LSU had knocked at the door of road wins in its two previous trips, but fallen short.
But the No. 18 Tigers (6-2, 3-2) beat down the barn door Saturday on the Plains and scorched past Auburn (4-3, 2-3) for a three-touchdown halftime lead and 38-17 victory, the program’s largest road win in the series history.
LSU mored than doubled Auburn with 552 total yards to 271, with the divide even more lopsided until a late drive by the home team, and ended a road drought that went back six games overall to last season’s opener at Clemson and eight games in conference play to Oct. 19, 2024 at Arkansas.
“When games are dominating that way in score, yardage and almost all areas, that means that a lot of people are doing things right,” coach Lane Kiffin said. “I take a lot more into that and give the team credit than if we just win a game right at the end and a kick goes in or out or something or a two-point play. So really proud of our guys how they prepared all week to come into a team that had just beat the No. 1 team in the country on the road, and they did it by playing really sound football.”
Quarterback Sam Leavitt completed 32 of his 45 passes for 387 yards and three touchdowns and finished his second consecutive contest without an interception — though not without a particularly close call in the second quarter.
He also had his most impactful rushing performance since his early-season hamstring injury with 54 yards and a touchdown on eight carries, often to move the chains in pivotal moments when Auburn covered well downfield and left lanes open for him to exploit.
Junior wide receiver Jackson Harris caught nine passes for 178 yards — both career highs — and two touchdowns, and junior tight end Trey’Dez Green had five receptions for 50 yards and a score in his first game back since a knee injury suffered Sept. 19 at now-No. 7 Ole Miss (5-1, 3-1).
Sophomore running back Dilin Jones rushed 21 times for a game-high 92 yards and a dagger touchdown in the fourth and caught four passes for 27 yards.
“I think as much of the play of (Green), it’s the feeling — you just feel different when he’s there,” Kiffin said of the key leader and chess-piece’s return to action. “That’s why I was so in the tank when Dashawn (Spears) and the two 7’s went down, because they’re impactful players. It’s kind of like you feel like you’re going fishing with really good bait and tackle when they walk in. So just to have him back in uniform felt good before, and then obviously he played really well on a limited play count.”
LSU’s defense was largely lights-out in its task of containing and disrupting Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown and his Tigers’ offense a week after their upset of then-No. 1 Georgia (6-1, 4-1).
Coordinator Blake Baker’s unit racked up seven sacks — led by two by junior defensive end Jordan Ross — and held Brown and company to 271 yards, including just 21 rushing by the quarterback because of the numerous stops behind the line.
“I thought they did (a good job) of that was the whole plan coming in of tackling him low,” Kiffin said. “He’s just so strong, and he gets away from things, so you saw guys just hanging onto his legs and waiting for the rest of the guys to come. And that was really the plan, and they executed it well outside of the one play where we screwed up a pass-rush lane and then we didn’t wrap him and he made the long run.”
Each time Auburn managed to find a potential spark, LSU swung back quickly with an answer.
The teams traded a pair of early field goals: Scott Starzyk first with the 30-yarder for the LSU lead, then Alex McPherson with the 23-yard equalizer.
Auburn appeared to be gaining momentum on that second possession, getting its tempo going and pushing deep into the red zone.
But a pressure and deflected pass by Ross, a tackle for loss by junior defensive tackle Dominick McKinley (Acadiana) and a pressure by senior edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen and tight coverage in the end zone by sophomore corner D.J. Pickett ultimately forced the home team to settle for the McPherson kick.
LSU took a 10-3 lead later in the opening quarter on a 10-yard strike from Leavitt to Harris on which each made his end of the play through contact.
“It seems like it was five hours ago, but, yeah, it was a big moment,” Kiffin said. “Those are the variables that we call, like, a butterfly effect, like one thing happens there that changes all kinds of things that the game can feel totally different if you don’t get the seven there.”
Auburn briefly appeared to have a pair of potential momentum-swing moments in the second quarter.
But an official review found that defensive back Eric Winters had not maintained possession on his diving attempted interception of an errant Leavitt throw, and LSU converted the possession’s renewed life into a 14-play, 95-march to a 15-yard touchdown to Green.
The quarterback finished 9-for-12 for 96 yards with five different weapons touching the ball, including well-executed conversions on a pair of third downs and a fourth down on which a pair of misdirection actions helped free up Green for the easy gain.
“Obviously a really poor decision that (Leavitt) got lucky to get back, so I just told him, ‘Hey, you got lucky on that. We can’t have another one of those,” Kiffin said. “This was a game that when I feel a game early that we’re gonna dominate this game if we don’t screw it up, I say that a lot to the players and to the quarterback especially that, ‘Hey, this is gonna be a take-care-of-the-ball game, because we’re playing really well on the other side and we’ve got really good matchups.’ So, he really played really well outside of that play.”
And when Brown finally broke loose for a 34-yard scamper up the sideline and then subsequent goal-line touchdown run to pull back within 17-10, LSU responded with back-to-back touchdown drives before halftime and five straight scoreless defensive possessions to effectively blow open the lead and put away the victory.
Leavitt hit Harris linked up for a 70-yard catch and run, the Tigers’ longest play of the season, just three plays after the Auburn score.
And then the quarterback added a 4-yard touchdown run with 17 seconds left before halftime to cap a 10-play, 74-yard drive.
Neither team would score again until Jones eventually punched in a 12-yard run early in the fourth quarter.
Auburn finally ends its draught with a 7-yard rush by backup quarterback Tristan Ti’a in the final minutes that was both far too little and far too late.
LSU junior cornerback P.J. Woodland finished with a game-high nine tackles and a pass breakup.
Junior linebacker Davhon Keys, senior linebacker T.J. Dottery and Umanmielen added seven, six and five tackles, respectively, including a sack each.
Umanmielen’s sack was his ninth of the season, now just three shy of the Arden Key‘s program-record 12 in 2016.
Ross, now with 3.5 sacks the past two weeks, and freshman defensive tackle Daverin “Deuce” Geralds II each had four tackles.
Senior safety Ty Benefield and freshman defensive end Lamar Brown (University Lab) each wrapped up a sack, and a tackle for loss and pair of breakups by Pickett were among other highlights.
LSU will enjoy a bye next week before hosting current-No. 13 Alabama (5-2, 3-2) to open a key November stretch that will likely determine the perception of the season.
“One game at a time, and hopefully we get (linebacker) Whit (Weeks) back so we can be the team that we put together for the most part,” Kiffin said. “And I think when we have our players and we don’t screw games up, we’re really hard to beat and we play really good, and I think we play as well as anybody in the country, which is what this roster was put together to do.”
