A ‘disappointing’ home loss to Auburn puts LSU on misery watch
LSU’s disappointing loss at home against 22-ranked Auburn still is not sitting well with Tiger fans in Louisiana and around the country. Head coach
LSU landed on USA TODAY Sports’ Misery Index, a weekly measurement of knee-jerk reactions based on what each fan base just watched.
In discussing what awaits Orgeron now, a lot of media types have invoked Gene Chizik, the former Auburn coach who won a national title with Cam Newton and then was fired two years later. But unlike that Auburn program, LSU is unlikely to completely spiral. Instead, the Tigers will just be in a lot of coin flip games, which means they’ll come out on the wrong end sometimes. That’s the simplest explanation for losing to Auburn, 24-19, which hadn’t happened in Death Valley since 1999.
When you can’t run the football at all (32 yards on 25 carries) and your defense gives up a couple of big plays, you’re susceptible to a decent Auburn team executing a late 92-yard drive to steal a win. Paired with LSU’s season-opening loss at UCLA, the trajectory is now clear, pointing toward a mediocrity that is much more sustainable than LSU’s 2019 brilliance. Given their thirst to win titles, LSU probably won’t put up with it for very long.
Since LSU won the national championship in 2019, Ed Orgeron and the Tigers have won eight games and lost seven. A turbulent COVID-19 season coupled with a very up and down 2021 season has some in the college football world and in Baton Rouge wondering of Orgeron deserves to be on the hot seat.
List
Five reasons LSU dropped the ball at home
After escaping Starkville with a win against Mississippi State, it looked like the lackluster Tigers of the third and fourth quarter of the game a week ago came to play the Auburn Tigers. On Saturday, Auburn left Death Valley with a win for the first time since 1999.
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LSU’s abysmal running game was once again subpar (32 yards on 25 carries) and the defense, which had played relatively well for most of the game, let Auburn go down the filed in a 92-yard drive to seal the win.
“We just have to hurry up. We’re trying to change the play. I told em, we just have to call a play and run with it.”
“There’s no excuse for that. We should not be at that point.” #LSU https://t.co/cbqJZaYsUd
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) October 3, 2021
Other teams featured on the Misery index after bad losses Saturday include Florida, Oregon, Miami, and Missouri.
