Paul Finebaum didn’t spend Sunday sugarcoating Auburn’s Week 8 collapse. The ESPN analyst called the Tigers’ 38-17 home loss to LSU the most disappointing performance of the weekend, and the timing made the verdict sting even more: it came just one week after Auburn shocked then-No. 1 Georgia 27-24 in Athens.
Speaking on The Matt Barrie Show while previewing Georgia’s Oct. 31 game with Florida, Finebaum made his stance plain.
“The Auburn game was to be dismissed. The most disappointing performance yesterday, among the millions, was Auburn. But Georgia, I think a week off was the best thing to happen to them.”
LSU wasted no time taking control at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The No.
18 Tigers scored on five of their six first-half possessions and went to halftime with a 31-10 advantage. Auburn, which had just rolled up 192 rushing yards in the upset of Georgia, was held to 67 yards on the ground on 35 carries.
LSU also brought down quarterback Byrum Brown six times.
The mismatch showed up everywhere in the numbers. LSU finished with 552 total yards to Auburn’s 271, and the Tigers’ defense generated havoc on 26% of Auburn’s snaps. Auburn’s defense, by comparison, produced havoc on 10% of LSU’s snaps.
The loss left Auburn at 4-3 overall and 2-3 in SEC play. It also extended an ugly trend at home: the Tigers have now dropped 11 of their last 13 home games against Power Four opponents.
Auburn coach Alex Golesh didn’t try to paint the night any other way.
“There’s no silver lining. There’s no anything. That was bad in every imaginable way,” he said, adding, “We’ve had the high of highs, and that was the low of lows.”
Auburn’s next chance comes Oct. 31 at Ole Miss.
Finebaum was equally quick to pump the brakes on any idea that Auburn’s win over Georgia should have changed how he viewed the Bulldogs. In his eyes, that result was more about the circumstances of the day than any real shift in Georgia’s identity.
“I know you can’t make a case, ‘Well, Auburn did what Auburn did the week before.’ That doesn’t matter,” Finebaum said.
“That always felt a little fluky to me, Matt. It always felt like Georgia was the team beat up that day and not coming off the bye.”
Auburn caught Georgia a week after the Bulldogs’ 20-17 win at Alabama. Gunner Stockton took a helmet-first hit on the first play from scrimmage, then turned the ball over three times, including a fumble at the Auburn 46 with 58 seconds left that set up Alex McPherson’s 34-yard game-winner. Nate Frazier, back from a rib injury, finished with 19 yards on nine carries.
Finebaum wasn’t worried about Georgia after that loss, either. The Bulldogs, who were No. 5 in last week’s AP poll and are 6-1, used Week 8 as their open date before meeting Florida at 3:30 p.m.
ET on Oct. 31.
That rivalry game will be held in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium this year. Florida, now 5-2, also had a bye after beating Texas 27-24.
If Auburn drew Finebaum’s harshest criticism, LSU earned the warmest praise. He was impressed by the way the Tigers handled the moment and the stage.
“They looked like an elite team yesterday,” he said.
Quarterback Sam Leavitt put together the kind of performance that gets attention fast: 32 completions on 45 attempts for a career-high 387 yards and three touchdowns, plus a rushing score. Jackson Harris added nine catches for 178 yards and two touchdowns.
The victory pushed LSU to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in SEC play and snapped an eight-game SEC road losing streak dating to 2024. Finebaum had already said last week that LSU was “a factor again” after its 31-0 win over Mississippi State.
Looking ahead to Nov. 7, he likes the setup for LSU’s matchup with Alabama.
“LSU is getting a bye right now for Alabama, and Alabama struggled to get through Texas A&M,” Finebaum said. “I feel pretty good about LSU’s chances in that game. ... LSU is a team that I am really intrigued by.”
Alabama, after all, had to rally from a 20-17 deficit entering the fourth quarter against the 4-4 Aggies before pulling away for a 31-20 win and ending a two-game losing streak.
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