Auburn football survived Baylor 17-16 in Alex Golesh's debut after a dramatic goal-line stop on a two-point conversion. Byrum Brown overcame three interceptions to lead a fourth-quarter touchdown drive as the Tigers escaped Atlanta 1-0.
The Auburn Tigers found a way.
It definitely wasn't pretty, and it definitely wasn't perfect, but the Tigers will leave Atlanta in Mercedes-Benz Stadium 1-0 and undefeated after the first game in the Alex Golesh era.
Auburn took down the Baylor Bears 17-16 on Saturday afternoon, surviving a wild finish that came down to the final seconds, in just a few inches.
After the last coaching tenure that ended in disaster and went 2-13 in one-score games, Golesh wins his first close battle despite a lot not going well.
The Tigers turned the ball over three times, with Byrum Brown throwing three interceptions in his Auburn debut.
Baylor finished with 436 total yards and ran an incredible 99 offensive plays.
Still, Auburn's defense continued to make plays when it absolutely needed them.
Auburn forced two turnovers, stopped Baylor twice on fourth down, and held the Bears to a field goal after they reached the Auburn four-yard line in the fourth quarter.
DJ Durkin's defense kept Auburn alive despite the constant mistakes made offensively early in the game. It definitely showed the exact blueprint Auburn Tiger fans have been used to seeing over the past few seasons.
But then, when he was needed the most, Byrum Brown responded.
After his third interception eventually helped Baylor tie the game at 10, Brown led arguably Auburn's best drive of the afternoon.
The Tigers went 75 yards in 10 plays before Brown finished it himself with an 11-yard touchdown run to give Auburn a 17-10 lead.
Brown finished 26-of-35 for 259 yards.
The three interceptions are obviously something that has to get cleaned up.
The defense isn't going to bail you out every single week, and as great as they played, they almost let this one slip away from them.
DJ Lagway, who played injured for the majority of the contest with an ankle issue, led the Bears down the field and found Gavin Freeman for a touchdown with nine seconds remaining, cutting Auburn's lead to one.
Instead of kicking the extra point and forcing overtime, Baylor decided to go for the win.
Lagway completed the two-point attempt to Matthew Klopfenstein, but Winters stopped him just short of the goal line by Tigers Safety, Eric Winters.
It certainly is a new era on the field for the Auburn Tigers, as this is a game that the old coaching regime would not have won.
Sure, there are definitely things that Golesh and his staff will want to fix and will need to. They'll need more from their rushing attack. The offense certainly underwhelmed, and the defense can't be on the field for the opponent to run nearly 100 plays.
But they walked out 1-0.
Sometimes, especially in Week 1, that's enough.
