn had more yards per carry than anyone could complain about. For fantasy, Bishop's 40 points were his season high by a wide margin, and Brown still scored 29.1 in a losing effort, which is the kind of thing a dual-threat quarterback does to you.