Auburn made it a point two weeks ago to heavily work on its punt blocking schemes.

The payoff occurred Saturday and it helped catapult the No. 14 Tigers to a 42-27 victory over Texas A&M in SEC play at College Station, Texas.

Auburn (7-2, 5-1 SEC) scored a touchdown to take a one-point lead late in the second quarter. The defense then forced the Aggies to punt with less than a half-minute to go before halftime.

Senior Nick Ruffin broke in free and extended his right arm to block the ball. It caromed off the head of Aggies senior punter Shane Tripucka and rolled into the end zone where a half-dozen Auburn players chased the ball, with redshirt freshman Malik Miller making the recovery to make it 21-13 with 20 seconds left in the half.

The special teams' play gave the Tigers two touchdowns in 76 seconds. They rode the momentum to score two more touchdowns in the first six-plus minutes of the second half to break open the contest en route to their sixth victory in the past seven games.

"We felt like it was a great opportunity to do that and Nick Ruffin made a big-time play," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said of the blocked punt. "We talk about seniors stepping up in big games and making big-time plays and that was a huge play in the game. It just kind of changed the whole momentum of the game going into halftime."

Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin didn't want to hang the entire defeat on that play.

"Yeah, that was disappointing but you still have a half to play," Sumlin said. "You still have plenty of time to do something about that and we didn't respond."

Texas A&M (5-4, 3-3) had troubles halting the Auburn offense as sophomore quarterback Jarrett Stidham passed for 268 yards and three touchdowns and junior running back Kerryon Johnson rushed for 145 yards and one score, also corralling a receiving TD.

Sophomore receiver Darius Slayton's long touchdown catch prior to the blocked punt also was a key play for the Tigers, who rolled up 496 total yards.

Junior receiver Christian Kirk had eight receptions for 62 yards for the Aggies to raise his career total to 205 catches, becoming just the third player in school history to reach 200. Sophomore running back Trayveon Williams rushed for 103 yards but couldn't prevent A&M from losing for the third time in four games.

The latest loss also places more heat on Sumlin, who entered the season with three consecutive 8-5 campaigns.

"We don't focus on that," Williams said of the speculation. "We just play week-by-week and do what we need to get a win."

Texas A&M played well for most of the first half and held a 13-7 edge after junior Daniel LaCamera kicked a 39-yard field goal with 2:39 remaining. But then came the game-changing 76-second sequence.

In the third quarter, Johnson continued his stellar game when he scored on a 2-yard run to boost Auburn's lead to 35-13.

"Kerryon Johnson is one of the best running backs in the country," Malzahn said of a player with 868 rushing yards and 16 total touchdowns. "He does it every week, week in and week out. He needs to be in that mix, talking about all those other guys.

"A lot of heart, a lot of courage and he's making us go."

The Aggies stopped the bleeding when redshirt freshman quarterback Nick Starkel threw a short slant to Damion Ratley, and the senior wideout turned it into a 62-yard touchdown to cut the Texas A&M deficit to 35-20 with 6:09 left in the third.

But the Tigers put the game way with a punishing 13-play, 96-yard drive in the fourth quarter. Sophomore receiver Eli Stove capped a drive that lasted eight minutes, 17 seconds with a 4-yard run around right end.

NOTES: Aggies junior WR Christian Kirk has recorded multiple catches in all 35 games of his career, which is the nation's longest streak in that category. ... Auburn's blocked punt for touchdown was its first since 2006 against Florida. ... Texas A&M true freshman QB Kellen Mond completed 5 of 11 passes for just 16 yards before being pulled. Redshirt freshman replacement Nick Starkel was 11-of-22 passing for 184 yards and two touchdowns in his first action since breaking an ankle against UCLA in the season opener. ... The Tigers were without junior RB Kamryn Pettway, who fractured his shoulder blade in last Saturday's victory over Arkansas. Pettway will miss the rest of the regular season but the possibility remains that he could return for Auburn's bowl game. ... Two Aggies (redshirt freshman Justin Madubuike and senior Armani Watts) blocked field-goal attempts by Auburn senior Daniel Carlson. ... Auburn RB Kerryon Johnson's 145-yard outing is his fifth 100-yard performance of the season and eighth of his career.