By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The outcome may have been inevitable, with LSU leading by two touchdowns late, but Auburn coach Gus Malzahn wasn't just going to sit idly by and accept it.
He had tried onside kicks and didn't quit trying, he went for it on fourth down five times, he called timeouts late to force LSU to punt, he had Auburn throwing into the end zone with less than a minute to play.
No. 6 LSU beat Auburn 35-21 Saturday night, but the Tigers played like the next play was always going to turn it around.
"We've got some disappointed guys in there, and that's a good thing. They want to win," Malzahn said when it was over. "That will help us moving forward with that attitude."
Auburn's improving football team discovered it has a ways to go to beat a nationally ranked SEC team on the road, but it wasn't like the Tigers didn't try. LSU took advantage of two Auburn miscues to take a 14-0 lead just five minutes into the game, led by 21 at the half, then found the Tigers to be pesky to the end.
No. 6 LSU rode Jeremy Hill's 184 rushing yards and three touchdowns on the way to the victory before a less-than-capacity crowd in Tiger Stadium when the game started in the rain, and in front of a small gathering when it ended.
What a lot of fans missed was Auburn's determination to make a game of it and the Tigers' 333 yards in the second half.
"Even though it hurts right now, there were some good things to build on for the rest of the year," Malzahn said.
"I will tell you this, we will improve. That's the most important thing going forward."
Auburn rediscovered Mason, who gained 134 yards and scored two touchdowns on 26 carries. Auburn ran 85 plays for 437 yards. LSU ran 66 plays for 457.
Auburn found itself in a early following a fumble on its first drive and a dropped snap on a punt on the second. The Tigers trailed 21-0 at the half. But Auburn scored on its first series of the second half and was more competitive over the final two quarters.
"The first of the game we didn't respond very well. I'm proud of the guys in the second half," Malzahn said.
But the fumble and dropped snap set the early tone.
"That put us in a hole and we were fighting uphill the rest of the way," Malzahn said.
Auburn, which scored a dramatic 24-20 last-minute win over Mississippi State the week before, fell to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the Southeastern Conference. LSU improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the league.
Auburn will have an off week to bounce back. LSU heads to Georgia for a Top 10 SEC game next Saturday.
Auburn tried to get back in the game in the second half, trying an onsides kick to start the third quarter, later throwing a 52-yard pass to Sammie Coates that set up Tre Mason's second 2-yard touchdown run of the quarter that cut LSU's lead to 28-14. A Cameron Artis-Payne 12-yard touchdown run with 6:33 left cut another lead to 35-21. Auburn got as close as the LSU 4, but didn't score, on its last series.
LSU was relentless, too, scoring in every quarter.
Mason spurred the Tigers to their first score, going 29 of the second half's opening drive's 50 yards, including the final 6, 3, 17 and 2 yards. A Nick Marshall-to-Coates pass highlighted the second drive.
The game couldn't have started much worse for Auburn. The Tigers fumbled on their first series, and LSU scored four plays later when Hill raced 49 yards up the middle for a touchdown. Auburn punter Steven Clark, one of the most reliable players the last four years, dropped a snap on the next series and was smacked down at the Auburn 10. Hill scored on the next play in a drive that took all of three seconds.
That made it LSU 14, Auburn 0 five minutes into the game.
LSU threatened to score again on its next series, but lost a fumble at the Auburn 7. Hill made up for that on the next series, racing 54 yards to the Auburn 1. J.C. Copeland scored on the next play to make it 21-0 with 12:34 left in the second quarter.
Auburn was trying to keep it close, going for it on fourth down three times in the first half. LSU stopped all three attempts.
Hill carried LSU, and the ball, throughout the first half. He hit halftime with 152 yards rushing on 14 carries, averaging 10.9 yards per carry. Five minutes into the third quarter, he had 172 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.
Auburn had just 104 total yards in that time with Mason accounting for 56 of those.
Marshall, who lit up Mississippi State with 339 yards the week before, completed 6-of-16 passes for 31 yards and interception in the first half. He finished hitting 17-of-33 passes for 224 yards with two interceptions, but found a big-play receiver in Coates, who had four catches for 139 yards. Marshall ran for another 46 yards.
In the end, Malzahn said his team would be back.
"They play together. They like to playing together," he said. "They have bright eyes. They were fighting to the end."
Marshall said the Tigers will bounce back.
"We are still confident going into our bye week and then into the next week's game," he said. "We are going to go in and correct what we messed up tonight. We will get better after that."