AUBURN, Ala. — LSU’s offense resembled the weather Saturday at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium. A dreary, drizzled mess that would not go away.
It was downright ugly — 31-7 ugly.
And as golden as he looked in his first start as LSU’s quarterback, leading the Tigers to a 38-14 win over South Carolina in Tiger Stadium least weekend, Marcus Randall looked green and rattled on the road throwing four interceptions as LSU only mustered 242 yards of offense.
“When you have turnovers, it’s tough to win,” Randall said. “I knew mistakes would come. I’m a young quarterback, and I have to learn from it. I just have to keep moving on to the next play. Unfortunately, turnovers came and that’s what we have to deal with.”
LSU committed five turnovers on the afternoon which led to 17 Auburn points. Auburn linebacker Karlos Dansby grabbed two of Randall’s four interceptions. Randall finished the game 9-of-20 for 79 yards on the day.
“Marcus had a tough day out there today,” Saban said. “[It was] probably a combination of things, but I’m sure his first game on the road as a starter was a little more traumatic. I also felt the conditions out there were a little more difficult than what he’s used to operating in.”
The turnovers began right from the start and lasted all afternoon. Tailback Domanick Davis fumbled on the first offensive play of the game and Auburn recovered foreshadowing a disastrous afternoon for the LSU offense.
“To come out and fumble the ball on the first play, it’s just bad all around,” Davis said.
On LSU’s next possession, the Tigers drove down to the Auburn 33 yard line before Travarius Robinson picked off Randall’s pass and returned it 64 yards, leading to Auburn’s first touchdown.
Randall’s first pick to Dansby came in the second quarter as LSU attempted a screen pass to Davis. Dansby, who was rushing the quarterback, leaped in the air and picked off the pass.
On LSU’s following possession, Randall threw his third interception of the day to safety Donnay Young, which led to Phillip Yost field goal to make the score 10-0.
Dansby intercepted Randall again in the fourth quarter and returned the pick 60 yards, which set up another Auburn touchdown, and LSU trailed 31-0.
“You can’t win football games that way,” Saban said. “There’s no excuse for it. It’s just as much the coaching staff as the play. We didn’t execute and we’re all responsible for it.”
It was not until LSU’s last possession of the game that the Tigers found some offensive rhythm and the endzone when Joseph Addai scored on an eight-yard run.
Saban did not place the stumble of the offense squarely on Randall’s shoulders. The Tigers average field position throughout the game was their own 22-yard line. The ball was wet and the Tigers hurt themselves numerous times with mistakes.
“We didn’t play well around him either,” Saban said. “We didn’t play well on the line of scrimmage. We couldn’t run the ball well in the first half. All those things contribute to the quarterback situation which makes the quarterback have to make more plays.”
The Tigers gained 163 yards on the ground but 74 of those came from Randall. Addai finished with 46 yards, and Davis added 42.
“We were shooting ourselves in the foot,” Davis said. “We couldn’t get anything going. It was bad.”