BATON ROUGE, La. — In No. 9 Auburn’s 23-20 loss to No. 2 LSU, the defense held the fort down while the orange and blue Tigers struggled to find their offensive rhythm.
“They (the offense) got our backs when we struggle, just like that we got their backs,” said defensive tackle Derrick Brown.
For the first time this season, LSU scored less than 35 points. Heading into the matchup, LSU had scored 35 or more points in 10 straight games, which was the nation’s longest streak.
“I mean, I feel like we dominated,” said defensive end Marlon Davidson. “I really do feel like that. If you turn on the tape and you watch it, you’ll see a lot of bad calls by the referees and stuff that should have been called. But at the end of the day we played a great game on defense. We just came up short.”
Auburn’s defense got to Joe Burrow early in the game with three sacks in the first quarter. That served as the second-most times Burrow has been sacked in a single game, only behind four sacks in LSU's game against Texas. His one passing touchdown was the least he’s had against an opponent this season.
“Kevin (Steele) had an excellent game plan with mixing things up,” said Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn. “He made the quarterback uncomfortable early, so they started running the football.”
The defense also made some big stops in the red zone. Going into the game, LSU was 39-of-39 on red-zone conversions. Auburn was able to break that streak, including preventing LSU from scoring when it decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 in the third quarter.
“The turnovers were big and the two fourth-down stops were huge, but the turnover in the end zone was really unbelievable,” Malzahn said. “LSU’s offense is electric, but [the defense] really played their butts off.”
LSU’s total offensive yards of 508 were its third lowest of the season.
“Our defense played unbelievable against a very high-powered offense,” Malzahn said.
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