Auburn’s defense forced three LSU turnovers and held the Bayou Bengals to a season-low 11 points in Saturday’s Tiger showdown helping propel them to a 48-11 win.
“I’m real proud of our team,” Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said. “I’m real proud of our coaches. We’ve seen this team grow and face adversity. Here at Auburn, sometimes you face more adversity than at other places. We did that. We overcame it.”
Auburn’s win was the first in the annual series since 2016. Since 2016, Auburn has lost by a touchdown or less margin in each of the last three games.
This time, Auburn’s defense helped make sure they walked away with the win.
The orange and blue led the way with four sacks. Two of those four came from Derick Hall. Hall’s first sack of the night was also the first of his career. Auburn’s defense hounded the LSU offense all evening, forcing three turnovers, including an interception by Nehemiah Pritchett, the first of his career.
“We’re just trying to prove we have one of the best secondaries in the SEC,” Pritchett said. “We’re trying to improve every week and take it game-by-game.”
Not only did Auburn’s defense force turnovers, but they also put up some points in the first half, including a fumble returned for a touchdown by Christian Tutt. Tutt’s touchdown pushed Auburn out in front 14-0 and gave Tutt the first score of his career.
“I think it was a big play,” Tutt said. “We got a lot of momentum. We went up two touchdowns. That play, I was trying to stay on my man. I looked at that ball for two seconds, and I didn’t see any o-linemen move at all. I was like ‘it’s my time, I’m going to go get that.’”
The Auburn defense didn’t slow down in the second half. On LSU’s first play of the third quarter, Daquan Newkirk tipped LSU quarterback TJ Finley’s pass, and Big Kat Bryant grabbed it out of the air to set up Auburn’s offense at the LSU 21-yard line.
“We affected [LSU] a whole lot,” Bryant said. “That was the whole game plan. Our first couple games, we couldn’t get any pressure to the quarterback. Today, with a freshman quarterback coming in, that was a real big deal. I think we affected him pretty well with him throwing picks and really getting him off his groove. That was the whole deal going into the week.”
As the clock ticked away in Jordan-Hare Stadium, so did LSU’s patience. LSU switched quarterbacks in the fourth quarter as Auburn continuously shut down Finley’s offense. After an impressive showing by his defense and offense, Malzahn feels confident about his team heading into the bye week.
We've got momentum now,” Malzahn said. “We’ve got an off week. That was the sixth straight SEC game that we had. Our bodies are really talking to us. We need to heal up. We’ve got four left. We’ll have a chance to kind of evaluate the areas we need to improve on to get the best plan for the next four games.”
*Images belong to The Auburn Plainsman
Original Post: https://www.theplainsman.com/article/2020/11/auburns-defensive-momentum-propels-them-to-victory-over-lsu
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