Auburn came into Jordan-Hare Stadium riding high after its huge upset of No. 1 Georgia, but LSU brought that momentum crashing down in a 38-17 defeat that gave the Tigers their first away SEC win since 2024.
The biggest issue for Auburn was obvious from the start: the offense never found a rhythm. This was not one of those losses where the Tigers started slow and eventually settled in.
Against LSU, the attack never really got going at all, and that began with LSU taking away Byrum Brown’s ability to make plays on the ground. Brown finished with just 21 rushing yards on 19 attempts.
The running game never recovered. Jeremiah Cobb led the backs with five carries for 14 yards, while Omar Mabson added three carries for 13 yards. As a team, Auburn finished with 67 rushing yards and averaged only 1.9 yards per carry.
With the ground game bottled up, Auburn’s passing attack had to do too much, and it didn’t answer the call. Brown threw for 160 yards and did not record a passing touchdown. That made the blueprint clear for Auburn: when the rushing game is neutered, the whole offense starts to stall.
Up front, LSU controlled the matchup in a way Auburn simply couldn’t match. The battle in the trenches leaned heavily toward the visitors, and that showed up in the quarterback numbers.
Brown was sacked six times for 39 yards in losses, while LSU’s Sam Leavitt wasn’t sacked, wasn’t pressured and wasn’t hurried. Leavitt took advantage of that clean pocket to throw for more than 380 yards, while Auburn’s quarterback was held to 160.
That kind of gap is hard to survive, and it left Auburn chasing the game without the kind of protection or offensive balance needed to flip it.
There was one small bright spot for the Tigers: they didn’t turn the ball over. That mattered, especially after the struggles they had in the games before the bye week. For Brown, avoiding interceptions while facing constant pressure was at least a step forward, and it stretched his turnover-free streak to two games.
But Auburn couldn’t create the same kind of disruption on the other side. After forcing three takeaways against Georgia, the Tigers came away with none against LSU. Without any real pressure on Leavitt, LSU’s quarterback had time to work and Auburn’s defense spent too much of the afternoon reacting instead of dictating.
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Alex Golesh said the next step is to go back through the film and sort out why the quarterback was holding the ball longer at times, because the blame on a night like that does not sit with one player alone. LSU edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen kept putting pressure on Auburn tackle Jacob Strand, a constant reminder that the Tigers answers in pass protection and overall line play still need some work before the offense can settle in. [Read more 🡒]