It was a scorcher inside Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday afternoon, like last year’s matchup between Auburn and LSU in the bayou.
In fact, many similarities from the 2017 game came to fruition in the 2018 edition of the rivalry, which ended with a 22-21 LSU victory off a last-second field goal from Cole Tracy.
Auburn led at the half. Though it didn’t stem from a 20-point lead out of the gates, the orange and blue Tigers still carried momentum into the locker room after scoring touchdowns on their final two possessions and holding LSU to back-to-back three and outs over the same stretch.
After Auburn’s third straight touchdown drive in the third quarter, Jarrett Stidham had shaken off his 0-for-3 start to complete 11 of his last 14 passes for a passing and rushing score. JaTarvious Whitlow was beginning to pound the LSU defense. Deshaun Davis and company were sacking Joe Burrow left and right.
And for the second straight season, it all came crashing down.
Burrow’s 71-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Dillon in the fourth quarter swung the momentum back toward Ed Orgeron’s club, despite a failed extra-point attempt. That was a one-play drive.
A three-play drive ensued from Auburn, resulting in five yards. It began with a holding penalty that made for a 1st and 20. Remember that trend.
PENALTIES
LSU’s final drive traveled 52 yards, but only 22 of those will show up in the stat sheet.
Auburn gifted LSU 30 penalty yards on both teams’ most crucial drive of the season (pass interference on both Jeremiah Dinson and Jamel Dean). Those two capped off Auburn’s nine penalties for 111 yards. That’s the same yardage as the season-opening win against Washington, just with three fewer penalties.
LSU had its fair share with nine yellow flags for 91 yards. But in the meat of the second half — prime SEC crunch time — Auburn couldn’t make good on them.
“We can’t worry about referees,” Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown said postgame. “We can’t play the game for the referees, we just have to handle it ourselves. We should be able to handle it ourselves.”
WHITLOW IS RB1
Gus Malzahn can deny it all he wants, but Auburn is continuing to lean on redshirt freshman JaTarvious Whitlow as its lead back.
Whitlow turned in his second straight 100-yard performance. In the loss, the LaFayette product went for 104 yards and a touchdown off 22 carries. Starter Kam Martin carried the ball two times for four yards and had a dropped pass.
“We need to execute and be more physical,” Auburn fullback Chandler Cox said of the running game. “We’re starting to click a little bit today, but it has to be consistent. We need to give each play 110 percent. That starts with me too. I have to do better. We all have to do better.”
After a 100-yard showing against Alabama State, true freshman Shaun Shivers appeared to have cemented his role as the No. 3 back. But against a physical SEC defense, Shivers was clearly the second option for Malzahn in the second half, finishing second in rushing with 25 yards on seven carries.
Postgame, Malzahn said the team’s goal was to get to 200 yards on the ground and that it would be tough for his offense if they didn’t. Auburn finished with 130 yards rushing.
CAREER DAY FOR DAVIS
Auburn’s senior leader on the defense was inches from icing the game.
When Burrow reared back to launch the 71-yard score to Dillon, he looked in the direction of Deshaun Davis. Burrow’s pass sailed into apparent triple coverage, just over the outstretched arms of Davis. Auburn was leading by a score with just over eight minutes to play.
“I thought I did (get in a position to intercept the pass),” Davis said. “I judged the ball wrong I guess. (Dillon) made a good catch and they scored”
In the loss, Davis, a bayou native from Mobile, Alabama, was out for blood, racking up a career-high 13 tackles. He led Auburn’s defense with two quarterback hurries and four tackles for loss, including a sack.
“We’ve got to take the good from it, correct the bad and put it behind us,” Davis said. “Go to practice and watch film tomorrow. Take the good from it, correct the bad and go to the next one.”
JOE BURROW
LSU has its quarterback.
For all that was made of Ohio State transfer Joe Burrow’s lackluster completion percentage early in the season, he delivered a stellar performance in his first true road environment, snapping the nation’s fourth-longest home winning streak at 13 games in the process.
Burrow outdueled Jarrett Stidham, completing 15 of 34 passes for 249 yards and a touchdown on a turnover-free day.
"I just started trying to be a leader,” Burrow said. “That's normally what gets my guys going because when they go, I go. We feed off of each other. We kept confidence in each other, we kept positive on the sideline, and that really helped us."
Burrow racked up his fair share of mistakes, but LSU head coach Ed Orgeron still elected to put the ball in the quarterback’s hands in the clutch. Of LSU’s 14 plays on its game-winning drive, 10 in a row were either passes or designed runs for Burrow.
“Character is going to fight through that,” Orgeron said of the neck-and-neck finish. “We believed in each other. We didn't panic. Obviously, we made some plays. We made some conversions when we needed to.”
As for LSU’s clutch kicker, Cole Tracy, he had been prepared for a game-winner all week.
"I knew on Monday that it was going to come down to this,” Tracy said. “Once we got past Southeastern (Louisiana), you know that when you're playing at Auburn, it's going to be a close game."
LOOKING AHEAD
The win for LSU sandwiches a trio of games it should be well favored in.
A likely top-10 team in Sunday’s AP Poll, the Bayou Bengals host Louisiana Tech next week, followed by Ole Miss. Their annual trip to The Swamp to face the Florida Gators comes the following week, before a home matchup with No. 3 Georgia that has become increasingly pivotal for conference implications.
"(The win) is big for our confidence, big for our season moving forward, obviously, going 3-0,” Burrow said. "We have a lot of big ones coming forward, too, with all these SEC teams. SEC is really tough this year."
Auburn will attempt to bounce back from its first loss with less daunting opponents as well. The Tigers face Arkansas, which lost 44-17 to North Texas this week, next Saturday in Jordan-Hare, followed by a homecoming date with Southern Miss.
After that, nothing is a given.
A home contest against conference bottom-feeder Tennessee splits road trips to Mississippi State and Ole Miss. The Bulldogs may be ranked higher than Auburn when the two square off in Starkville.
Auburn then comes home to Texas A&M, a series in which the home team hasn’t won while they’ve both been in the SEC. Oh, then there’s Georgia and Alabama for two of the final three.
Last season, an early loss in conference play to LSU lit a fire under Malzahn’s squad, so much so that Stidham doesn’t believe Auburn would have won the SEC West without it.
A home collapse ending in a last-second field goal might be different. Either way, Malzahn will preach understanding and rebounding to his team.
“The message (to the team) was that we didn’t make the plays to win the game and (LSU) did,” Malzahn said. “We have to be big boys and keep our chin up. We’ve got to put this setback, understand it, and move forward and put this behind us. That’s what quality teams do, and that’s what we are going to have to do.”
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Nathan King, senior in journalism with a minor in business, is The Plainsman's sports editor.