One week removed from a road upset over No. 1 Georgia, Auburn suffered its largest home loss in three years to LSU, falling 38-17.
Auburn’s defense allowed a season-high 552 yards to LSU, led by a powerful passing attack from quarterback Sam Leavitt. The LSU signal caller threw for a season-high 387 yards and added 54 yards rushing.
“In general, I thought [LSU] pitched and caught it well,” said head coach Alex Golesh. “They're really efficient. Going in, you knew it was going to be, man, the ability.”
Auburn allowed an average of 5.3 yards per play on first down, leading to more favorable second and third down plays for LSU. LSU tallied 29 total first downs, chipping away at Auburn’s defense.
“It's not necessarily the big explosives,” Golesh said. “They'll take their chances there, but they do a really good job of getting balls in the flat, check downs. That's where I feel like they've grown as the year's gone. Huge key was to be able to tackle those.”
Many times, Auburn missed crucial tackles.
“I didn’t think we tackled anywhere near where you have to if you want a chance to win,” Golesh said. “On both sides of the ball that didn’t look like what I would anticipate Auburn football looking like.”
Instead of limiting LSU to a few yards on first down plays, missed tackles led to extra yardage.
“That's where, especially in the first three quarters, there's a lack of third downs in general, because it's second downs that, instead of getting tackled at 4 (yards), they become 9s and 10s,” Golesh said. “Now you're just moving the sticks, which was the entire key to the game.”
Linebacker Elijah Melendez felt those situations weren’t just LSU beating them. It fell on the defense’s execution once again.
“I feel like we just beat ourselves in missing tackles, misfits, and stuff,” Melendez said. “We just got to play faster and play better.”
Meanwhile, Leavitt played a clean game — just the second game this season without an interception. He finished the day 32 of 45 passing, connecting most often with wide receiver Jackson Harris, who turned in a career-best performance. Harris led LSU with nine receptions, 178 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
“He's just a physical guy, nothing too crazy,” said cornerback Rayshawn Pleasant. “It was just us going knowing where we need to be and executing.”
Last week, Auburn fell behind to Georgia but didn’t flinch. This week, it fell behind and didn’t respond. LSU scored on every possession except for one in the first half.
“We look great as a team when we execute,” said safety Champ Anthony. “Then of course, you look like s*** when you don't. You've just gotta make sure we're on tape and just having focus. Like coach Golesh says, six to eight, six to eight, six to eight, six to eight seconds every play. Maximum focus, maximum effort. And we didn't do that until the second half, so we just gotta keep rolling on that.”
Auburn’s 17-10 deficit in the second quarter quickly turned to 24-10, and then 31-10 by halftime. The defensive failures were a culmination of many issues according to Golesh. And one week after climbing out of a 14-0 hole against Georgia, Auburn dug itself too deep against LSU.
“The inability to stop the run,” Golesh said. “Got to tackle better to stop the explosives. A combination of all of it. A really, really poor performance. Obviously did not have them ready to rock. Really disappointing.”
