Auburn Football vs. LSU: 5 Things Auburn did Right to Win

Ball Possession

Auburn only kept the ball a little over four minutes longer in the game than LSU did, but it felt like they were in control of the football the entire night.

I thought the offense for Auburn did a really good job of controlling the pace of this game. It’s not like LSU was dying to speed up the pace, but Auburn’s offense seemed to stay on the field a lot longer.

Before that final drive by LSU, Auburn’s offense had been on the field seven minutes longer, which is a significant difference.

Auburn went to a lot of third downs in this game, and they were able to convert a lot of them to keep the chains, and the clock moving.

Auburn was 8-of-19 on third down in this game, which is pretty average. That allowed Auburn to extend drives and give our defense a rest.

In comparison, LSU was just 4-of-13 on third downs in this game.

You just knew the longer Auburn could control the ball on offense, the better chance they had to win this game. That’s exactly how it played out as Auburn was able to control the ball, and the line-of-scrimmage.

Auburn had a total of 75 plays in this game – 26 passing and 49 rushing – while LSU ran just 59 plays – 27 passing and 32 rushing.

That’s the quite the difference, and huge for our offense.

Is this is the strategy we’re going to employ going forward, it’s important that our offense sustain drives and stay on the field. That will give our defense time to rest and keep us in games longer.

Next: Relied on Defense