The Iron Bowl at Jordan-Hare Stadium is always weird, wacky and wild. Saturday was no exception in Auburn’s 27-24 loss to Alabama.

This was Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze’s first Iron Bowl and for someone who had been hired in part because of his history beating Nick Saban twice while at Ole Miss, yet again pushed the legendary Alabama coach.

Here are three takeaway’s from Auburn’s 27-24 loss in the Iron Bowl.

Auburn’s best shot at an upset is to play ugly. That’s just what it did.

In many ways, Auburn’s game plan offensively seemed to resemble the Georgia game. Auburn wanted to keep the ball on the ground and bleed time off the clock. After Auburn’s defense was left on the field way too long in last week’s loss to New Mexico State, Freeze tried to keep Alabama’s offense off the field with his own offense.

That meant Auburn had to establish a running game. And it did.

Auburn rushed for more than 180 yards in the first half including a 42-yard rush from Jarquez Hunter and a 56-yard rush from Damari Alston — both of which set up touchdowns.

In the first half, Payton Thorne completed only two of his 10 passes. Auburn kept itself in this game on the ground with 22 running plays to the 10 throws.

Between the third and fourth quarter, Auburn had an eight-plus minute drive that only ended in a field goal, but further went to Auburn’s goal of not letting Jalen Milroe touch the ball as much as possible.

That’s how Auburn kept itself in the Georgia game and the Ole Miss game too. Auburn’s offense didn’t play overly well in either of those games, but it did enough on the ground to make for a weird, low scoring, physical game.

That was Auburn’s best chance in this game, too. To leave itself within striking distance and just play funky and odd. Running the ball will do that.

Auburn also gave Robby Ashford his first meaningful snaps in about a month. Just keep everybody on their toes a little bit.

And like Freeze said after losses to Georgia and Ole Miss, by playing an odd game Auburn was just a few plays from winning. The same could be said tonight.

But that’s also indicative of the distance Auburn still has to build.

Finally, an Auburn wide receiver stepped up

Maybe the biggest weakness of this team all year is an extreme lack of production from its wide receivers. No one came up as a go-to guy all year. Auburn tried to make Jay Fair that guy, tried to make Rivaldo Fairweather that guy.

But no one really stepped up.

In the Iron Bowl, Ja’Varrius Johnson stepped up.

Johnson scored a touchdown in the first half on an end-around. He scored again the second half getting wide open for a 27-yard touchdown. That was after he caught a catch and run on a third down earlier in the drive and grabbed 37 yards.

Auburn wanted to run the ball, and it did that heavily. But when it needed a pass play, Johnson came up huge. It was the first time Auburn had any semblance of a reliable target this season.

Auburn’s defense again gave up a ton of yards, but didn’t break

Another trend when Auburn has played the SEC’s elite teams: bend but don’t break.

In many ways, Auburn’s defense bending but not breaking all season long has been a big reason Auburn’s offense has been able to hang around in some games where they are outmatched.

It’s what happened again. Auburn’s defense gave up field goals in key second half moments, not touchdowns. A third quarter Will Reichard miss after Auburn got a stop would be a crucial moment in the game.

This is how Auburn has kept itself in games all year. The defense kept the score low enough to allow Auburn’s offense enough chances to stay within striking distance.