LSU suffers 48-11 loss at Auburn, its worst in series history

LSU's first Halloween date with Auburn since 1908 quickly became a horror story on The Plains.

The purple-and-gold Tigers (2-3) struggled to establish any sort of run game or rhythm before falling two touchdowns behind on a pair of second-quarter turnovers.

And their navy-and-orange counterparts (4-2) flipped the script on the SEC West rivalry's recent history, avoiding a fourth-straight blown lead and instead powering its way toward the most lopsided victory in the team's 55 meetings, 48-11.

"We just got punched in the face," LSU senior center Liam Shanahan said. "We got absolutely killed."

The loss was LSU's worst since falling by 43 points, 56-13, at No. 1 Florida on Oct. 12, 1996, and worst loss to an unranked opponent since the AP Poll began in 1936.

"Very disappointing," coach Ed Orgeron said. "Give credit to Auburn. They came ready to play. Turnovers really hurt us, obviously. The defense was playing really strong at the beginning. The line of scrimmage, they had 206 yards and we had 32 yards rushing. Too much pressure on the quarterback. We just did not play very well and Auburn played their best game."

The midseason matchup was "The Day of the Dead" for the LSU running game.

A week after the Tigers rushed for a season-high 276 yards to support freshman T.J. Finley in his first start in place of injured quarterback Myles Brennan, they managed just 32 — their lowest total in nearly two years.

LSU rushed nine times for 24 yards (2.7 per attempt) in the first quarter and only found that ground even harder to come by as the game progressed en route to a 1.2-yard average on 27 tries.

"We tried (to run the ball)," Orgeron said. "We couldn't block those guys. And, you know, I saw other people block their fronts. I really was surprised that we couldn't block them. I thought we could run the football. I was worried about our pass protection a little bit. I thought we needed to chip a little more and give the left tackle a little more help. I knew they were good pass-rushers. But I was really surprised that we couldn't run the football."

Finley and his receivers could never pick up that slack, but rather began digging their own grave.

Auburn cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett snatched an overthrow in the opening minutes of the second quarterback and dashed 48 yards down to the LSU 4-yard line to set up the first points of a scoreless game.

Following a penalty, sophomore quarterback Bo Nix found senior receiver Eli Stove for a 9-yard touchdown.

And after a pair of punts, sophomore linebacker Derick Hall sacked Finley a forced a fumble that junior defensive back Christian Tutt was able to scoop and return 20 yards to double its lead to 14-0.

Auburn finished with four sacks — including two by Hall — seven tackles for loss and another five hurries.

"We just never really got anything going, really throughout the entire game," Shanahan said. "We weren't really able to establish the run game early, then turned the ball over. That was a killer, fall behind, and then it just seemed that when it rains it pours. And in the second half, it got out of hand really quick."

Nix and the Auburn offense broke the game open with an eight-play, 99-yard drive in the final four minutes with a 9-yard pass to Ze'Vian Capers.

LSU could only manage a 50-yard Cade York field goal at the half to answer.

But Auburn scored touchdowns on its first four drives of the second quarter to remove any doubt.

"We just have to keep making strides," senior linebacker Jabril Cox said. "We showed some promise early on in the game with getting stops, but we just have to continue to go forth with that throughout the entire game, all four quarters. We can't just have one quarter that's good defense. We have to keep on striving throughout the whole game as a whole and put it all together."

Nix capped an eight-play, 75-yard drive to start the third quarter with a 5-yard run, then handed to sophomore running back Tank Bigsby for 2- and 3-yard runs to punctuate the next two possessions.

Nix and junior wide receiver Anthony Schwartz capitalized on a busted coverage for a 91-yard strike over the top and a 48-3 advantage in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

The quarterback completed 18 of 24 passes for 300 yards and three scores in all and led Auburn with 81 rushing yards on 11 attempts and completed.

Schwartz led all receivers with 123 yards on four catches.

Stove caught five balls for 64 yards, and Seth Williams hauled in four for 71.

Bigsby added 71 rushing yards on 15 attempts to the team's 206-yard efforts on the ground and 506-yard performance overall.

"We've gotta come out stronger, and we've gotta play for 60 minutes," Orgeron said. "We always talk about coming out strong in the second half, and we didn't. We'll look at the film. We got out-physicaled up front. Tank Bigsby's a good player. And we couldn't stop the quarterback. He made some big plays on us. And then we let the ball behind us in the fourth quarter."

Fellow freshman quarterback Max Johnson replaced Finley in the second half and threw his first touchdown pass to Kayshon Boutte, for the freshman receiver's first career score.

Finley finished 13-for-24 for 143 yards and a pair of interceptions, and Johnson complete 15-for-24 for 172 yards and a score.

"Myles is our starting quarterback," Orgeron said. "That's clear. If T.J. would've had an outstanding game and beat Auburn and stuff, then we would've had to discuss things. But Myles is definitely our starting quarterback.

"These guys are two young freshman quarterbacks. They're gonna be inconsistent because they're freshmen. But, you know what? I can't expect 'em to perform well when we can't block. I mean, those defensive linemen were all over these guys. They were running for their lives. You've always gotta start with protection."

Freshman tight end Arik Gilbert's six catches for 55 yards and senior wide receiver Racey McMath's five catches for 51 yards led 11 pass-catchers.

LSU finished 5-for-17 (29.4 percent) on third downs, which presented an average distance of 6.5 yards to gain.

And the Tigers never reached the red zone.

"We've gotta look at the tape and see where we went wrong," Orgeron said. "We've gotta continue to fix the things we can. We've gotta be constructive, we've gotta be positive and just identify what the problem is and come up with a solution. And we've gotta keep playing.

"There's a lot of young players out there. Arik Gilbert played well. There are some young guys who are learning how to play. This is a new team. But you've gotta learn: When you come on the road in the SEC, you better be ready to play. That's my responsibility. Today we didn't start off fast, and Auburn was ready to play."