On a day full of drama and upsets throughout college football, Auburn came out and took care of business against 16th-ranked LSU.
It was never close in Jordan-Hare Stadium, as the Tigers offense gashed the Bayou Bengals for 566 yards of total offense and won handily by a score of 41-7.
Defensively, Auburn looked strong, allowing only 142 yards through the air and 138 on the ground.
"I'm very excited about our defense," head coach Gus Malzahn said after the game. "They just played outstanding. On third down they were as good as I've seen."
Receiver Sammie Coates, who has been nagged all season by a knee injury, had the game of his season and his career, bringing in 4 passes for 144 yards and a TD.
Throwing him those passes was Nick Marshall, who also had his best game of the season thus far.
Through the air, Marshall completed 14 of his 22 attempts, totaling 207 yards and two touchdowns. Marshall also looked impressive running the ball, racking up 119 yards on 16 attempts with two tds.
"Nick played very well," Malzahn said. "He played like one of the better quarterbacks in the entire country."
Marshall said that the great week of practice the team had was the main reason were able to play so dominantly tonight.
"We just focused the whole week," Marshall said. "What carries over from practive carries over to the game."
Runningback Cameron Artis-Payne added 126 yards of his own on 24 carries.
Things got going quickly for Auburn. In the first quarter alone, the Tigers gained 247 yards of offense, the most in any quarter under Gus Malzahn. The first touchdown of the night was a 56-yard bomb from Marshall to Coates that Coates pulled down from in between two LSU defenders.
That put the Tigers up 10-0, and they kept rolling from there.
Less than four minutes later, Marshall raced in from 7 yards out on a to make it 17-0.
LSU answered on the next drive, delivering a 1-yard touchdown from Kenny Hilliard.
Auburn answered right back on their next drive, going 72 yard on 7 plays, culminating in Marshall finding a wide open C.J Uzomah, putting the Tigers ahead 24-7, just 33 seconds into the second quarter.
Marshall would find the endzone again before half's end, going 29 yards up the middle on a quarterback draw, putting Auburn ahead 31-7.
The offense continued to look strong in the second half, scoring 10 more points and gaining another 187 yards.
In addition to the offense, Ellis Johnson's defense wasn't letting LSU go anywhere. They failed to score after the first quarter, thanks in large part to the play of Auburn's front seven. LSU was 0-13 on third down conversions, and 1-for-4 on fourth down
"It was a great performance," said senior cornerback Trovon Reed. "But we've still got stuff to do. We've got to get cleaned up. We've got to continue to get better and better every week."
LSU freshman quarterback Brandon Harris was rattled all game long only completing 3 of his 14 pass attempts for a total of 58 yards.
Thanks to their dismantling of 6th ranked Texas A&M Saturday, Auburn's matchup with Mississippi State in Starkville next Saturday will most likely be a top-10 matchup. The game time has yet to be announced.
LoadingAuburn fans are ready for the game to start. #LSUvsAUB #LSwho #GeauxHome #WarEagle #WDE #Auburn (Photo credit: Emily Enfinger)
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