On a night where everything felt different early on, it all started to feel the same again for Auburn late in the fourth quarter against Texas A&M.

Despite starting the game up 21-0, Auburn found itself down 31-28 with 4:01 left in the game, staring another heartbreaking collapse right in the face. With three timeouts and four minutes on the clock, though, the task was still doable.

The Tigers failed that task miserably at the first time of asking, going three-and-out and losing six yards. With 2:55 left in the game, Auburn was forced to punt, and Texas A&M had a chance to ice the game.

Fans started to file out. The stadium was quiet, but the subdued agitation from the crowd felt louder than ever.

But the game was still far from over. Auburn’s defense stood tall, got a stop and gave the offense a chance. How good of a chance was it? Hardly anyone was holding their breath and with 2:33 left in the game, 89 yards from the endzone and only the two minute timeout to stop the clock, it was by no means an easy task for Auburn’s now sputtering offense.

Fifteen plays, 74 yards and 148 seconds later, Auburn had miraculously tied the game and later won it 43-41 in quadruple overtime.

Getting it to overtime, though, took executing a two-minute drill unlike any other it had this season. To do so, it leaned on its most experienced players.

While he wasn’t the one catching passes or making the big plays, sixth-year senior tight end Luke Deal was the calming presence for the offense in a time where it needed it most.

“He came out saying, ‘We’re gonna win this game. We’re gonna finish this game,’” Jarquez Hunter said of Deal after the game. “I think he did a great job of getting everybody up on the sideline and giving us excitement on the sideline.”

Deal didn’t catch a single pass in the game. For most of his career, that hasn’t been his role, focusing more on being a blocker. That’s what he was against Texas A&M, but more importantly, he was a vocal leader.

Payton Thorne, the quarterback who orchestrated the drive, also pointed to Deal as the one who brought the team together. But while Deal’s words may have given the offense a mental boost, Thorne was the unquestioned leader in between the whistles.

“I think one of the biggest plays was Payton’s scramble, just to pull it down and run and keep drives alive,” Hugh Freeze said.

Thorne had multiple key scrambles late in the game, but none were bigger than a 23-yard run on fourth-and-3 at Auburn’s 37-yard line. The play wasn’t a designed run, but Thorne effectively went through his progressions, finding a running lane up the middle to keep the game alive.

“We used most of our time and gave them a clap to see if they’d jump offsides and they didn’t. And then they ran with our motion across the boundary and did a good job expanding to it, took away our two to the boundary. So I spun back to the field. I think Rob was actually going to be open, but when I spun back nobody was there so I took off,” Thorne said.

That run set Auburn up in Texas A&M territory and a few big runs by Hunter put the Tigers in scoring position. Hunter and Thorne, both seniors, combined for 49 rushing yards on the drive.

If not for a few costly false start penalties, Freeze believed Auburn could have scored a touchdown and won the game on that drive. It didn’t, setting up a potential game-tying field goal for walk on kicker Ian Vachon who had missed his only previous attempt in the game.

Freeze said after the game that he spoke to Vachon after his first miss, something he doesn’t normally do with kickers.

“Dude, that was the worst pass at a kick that I’ve ever seen you make,” Freeze said he told Vachon.

Neither those words, nor the earlier miss seemed to have an effect on the Birmingham-Southern transfer as he nailed the 29-yard field goal to put the game into overtime.

It was a somewhat improbable ending to an absolutely improbable drive, a drive that was the turning point of an even more improbable win. A win over Alabama next week will be required for the Texas A&M win to mean something this season, but in the present, Auburn is more than satisfied to a see close game go its way.

“Well, thank you, Lord,” Freeze said immediately after the game. “He’s good in wins and losses. But it sure feels better when you win.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m