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Auburn Football vs. LSU: New Defensive Identity Leads to Last Second Victory
In a defensive battle, Auburn football came out victorious against LSU thanks to poor clock management and the leg of Daniel Carlson.
Auburn football survived with an 18-13 win over LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Six field goals from Daniel Carlson were just enough to give Auburn the win.
LSU had a chance to win, but with 1 second left after a penalty they couldn’t get set and get the ball snapped before the clock hit zero.
At first they did snap it and LSU completed a touchdown pass, but after review the correct call was made and Auburn fans could breathe.
I thought this was would be a low scoring game, but nothing to the effect of what we saw.
The change in this game was that Gus Malzahn finally committed to the fact that this is a defensive team.
I still wasn’t happy with the play-calling early in this game. Gus Malzahn called too many plays in the backfield that created negative plays.
I’m tired of seeing the bubble screens and passes behind the line of scrimmage.
Still, White was able to complete enough passes downfield to move he ball.
Just like last year, a lot of White’s drives stalled in the red zone. I’m OK with that against a team like LSU who I know isn’t going to light up the scoreboard.
The running game wasn’t too effective, which is not a surprise against LSU’s defense.
I thought Gus Malzahn abandoned the run a little too early.
In the second half Malzahn did a better job of moving the ball forward on first and second down, which set Auburn and White with third-and-manageable situations.
Defensively it’s hard to complain, but I thought LSU did us a favor by going away from Fournette.
Early in the game he had a lot of explosive runs. Then for some reason Les Miles decided to throw the football.
It helped that Auburn’s defense created some negative plays that got them out of their game plan.
The secondary did a lot better job of keeping Fournette and others from braking big touchdown plays unlike last year’s game.
A few times it looked like LSU was going to break a big one, but Auburn was able to keep them out of the end zone.
I said Daniel Carlson would be a key to this game, and boy was he. What a weapon at kicker.
But the story of this game is Auburn’s new identity on defense. Gus Malzahn has realized its the best part of this team, and he allowed them to win this game for us Saturday night.
This is not the offense we’re used to seeing, but it’s good enough to keep us in games with how good our defense is this year.
Some fans might not like, but that’s who we are. The quicker Gus and the fans embrace that fact, the better.
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