Auburn hits on all cylinders in 41-7 rout of LSU

AUBURN – This was the team many expected to see roaming the Plains this season.

A wildly successful and productive Auburn offense piloted by Nick Marshall, moving the chains and leading scoring drives at will, a running attack with multiple 100-yard performers, and Sammie Coates hauling in deep scoring passes.

Auburn did all those things in its miraculous run to an SEC title and spot in the BCS National Championship last year, but struggled to find the same success this fall.

Until Saturday night.

Marshall was at his best, throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns and running for 119 yards and two scores, Cameron Artis-Payne plowed his way to 126 yards and Coates had 144 yards receiving and two scores to lead No. 5 Auburn to a 41-7 demolition of No. 15 LSU before a sellout crowd of 87,451 at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night.

"At times (this season), we hadn't looked our best," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "The plan is not to play our best football now; the plan is to play the best at end of the year. We played really good tonight."

Marshall had one of the best games of his career in just his second performance throwing for over 200 yards and running for 100-plus in the same game, topping both of the marks he had in an upset win against Texas A&M last season. The pre-season first-team All-SEC quarterback became the first Auburn player to account for four first-half touchdowns since Cam Newton against Chattanooga in 2010.

"I'm satisfied but there's always room for improvement," said Marshall, whose four touchdowns all came in the first half. "That's what I'm doing to do from here on out."

Marshall connected with Coates, who appeared fully recovered from a left leg injury that hampered him all season, on a 56-yard touchdown pass down the right side to give Auburn (5-0, 2-0 SEC) a 10-0 lead with 7:05 to go in the first quarter.

Coates' catch came between two LSU defenders, including an airborne Rashard Robinson.

"Sammy made an unbelievable catch," Malzahn said. "That was one of the better cover guys, really used his body well, came down with it. Kind of got us going right there."

Marshall had a seven-yard run in the first then added a nine-yard scoring throw to C.J. Uzomah and a very impressive 29-yard touchdown run, juking his way through the heart of the LSU defense, in the second quarter to give Auburn a 31-7 lead at the break.

"He seems faster too me," LSU coach Les Miles said of Marshall. "He could get seven to 10 yards in a pretty comfortable fashion. I went up to our defense and said 'Hey guys, that guy is pretty fast.' "

The 31 points by Auburn was the most in a half in the history of the series and the worst halftime deficit in Miles' 10-year coaching tenure at LSU.

The 34-point margin of victory matched the largest in series history, also a 41-7 Auburn win in 1999.

"This was a good game for us but I still feel like we can play better," said Artis-Payne, who had his fourth 100-yard rushing performance of the season. "We definitely wore that team down.

As strong as the Auburn offense was, with 566 yards - the most against LSU in series history - including 298 rushing, it was matched by its defensive counterparts.

Auburn prevented LSU from converting on all 13 of its third downs, the first time in six years it held an opponent 0-for on third-down conversions.

"We knew we could do it," Auburn linebacker Kris Frost said. "The biggest thing that it shows, it kind of shows everybody else that we could do it. We've always had doubters and we've always pushed it to the side and kept doing."

LSU true freshman quarter Brandon Harris was just 3-for-14 for 58 yards and had 36 yards rushing in the first start of his career. Anthony Jennings (5-for-10 for 84 yards) replaced Harris in the second half as LSU (4-2, 0-2) managed to gain just 280 yards on 60 plays.

"The night was awful from start to finish," Harris said. "Our coaching staff did a great job preparing us for each game and each opponent. I thought I came out and played terrible. I can't even put a grade on it. It was an awful game."

It was a dominant performance by Auburn, which avenged its lone regular-season loss last season and snapped a three-game losing skid to LSU.

"Coach Malzahn asked us in a meeting (Friday) to raise our hands if we had beaten LSU. Only one player raised his hand and that was (fifth-year senior) Jeff Whitaker," said senior cornerback Trovon Reed, a native of Thibodaux, Louisiana. "He asked us the same question after the game (Saturday) and we were all able to raise our hands."

On a weekend in which four of the top six teams in college football fell, Auburn prevailed in grand style.

The tests keep coming though as Auburn travels to Mississippi State, which upset Texas A&M, next Saturday.

"Our whole deal is at the end of the season," Malzahn said of rankings. "That's just the first game of the grind and it will all sort out at the end."