Auburn loses to gritty LSU in Tiger fight
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU coach Ed Orgeron didn't want the game ball, turning down a chance to stick it in the faces of so many critics who think he is in over his head.
Across Tiger Stadium, Auburn fans clustered in the stands near the visitor's locker room voiced their displeasure with coach Gus Malzahn, some yelling audibly that he's "got to go."
Such is life in the Southeastern Conference, where a young LSU team might be changing minds — and winning back disillusioned fans — thanks to a pair of gritty victories.
D.J. Chark returned a punt 75 yards for a touchdown, Connor Culp kicked field goals of 42 and 36 yards inside the final three minutes, and LSU erased a 20-point deficit on its way to a 27-23 victory over No. 10 Auburn on Saturday.
"We're just becoming a football team. Our whole staff is galvanized. Our football team is galvanized," Orgeron said. "We were going to be resilient. We weren't going to give up. We were going to block out the noise and we were going to fix the things that were fixable."
LSU's defense improved dramatically in the second half, when it allowed no points and just 64 yards. That enabled LSU (5-2, 2-1) to win with special teams play.
Defensive coordinator "Dave Aranda had ice in his veins tonight," Orgeron said. "We made some mistakes very early. Other people would have tended to quit. Not us."
Russell Gage made a diving 14-yard touchdown reception and had a 70-yard run that set up another TD in the first half, when LSU closed to 23-14 to set up a tense finish.
Kerryon Johnson rushed for 156 yards and a short TD for Auburn (5-2, 3-1), which had won four straight.
"This is an extremely tough loss from the standpoint that we got off to an extremely good start," said Malzahn, whose team had won its previous three SEC games by 21 points or more.
Malzahn couldn't recall Auburn losing such a big lead since he became coach in 2013.
"The biggest thing was the punt return. That really broke our back," he said. "We were in pretty good shape up to that point."
Arden Key's sack of Jarrett Stidham with 2 seconds left squelched Auburn's last hope of an improbable comeback, sending the volume in Tiger Stadium about as high as it has been this season despite an unusual number of empty seats visible for a competitive SEC game.