AUB-LSU: Auburn breaks 22 years of frustration in win over LSU
Auburn defeated LSU in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1999. (Auburn Unv. Media Relations)
By TIM GAYLE
It’s been intimidating in the past, but 10 consecutive losses in Tiger Stadium didn’t seem to faze the Auburn Tigers.
The visitors scored twice in the fourth quarter to wipe out a nine-point deficit and win in Baton Rouge for the first time since 1999 with a 24-19 win on Saturday night.
“I thought guys stepped up and made some really great plays tonight,” said Auburn coach Bryan Harsin. “That needs to happen in big games like this. LSU is a good football team. That was a tremendous environment tonight and our guys were able to handle that and to focus in.”
It’s still early in conference play, but Saturday’s game had a must-win feel to it after recent struggles by both teams. Auburn trailed for much of last week’s game against Georgia State, resulting in the benching of starting quarterback Bo Nix.
Harsin praised both Nix, who was 23 of 44 for 255 yards and a touchdown against LSU, and T.J. Finley, the former LSU transfer who rescued Auburn last week but played just one series this week.
“I think Bo did a great job this week, coming off of last game and getting himself prepared for playing LSU,” Harsin said. “I thought T.J. (Finley) did a great job as well. That was pre-planned to have T.J. come in there on that third drive. He had earned that opportunity through the week of practice.”
But it was Nix who rescued the Tigers from a 13-0 deficit this week, getting stronger as the game wore on and converting two fourth-down plays on a touchdown drive that gave Auburn its first points and pulled them back into the contest.
“We needed to do that, we needed to be aggressive (in our play calling),” Harsin said. “When you’re on the road and playing a really good team, you’ve got to find ways to make plays and continue drives. Honestly, those plays, it really came down to Bo. Bo scrambled and guys got open and we were able to finish it.”
But as Auburn got stronger, LSU’s weaknesses began to surface. The Tigers rank 12th in the conference in total offense and 13th in rushing offense, a statistic that won’t be helped by Saturday’s paltry performance of 33 rushing yards.
“We’ve just got to find a way to do it,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “I just think we need to find new ways to block, we’ve got to find people who want to block. I need to look at the film and see what happened, but obviously it wasn’t very good.
“We’ve got two guys on that offensive line that we won a national championship with (in 2019). I thought that would be one of the strengths of our football team and it’s not.”
With no rushing attack, the pressure fell on quarterback Max Johnson. As Nix and the Auburn offense looked stronger with each successive play, Johnson and the LSU offense looked weaker. While his stats were similar to Nix (26 of 46 for 325 yards and a touchdown), his performance was not.
“I think there was a lot of pressure on him,” Orgeron said, “but there were some balls that he should have completed. It looked like he was throwing on his back foot. He was fading away. No. 80 was wide open. That could have been a touchdown, could have been a game-winning play.”
The pass to a wide-open Jack Bech that Orgeron referenced was badly overthrown after the LSU receiver had found his way behind the Auburn secondary on a third-and-two play. LSU punted and Auburn drove 92 yards to the game-winning touchdown.
Johnson and the LSU offense had the ball one more time, but Johnson’s off-target throw to the right side of the field was caught by Kayshon Boutte, whose back-peddling, off-balance grab at the Auburn 32 was dropped after he bounced off the ground. Replay officials took the catch away -- ruling he did not maintain possession through the duration of the play -- and Johnson’s next throw was intercepted.
Auburn (4-1) survived the conference opener but will face a more daunting task next weekend at Jordan-Hare Stadium against second-ranked Georgia. LSU, meanwhile, will travel to Kentucky.