BATON ROUGE, La. – To mitigate LSU's offense, which Auburn coach Gus Malzahn says resembles a video game, the Tigers defensive line duo of Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson hope to provide a pass rush that renders its opponent on tilt.
"It's a big challenge," said Davidson, a three-time SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week. "I'll take my guys over anybody because I know we put in the work beside each other every day. [LSU's] a great football team. That's a great football team. They're going to be a big test. A great offense versus a great defense. You never know who's going to come out on top of that."
LSU quarterback Joe Burrow has thrown a nation-best 29 touchdown passes against three interceptions while completing 79.4 percent of his attempts, creating the ultimate challenge for Auburn's secondary.
"You've got to tell the guys the ball is going to get put in the air this week, there's no question about it," said senior safety Jeremiah Dinson, who started Auburn's season-long streak of winning SEC honors by earning the Defensive Player of the Week award in the season opener against Oregon. "You've just got to tell them to compete. That's why we came to Auburn. We came to Auburn for these type of games.
"Burrow is going to put the ball in the air. My guys and myself, when the opportunity comes, you've just got to take advantage of that opportunity and make plays. They're a really good offense and I can't wait to compete against them."
"I feel like it's going to be a competitive matchup," senior safety Daniel Thomas said. "They have a lot of weapons on that side of the ball. We're looking forward to it.
"It's really not about LSU. It's about us. Go in and play our brand of football, which is physicality, tackle, have relentless effort and get to the ball."
Offensively, the Tigers plan to implement lessons learned three weeks earlier in The Swamp for dealing with crowd noise.
"They're a great team, so we know we have a big challenge and everyone's got to step up their level," senior offensive lineman Jack Driscoll said. "We need all hands on deck to beat them."
Auburn has its own big play receivers, including sophomore Seth Williams, who has seven touchdowns and seven receptions of 30 or more yards.
"He's got the best hands I've seen," Thomas said. "He's a great weapon for us."
Defensively, Auburn ranks No. 3 nationally with ten fumble recoveries and 11 forced fumbles. The Tigers are one of 10 FBS teams to hold each opponent to 24 or fewer points this season, a result, says Dinson, of Auburn's cohesiveness.
"That's one thing I can say that really changed about us, why we're playing how we're playing now," said Dinson, Auburn's leading tackler with 46 stops. "We've built relationships. It's bigger than football. It's a brotherhood. We know each other's struggles.
"That's why we play hard. We play for each other because we know we can lean on each other. We're trying to reach one goal. We know each other's struggles, know what each other is going through in their everyday lives, we can be there for them. The brotherhood is at an all-time high right now."
No. 9 Auburn (6-1, 3-1) plays No. 2 LSU (7-0, 3-0) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT with the visiting Tigers seeking their victory in Tiger Stadium since 1999.
"We're just trying to make history this week," Dinson said.
"It's got to come to an end one day," said Davidson. "Why not it be Saturday?"
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer