What a difference two weeks makes.
On Oct. 1, LSU let Troy come into Tiger Stadium and push them around in an embarrassing loss. Last week, LSU responded with a road win over a ranked Florida team. On Saturday, LSU showed it can be a factor in the SEC, overcoming a 20-0 deficit to beat No. 10 Auburn, 27-23.
Auburn let LSU hang around and eventually LSU made Gus Malzahn and his team pay.
Auburn completely dominated the first half and jumped out to a 20-0 lead before LSU came all the way back to take a 24-23 lead on a 42-yard Connor Culp field goal with 2:36 remaining. From there, Auburn had the chance to go down the field and win the game, but things went haywire.
Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham, feeling heavy pressure, threw three straight incomplete passes. With just under two minutes left and three timeouts remaining, one would guess Auburn would punt the ball back to LSU, use its timeouts and try to regain possession.
Instead, Malzahn perplexingly called a timeout and kept his offense on the field. This time, on fourth and 10, Stidham looked deep and his pass once again fell incomplete. From there, LSU did its best to run the clock out but eventually did give the ball back to Auburn after Culp hit another field goal, making it 27-23.
Auburn regained possession with 38 seconds to go, but — with a little help from a clock operator not stopping the clock on a first down — Stidham could not lead his team down the field and LSU held on for an upset victory.
The win showed the resilience of an LSU team that many left for dead after the Troy game. Fans and media said Joe Alleva made a mistake picking Ed Orgeron as coach. On Saturday, Orgeron kept his team levelheaded despite the poor start. LSU just chipped away.
First it was Stephen Sullivan who found his way in the end zone from a yard out to get LSU on the board. Later in the second, Russell Gage was on the receiving end of a Danny Etling touchdown pass just before halftime.
Neither side scored in the third quarter, but LSU opened up the fourth in a big way.
LSU begins the 4th quarter with a BANG. pic.twitter.com/SkeudkbSKp
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 14, 2017
That’s D.J. Chark, who led LSU with 150 receiving yards, taking an Auburn punt 75 yards for a touchdown, putting Orgeron’s team within two, 23-21.
While LSU’s offense and special teams chipped away at the lead, Auburn’s offense sputtered, mustering just 73 total yards in the second half. Auburn punted the ball on its first five second half possessions. The only drives that didn’t end in punts were the last two, which resulted in failed fourth-down attempts.
On the other side, it was a gorgeous punt from LSU’s Josh Growden that pinned Auburn at its own 3-yard line with under eight minutes to go. From there, LSU forced a three-and-out and only needed to go 19 yards to put Culp in position to give his team the lead.
Because once LSU had the lead, everybody in the building knew it was over. Auburn’s offense didn’t have a chance.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
