Auburn Football vs. LSU: 3 Up, 3 Down

Sep 24, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA;
LSU Tigers linebacker Duke Riley (40) grabs Auburn football Tigers running back Kerryon Johnson (21) during the second quarter at Jordan Hare Stadium. The Auburn Tigers beat the LSU Tigers 18-13. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Here we give our three up and three down for Auburn football after their win against LSU at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night.

Auburn football won on Saturday night, but it wasn’t exactly pretty. There is still a lot of work to be done offensively, but our defense has proven it can win big games for us.

I thought Auburn had a really good chance of winning this game if the offense just played smart. That’s exactly was Gus Malzahn and the staff did making sure Sean White didn’t lose the game.

The offense worked well between the 20 yard lines, and we set Daniel Carlson up to win the game with his leg. He’s proven to be one of the most effective offensive weapons for Auburn this year.

Our defense was absolutely brilliant, albeit they weren’t exactly going up against a high-scoring offense. They created enough negative plays to get LSU out of its game plan, which is giving the ball to Leonard Fournette.

Even though LSU almost won the game at the end, I felt like Auburn was the better team on Saturday night. We did exactly what we need to do in order to beat LSU.

This could be a huge momentum boost for the team going forward, and hopefully will lead to more victories for Malzahn.

This wasn’t a pretty game for Auburn, but here are three areas they improved against LSU, and three areas that took a step back.

Sep 24, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA; LSU receiver D.J. Clark (82) is tackled by Auburn Tigers lineman defensive back Johnathan Ford (23) during the second quarter at Jordan Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Auburn Defense

You knew the Auburn defense would have to basically play lights out to beat LSU. They basically did allowing just 13 points and 338 total yards.

They came up big on third down allowing LSU to convert on just four of 13 third down opportunities.

To keep things real, LSU’s offense is worse than ours so it’s not like we shut down a prolific offensive team.

Plus, they averaged over six yards a carry, so we didn’t exactly do a great job of stopping the run.

However, the defense came up with a lot of big plays when they needed to take LSU out of their game plan.

This give the fans and the team confidence that they can win games with this defense in 2016.

Daniel Carlson

I knew Daniel Carlson would play a huge role in this low-scoring game, but I had no idea he would score all our points.

I definitely didn’t think that he would score all our points in a win!

There is little doubt in my mind that Daniel Carlson is the best kicker in the country. I think he proved that six times over in the game against LSU.

Kerryon Johnson

Something that was kind of lost in the game was the production from Kerryon Johnson.

I didn’t come out of the game thinking that anyone on our offense – other than Daniel Carlson – had a great game. But when you look back at the stats Kerryon Johnson was highly productive on offense.

He carried the ball 22 times for 93 yards, which is average of 4.2 yards per carry. That’s not too bad against an LSU defense that is normally stout against the run.

His longest run of the night was just 14 yards, but he didn’t not a great job of moving the ball forward and not getting tackled behind the line-of-scrimmage.

He also led the team in receiving yardage with 68 on 4 catches. I still think he can be deadly out of the backfield when used correctly.

On a night where it was hard to find anyone who stood out on offense for either team, Kerryon Johnson came away with a pretty good night.

He now has 371 yards rushing on 78 carries for an average of 4.8 yards per carry on the season.

Sep 24, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers quarterback Sean White (13) looks for a receiver during the fourth quarter against the LSU Tigers at Jordan Hare Stadium. The Auburn Tigers beat the LSU Tigers 18-13. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Red Zone Offense

I really can’t find too many areas in this game that went backwards, but the offense definitely has to improve in the red zone going forward.

Good news is, Auburn scored on 5 of their 6 red zone opportunities against LSU, but they were all field goals.

To be honest, it should have been six field goals.

Now a lot of this was due to the fact that Auburn was playing conservatively because they knew we could win with fields. I think that was the right move.

However, going forward Gus Malzahn and Rhett Lashlee have to do a better job of calling plays inside the 20 going forward.

This was a huge problem for Auburn last year with Sean White at quarterback. We can’t continue to win games with nothing but field goals.

Toomer’s Tree

What a sad site after the game with one of the new Toomer’s oak trees on fire.

This was a crazy game that had a lot of ups-and-downs, but this was by far the being drawback from the game.

Rolling Toomer’s Corner is one of the best traditions in college football.

It pains me to say this, but something is going to have to be done to protect the trees, and the people, around Toomer’s Corner.

I fear that acts like this will ultimately kill what is a great tradition for Auburn fans.

Les Miles

We all knew going into this game that it was win or go home. That turned out to be true as Les Miles was let go Sunday afternoon after suffering his second loss of the season.

Les Miles was almost fired at the end of the 2015 season, but was given another chance.

You knew the leash was short going into the season, and after two losses they jumped on the opportunity to let him go.

As an Auburn I can’t say I’m sad to him go. His unpredictably gave me heart issues all the way up until that final second Saturday night.

I think Les will get a good job somewhere else, but it will definitely be a step back from LSU and the SEC.