Gus Malzahn’s offense is kind of like a complex machine. When one of its many and varied parts is out of whack, it throws the whole system off.

For the two weeks leading into Auburn’s matchup with Ole Miss, the pass game hit a serious rut, leading to tougher sledding in the run game and an overall stagnation on offense.

Saturday night against the Rebels, it was all systems go.

Auburn put up 414 total yards — an efficient 160 through the air to complement 254 on the ground — and the No. 23 Tigers ran away with a 41-23 win over the Rebels at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Clint Moseley completed 12-of-15 passes for 160 yards and four touchdowns, the most passing scores for an Auburn quarterback since Cam Newton threw for four against South Carolina in the SEC Championship game last year.

“It sounds a lot better than it actually was,” Moseley said. “Some of those were long drives running the ball, and I just got to cap it off. So, a lot of the credit goes to the line. I told them they won the game, and I really mean that.”

Mike Dyer, who struggled for 66.5 yards a game against Florida and LSU as the defenses keyed on him, broke out for 177 yards and a score on 27 carries, coming up 3 yards short of the career high he set last year against Ole Miss.

In short, just like Malzahn drew it up.

“We figured they’d roll an extra safety down — and sure enough they did — and we hurt them early on a few things that at least loosened them up for awhile,” Malzahn said. “Then towards the end, we were able to hit one or two. That really helped.”

Auburn (6-3, 4-2 SEC) started out unbelievably fast, with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Moseley to Philip Lutzenkirchen and a 45-yard bomb to Quindarius Carr for a score highlighting two drives that netted 132 yards on 13 plays and staked the Tigers to a 14-0 lead with 4:21 to go in the first quarter.

Then the offense started sputtering, and Ole Miss (2-6, 0-5) took advantage, going on a 17-3 run to end the half, with a 1-yard run by Brandon Bolden — who finished with 114 yards and two scores on 13 carries — knotting the game at 17 with 6:04 before halftime.

In Auburn’s three losses this season, it folded after the opponent made its run.

There would be no folding Saturday.

“Defensively, we struggled some during the night, and the offense picked it up. Offensively when we were struggling, the defense picked it up,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. “I just think all around it was a good team win, and when one part of our team was not necessarily producing, I feel like the other part was.”

The defense, which gave up 172 yards on the ground in the first half, held Ole Miss to 22 yards on 12 plays in the third quarter.

The offense, which limped into halftime, regained its footing on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Moseley to Emory Blake and a 4-yard touchdown run by Dyer to head into the fourth, coming two plays after he busted a 48-yard run down the visiting sideline.

Auburn was up by 14. And Ole Miss, for all intents and purposes, was done.

“It definitely opens it up when Clint’s able to get more time back there and read the routes,” Dyer said. “And having Emory Blake back just opened up the running game a lot more.

“It’s easy when you have people out there to catch the ball and throw the ball.”

Blake, indeed, made quite the difference in the downfield pass game after missing most of the past three games with an ankle injury, catching five balls for 71 yards.

The junior said his ankle was only “about 75 percent,” but he just couldn’t stand sitting any longer.

“It has been very tough, especially when you know you can have an impact on the game and change the game for the better for us,” Blake said. “It has been very tough for me to sit there and watch.”

With Blake’s return — coinciding with the return of a downfield passing game — and the bye week upcoming, last week’s loss to LSU already seems to be a distant memory for Auburn.

In short, just like Chizik drew it up.

“We have not let one loss beat us twice in a row and, for a young football team, I think that speaks highly of them,” Chizik said. “They have been through a lot, and we are bumped and bruised and beat up, but we always continue to fight back and find a way to try to win a game, and we did that tonight.”