The LSU football team had two things on its agenda heading into Saturday’s Southeastern Conference showdown with Auburn.
 
First, it would have to stop a prolific rushing attack spearheaded by junior quarterback Cameron Newton and second, capitalize against a questionable Auburn secondary, who had just been torched for 428 yards against Arkansas the week before.
 
No. 12 LSU failed to do either in a 24-17 loss to Auburn just three days ago in a game featuring several missed opportunities that could have resulted in an LSU victory.
 
Coming into the game, Auburn’s defense was giving up 266 passing yards per game, while LSU’s offense was 113th nationally with a paltry 140 yards.
 
Something had to give.
 
But the LSU Tigers found themselves on the short end of the stick for the first time this season. They managed only 128 passing yards (39 coming from a trick play). The LSU receivers had at least six dropped balls, and the offense failed to cash in on its field position advantages.
 
Of the Tigers’ 11 drives, six started from their own 36-yard line or better — including two from the LSU 44, one from the LSU 47 and one from midfield. The only scoring drive to come from the six drives was in the fourth quarter when freshman running back Spencer Ware connected with sophomore wide receiver Rueben Randle on a double pass for a 39-yard touchdown.
 
“We hurt ourselves,” said junior running back Stevan Ridley. “Each opportunity we had we didn’t take the best advantage of it. They took advantage of every opportunity they were given.”
 
LSU’s field position edge was largely because of LSU senior punter Derek Helton, who was the only reason LSU was even in the game.
 
Helton pinned Auburn inside its own 10-yard on five occasions, two of which were downed at the 1-yard line and one at the 2-yard line. His only other punt should have been pinned down inside the 5-yard, as well, but replays appeared to show LSU junior cornerback Ron Brooks was held as the ball bounced into the end zone for a touchback.
 
“We have to take advantage of the field position that we have, and we weren’t able to do that [Saturday],” said junior quarterback Jordan Jefferson.
 
Jefferson and junior quarterback Jarrett Lee, who shared duties as they have for the previous three games, had no success against Auburn’s shaky pass defense. Jefferson finished 7-of-14 for 46 yards, and Lee was 8-for-14 for 43 yards, though the offensive line was mostly responsible for the quarterback woes.
 
LSU junior guard Josh Dworaczyk had a miserable time defending Auburn junior defensive tackle Nick Fairley — even with the help of double teams — allowing more defenders to drop into pass coverage.
 
Auburn regularly dropped its safeties into two-deep coverage and put the cornerbacks in zone because of their ability to pressure the quarterback. The pressure and safe coverage forced both quarterbacks to settle for short throws. When they did throw down the field, it didn’t matter because of the receiver’s inability to secure the catch.
 
LSU senior receiver Terrence Toliver dropped a key pass on third-and-6 that would have given the Tigers a first down with 3:27 remaining in the game. Toliver also dropped a ball at the end of the first half that potentially could have scored a touchdown (LSU later scored on a 2-yard run by Jefferson).
 
“It’s good to have a short memory, but that stuff affects you as a receiver when you’re dropping balls and not making plays,” Toliver said. “We had too many drops, especially on my end.”
 
To go along with Toliver’s drops, LSU could have added points on its first drive when Jefferson appeared to connect with Randle on third-and-9 in Auburn territory. The pass was thrown a bit high, but catchable nonetheless, and went off Randle’s hands and into Auburn senior safety Zac Etheridge’s for a drive-killing interception.
 
“It’s always a situation of if he would have caught it we probably would have had a different type of game, but he didn’t, and that’s a reality,” Jefferson said. “But we still had opportunities to win the game. That play didn’t define the whole game for us.”
 
 
 
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Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]