BATON ROUGE, La. - Heading into halftime, No. 9 Auburn was tied up with No. 2 LSU at 10-10. Auburn led the game twice by getting the first field goal of the day to take a 3-0 lead and answering an LSU touchdown with one of its own to take a 10-7 lead. LSU tied it up with 33 seconds left in the half. LSU scored 13 more in the second and Auburn scored 10 more. LSU won the game 23-20.
“Extremely disappointed for our players and our fans,” said Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn. “We have a bunch of winners in that locker room. They’re not gonna flinch moving forward, but we had opportunities and we didn’t seize the moment.”
The Auburn offense that came out in the second half looked completely different. The biggest play came on a 70-yard rush by D.J. Williams for Auburn’s first possession of the third quarter. That drive resulted in a field goal to give Auburn the 13-10 lead.
In the third quarter, LSU held Auburn to just 75 yards, 70 of those came on the Williams’ run. Auburn was 0-4 on third down attempts. Auburn had 13 plays in the six minutes and 19 seconds it had the ball.
While Auburn struggled, LSU started to surge. LSU had 194 yards in the third on 26 plays. The Baton Rouge Tigers scored six in the quarter on a touchdown and a missed extra point.
In the fourth quarter, Joe Burrow ran in the ball for a touchdown to give LSU a two score lead at 23-13. Auburn had a chance to start a comeback after a 32-yard kick return by Noah Igbinoghene. A holding call on Auburn and a personal foul penalty on LSU moved Auburn to the 37. Pass interference by LSU got Auburn to LSU’s 48 yard line. Then Auburn fumbled the ball for a 20 yard loss. The drive ended on 4th-and-23.
Auburn was able to pull together one more touchdown in the last three minutes of the game. After two completions by Nix for 11 and 16 yards, a rush by D.J. Williams for 2 yards and a pass interference call on LSU, Nix completed a five yard pass to Seth Williams for the touchdown.
Pass incompletion was a factor in Auburn’s struggle. Bo Nix finished the day 15-35 with 157 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
“Obviously not my best,” Nix said. “I had a few decent throws, a few third down conversions. But just throws that I usually make, I didn’t. That’s what’s frustrating.”
In comparison, Burrow finished the day 32-42 with 321 yards, one interception, one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown . Overall, Auburn had 287 offensive yards while LSU had 508.
Penalties were also costly. Auburn was called for 15 penalties for a total of 98 yards.
Auburn had 16 first downs in the game on 69 plays. Auburn went 5-18 on third down attempts. LSU forced Auburn to go three-and-out seven times.
“Offensively, we just didn’t get it done,” Malzahn said. “We had some untimely penalties. We had a bad snap at a real critical time. And the third downs, I think we had nine third downs at 10 pluses. We put our quarterback in terrible spots.”
Auburn moves to 6-2 (3-2 SEC) on the season while LSU moves to 8-0 (4-0 SEC). Auburn will face Ole Miss at Jordan-Hare on Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. CST.
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