Right when it looked like LSU’s offense was going to get things going after amassing 14 quick first-half points, the Tigers hit an offensive brick wall.On the other side of the ball stood LSU’s defense, which was coming off a game in which it held the Southeastern Conference’s most productive offense, Florida, to 13 points.That defense came out firing Saturday night in Tiger Stadium and didn’t put the guns away until No. 9 LSU (6-1, 4-1) walked off the field with a 31-10 victory against Auburn (5-3, 2-3).The starters even came back into the game with eight seconds left on the clock in a vain attempt to keep Auburn from scoring its lone touchdown of the game.”They wanted to go back on the field. Can you stop them? I couldn’t stop them,” said LSU coach Les Miles. “I love that effort and that want and scrappiness late in the game with nothing really to prove other than a yard. They said, ‘I’ll play for a yard.'”Junior linebacker Kelvin Sheppard, who had 13 tackles in the game, said that desire to keep Auburn out of the endzone defined how the defense has played all year.”That should show you the type of team we have that the [defensive starters] want back on like that,” Sheppard said. “For us to want to get back in there and try to make a goal line stop is awesome.”The LSU defense entered into the game as the No. 4 scoring defense in the SEC, giving up 14.5 points per game, but No. 7 in total defense, allowing 322.5 yards per game.LSU held its ground, allowing 193 total yards, against the second-best offensive attack in the SEC. The defense also kept the Auburn offense to 112 yards on the ground after it came into the game averaging 247.3 rushing yards per contest.Auburn amassed 42 total offensive yards in the first half. “They beat us in every phase of the football game,” said Auburn coach Gene Chizik. “They are a very, very good football team.”Part of the reason for LSU’s choke hold on the Auburn offense was the ability to force turnovers.The LSU defense got an interception for the ninth straight game dating back to the end of last season. The sole interception of the game came when senior cornerback Chris Hawkins made a one-handed interception on a pass by Auburn senior quarterback Chris Todd.The interception was Hawkins’ fifth career pick, three of which have come against Auburn.On the previous offensive drive for Auburn, the LSU defense forced the first turnover of the game with about three minutes left in the first quarter when senior linebacker Harry Coleman sacked and stripped Todd, and senior safety Danny McCray recovered the ball.The sack was the first for the Tigers since amassing three in a week two victory against Vanderbilt in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers would finish the night with four sacks.Coleman would add another strip in the second quarter, but Auburn recovered it. “We tried to make them one dimensional and take away the run first, and that forced them to start to pass,” said Coleman, who got his first career sack in the game. “After that, it was the ball game.”LSU’s offense was also helped by the turnovers, converting two of the three turnovers into a total of 10 points, including a 14-yard touchdown scamper by sophomore quarterback Jordan Jefferson after Coleman’s first strip.”Our defense has been playing superb all year,” said junior wide receiver Terrance Toliver. “That was their best game this season, and them getting the ball back to the offense helped us out a lot.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]