Waking up on a Mid-October Sunday morning to see Auburn last in the Southeastern Conference West standings after a 48-34 loss against first-place No. 9 Ole Miss is a jarring feeling for Tiger fans.

Running back Quinshon Judkins had 139 rushing yards and two touchdowns for the Rebels. He was one of three Rebels with over 100 yards rushing. Rebel quarterback Jaxon Dart had 115 rushing yards, and Zach Evans ran for 136 yards and a touchdown.

Ole Miss had 448 rushing yards against Auburn, the most by a Rebel squad since 1962 (fifth-most all-time) and the second-most ever against an SEC opponent. Ole Miss had a record 515 yards in 1951 against Auburn during a much different time in football lore.

“I thought overall they were physical up front, and they were getting downhill,” Probably, as you look at us, we probably misfit something in there,” Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin said. “But that happens, those things are going to happen. We also had chances to make some plays in the backfield, and we missed some tackles in some of those situations there. We’ve got to do a better job on one-on-ones.”

Read More Auburn Football: Robby Ashford shows resilience in loss against No. 9 Ole Miss

Instant Analysis: Auburn loses 48-34 at No. 9 Ole Miss

What Lane Kiffin said about No. 9 Ole Miss beating Auburn 48-34

Lane Kiffin’s squad looked deserving to be in first when taking a 21-0 after Evans scored a 3-yard touchdown with 14:36 left in the first half. Harsin’s team appeared to justify reporters picking them last after T.J. Finley’s fumble led to the Evans score. Ole Miss scored its second touchdown after starting quarterback Robby Ashford threw an interception.

Harsin benched Ashford for the series leading to Finley’s first action since exiting the Penn State 29-point loss. Getting down by 21 after getting boat raced by UGA the previous week and blowing a 17-point lead against LSU the week before provided an opportunity for Auburn to fold.

“Yeah, man, it’s just about pride,” Auburn linebacker Owen Pappoe said. “You can’t lay down just because you’re down 21. You’re not playing a video game; that’s when people pass the sticks, but Nah, we ain’t passing the sticks, man. We’re going to keep fighting until the end.”

Pappoe’s words rang true, and it started with Ashford. Let’s get into some observations from the game.

1. Auburn is 3-4 and 1-3 in SEC games following the loss at Ole Miss. Auburn enters the bye week on a three-game losing streak. Harsin is on the hot seat with a 9-11 record in his first 20 games as the Auburn coach. It is hard to believe a year ago, the Tigers beat Ole Miss for the sixth-consecutive time and were 6-2 with an opportunity to win the division. Auburn hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent since last October’s win against the Rebels at Jordan-Hare, and it took a set of miracles against Missouri in the Tigers’ only SEC win after beating Ole Miss last season.

2. Fans and perhaps some boosters might be ready to move on Harsin. However, he isn’t.

“Those guys know we’re a lot closer than it seems,” Harsin said. “And so, a few things here and there. That’s what changes the game. But that’s football as well. And the reality of it is we didn’t win. Ole Miss did. They did it better than we did today. So, we have to go back and figure out what we can control, how we’re going to improve and get better, and what we can do going into the next game to find a way to win. But those guys will fight. And they want to win. And they’re not going to throw in the towel. That’s one of the things, they won’t do that.”

3. From their actions on the field and their words after the game, it seems his players aren’t ready for a new head coach.

“Coach Harsin does a great job,” Auburn defender Derick Hall said. “I don’t want to comment on the aspect of what everybody else should do. That’s not my job. My job is to come to work every day and play hard. Just speaking from the inside, he does a great job. The guy loves football. He wants to win, and he hates losing. I think that’s a lot of what we have in common. He does a great job with this team and trying to push us in the right direction. The other stuff we really can’t control.”

4. Ashford made a significant play on 3rd and 15 from the Tigers’ 32 and down 21 in the second quarter. He extended the play with his legs and threw a pass to Koy Moore for 46 yards. Auburn scored a touchdown on a quarterback sneak by Ashford a few plays later.

5. Auburn scored on their next possession, with Tank Bigsby leading the way. He ran for 179 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Auburn had 301 rushing yards against Ole Miss. Jeremiah Wright started at left guard and helped open lanes for Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter, who ran for 80 yards.

“Jeremiah is an aggressive player,” Hunter said. You need aggression on the O-line. I like that about him. He’s a mean player who can go out there and do his job.”

6. Auburn struggled to run the ball often this season. It was a positive sign to see the run game flourish, especially after getting down by 21 points.

“Our backs were able to get started. I thought the backs ran hard today,” Harsin said. “I was really proud of Tank; he went hard. He got vertical, he stuck his foot in the ground and got vertical on quite a few runs, and it showed. He was able to create some explosive plays that way. But overall, I just thought we did a better job up front of getting the run started, giving our backs a chance, and then our backs doing a great job breaking tackles and running hard.”

— Auburn outscored Ole Miss 17-14 in the second quarter after getting outscored 14-0 in the first. Harsin and his team will likely argue it should’ve been 17-7, which could’ve gone a long way toward an Auburn comeback win.

7. Zion Puckett broke up a Dart pass attempt to Rebel receiver Casey Kelly on 4th and three with 3:55 left in the second quarter and Auburn down 21-14. However, there were flags on the field. Puckett got called for pass interference against Kelly.

“I obviously disagreed with it, Harsin said. “The hard thing is when you feel your player played that play like he’d been playing all the other ones. He made a good play; I thought we made a really good play; I thought we got our eyes back; I thought we turned around; I thought we made a competitive play on the ball. It’s impossible to not be, in a moment like that, there will be contact either way, on both sides. So I disagreed with the call, and that’s really it.”

8. Harsin also got called for unsportsmanlike conduct for arguing with the refs. Ole Miss went from 4th and three from the 29 to 1st and Goal from the eight-yard line because of both infractions. The Rebels took a 28-14 lead with 2:52 on Dart’s touchdown pass to Judkins.

“Standing up for our guys and believing that what I saw was our guy playing with good technique, playing hard, and trying to go out there and compete on the play — which is exactly what we asked him to do,” Harsin said. “So, when your guys are out there doing something you asked them to do, you stand up for them. You want to help them out. You want to make sure that, look, we disagree with that. And I certainly did.”

9. Harsin’s players appreciated the display of emotion.

“Oh yeah, that just shows how much he cares,” Pappoe said. “He cares for the players; he cares for us, going down there because that would’ve been a crucial fourth-down stop for us too.”

Auburn went into the locker room down 28-17 after an Anders Carlson field goal as time ran off the clock. The Tigers got the ball back off a Keionte Scott interception.

10. Another situation that didn’t go in Auburn’s favor was a third-quarter onsides kick by the Rebels with the score 31-24 at the 9:45 mark in the third quarter. Auburn held the Rebels to a 27-yard field goal and could’ve tied the game with a touchdown on the ensuing drive.

Calling an onsides kick up seven at home is bold. It’s the type of move that gets coaches clowned if it doesn’t work well. If the play didn’t work and Auburn took the field position and scored a game-tying touchdown, Kiffin would’ve served as fodder on all the highlight shows.

“You know, we were struggling at that point in the game so we got the ball back in the game so I don’t think that’s what people were anticipating in the game in a high-scoring kind of game, Kiffin said. “We got to that drive so let’s do it. We get it and then they’re back on the field again so we get twenty straight snaps on defense so the players needed it. Obviously, it helped us in the game a lot.”

11. Ole Miss went up by 14 points after scoring on a short field.

— Ashford led the Tigers back down the field on the following drive. He capped a 75-yard drive on the eighth play with a run for 11 yards into the end zone. Auburn again drew within a single-score deficit. He gained 70 yards on the ground, but when adjusted for sacks by NCAA rules he was credited with 35 yards. Ashford battled back and so did his team. Ultimately it wasn’t enough against an Ole Miss team that could win its first SEC title since the 1960′s, but with a bye week approaching there are positives, the Tigers could take into the second half of the season.

“We have a bye week now coming up; we’ve got to get some guys healthy,” Harsin said. “We’ve got to take advantage of that. We got to work on some things over the last few weeks that we need to keep improving on, but right now, just from a mentality standpoint, keeping these guys involved in every single thing we’re doing and mentally in the right frame of mind to continue to keep improving and getting better.”

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group