Auburn 'hurting' after historic loss

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Auburn 'hurting' after historic loss at LSU

Updated on October 15, 2017 at 7:46 PMPosted on October 15, 2017 at 7:42 PM

Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham (8) rushes against LSU linebacker Devin White (40) and safety Grant Delpit (9) in the second half of an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017. (AP/Matthew Hinton)

 

 

By James Crepea

jcrepea@al.com

 

The day after a historically bad offensive breakdown, Auburn is trying to come to grips with its latest stunning loss at LSU.

Teams in the top 10 of the AP poll were 182-0 when leading by at least 20 points against unranked opponents since 2014 before Auburn's 20-0 lead evaporated in a 27-23 loss at Tiger Stadium on Saturday.

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"It's really hard to swallow," quarterback Jarrett Stidham said. "Obviously when you're up 20 points on the road in Death Valley and everything's going right and you kind of just let it slip through your fingers, it kind of sucks, honestly. It's not fun to sit there and lose a game like that, but at the end of the day, that's just the way it is sometimes. We're looking past it and looking forward to playing Arkansas this week."

Stidham, who was 9 of 26 for 165 yards and a touchdown, said he didn't sense Auburn had lost control "until the end of the game."

 

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Of course, 20 straight points by LSU, specifically the 75-yard punt return touchdown by DJ Chark early in the fourth quarter indicated otherwise.

Connor Culp's go-ahead 42-yard field goal with 2:36 to go felt more like a formality at that point and reality clearly hit the Auburn sideline.

"Everybody's hurting with a tough loss," safety Stephen Roberts said. "We don't ever break. We're always together. We're always together as a team."

The biggest comeback by LSU against an SEC team at Tiger Stadium added yet another chapter to a rivalry full of bizarre games, particularly in Baton Rouge.

"Obviously, it's a sad feeling. You hurt after a loss like that," linebacker Darrell Williams said. "But you just got to keep the same mentality as far as correcting mistakes and learning from what you did wrong, and get ready for the next one."

 

Auburn's 64 yards in the second half, with just six passing yards, was another example of an opponent making in-game adjustments that derailed Auburn's offense, which had seen similar outcomes against Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Clemson over the past two seasons.

"I think as an offense, as a group, in our heads, we got complacent," running back Kerryon Johnson said during a postgame radio interview. "We thought we had the game in the bag. We stopped fighting and we gave it to them on a silver platter. ... We kind of took our foot off the pedal."

Though Auburn coach Gus Malzahn told his team and said in his postgame press conference that the Tigers control their own destiny, they don't presently since LSU holds the tiebreaker.

But those scenarios are a long way off to consider for Auburn, which fell to No. 21 in the AP and No. 20 in the coaches polls.

"This is not going to be the end of the world," Malzahn said. "We're going to rebound. I truly believe we will and our players feel the same way."