LSU’s defense had played its best football of the season as the first half against Auburn wound down.
It had allowed only one touchdown, scored after Auburn returned a T.J. Finley interception inside the five. Auburn’s defense notched the other seven points with a scoop and score after a Finley fumble.
Finley threw a pass behind John Emery on third down with under four minutes remaining in the first half, forcing LSU to punt. From the 45-yard line, Zach Von Rosenberg booted a kick 54 yards, downed at the one-yard line by a diving Jabril Cox.
LSU had a chance to force a punt, receive excellent field position and march back into the game. It was important to keep it close — Auburn was to receive the second-half kickoff.
Before the punt, hope remained of another tight game in a series with a history of drama.
After the punt, that hope was dead. Auburn mounted a 99-yard drive, went up 21-0 and never looked back. It defeated LSU 48-11.
“We just got punched in the face,” center Liam Shanahan said. “We got absolutely killed.”
LSU was in man coverage on the first play of Auburn’s 99-yard drive. Auburn brought the slot receiver in motion, and Cordale Flott sprinted after him. Quarterback Bo Nix faked a handoff to the receiver in motion, and the LSU linebackers, who were crowding the line, bit on the fake. The defense shifted left, Ali Gaye broke contain and Tank Bigsby took a handoff to the right for 26 yards.
Giving up large gains to the outside is not new to this LSU defense.
“As a whole, our communication wasn’t there,” Cox said. “Certain people had bad eyes and then just let men go free.”
In the next three plays, Auburn took a one-yard loss, scrambled for 11 and completed a beautiful back-shoulder throw for 28 more. BJ Ojulari had a shot at Nix on the fifth play, but the elusive quarterback evaded the rush, improvised and completed a checkdown that gained a handful of yards.
Nix lined up under center on play five, and receiver Eli Stove ran in motion, receiving a quick handoff. Nix then carried out a fake handoff to his tailback, and three LSU defenders, JaCoby Stevens, Cox and Gaye, stared at the dummy action. A huge hole opened up for Stove, who ran free for 12 yards.
Nix juked Gaye out of his cleats on the next play and lined up his offense on the nine. LSU was in man coverage again. Auburn’s outside receiver, Seth Williams, brushed past Flott, who stumbled. Ze’Vian Capers, Flott’s assignment, moseyed around the clump of players, wide open into the end zone. Nix threw to him for the touchdown.
When the dust had settled, Auburn had traveled 99 yards in eight plays and three minutes. Its lead had ballooned to 21, and any progress the LSU defense had made against South Carolina and Auburn was erased. Auburn then scored four unanswered touchdowns, a scoring spree capped by a 91-yard bomb, fittingly made possible by what appeared to be a miscommunication between Derek Stingley and Jordan Toles. The score was 48-3.
“At the end of the day,” Cox said, “it was just miscommunication on our end.”
Much of this season’s failures have fallen on new Defensive Coordinator Bo Pelini. Fans have blamed him for failing to adjust on the fly, adequately prepare his players and ensure everyone stood on the same page.
Those fans expect Pelini to be fired, if not during this season, then definitely after it mercifully concludes. But last week, LSU’s athletic department announced layoffs and pay cuts to mitigate roughly $80 million in losses, making Pelini’s $4.6 million buyout hard to swallow. Head coach Ed Orgeron said he does not expect to make a mid-season change.
Auburn’s 37-point margin of victory is the largest in the history of LSU-Auburn. It’s LSU’s worst loss since 1996 and, if not for a late, garbage-time touchdown, it’d be its worst loss to an unranked opponent in the 84-year history of the AP Poll.
The offense, the lone bright spot of the 2020 season, struggled. LSU rushed 27 times for 32 yards. Finley, after three turnovers and only 143 passing yards, was benched. Auburn outgained LSU 506 to 347.
“We’re evaluating every day,” Orgeron said. “I’m always evaluating, but you know, we gotta go through a season, give everybody a chance and look at what we’re doing. And at the end of the season, we’ll evaluate anything.”
Orgeron, after a quick pause, promptly corrected himself.
“Everything,” he said.