Game 2 Review: NEMESIS

Auburn 63  Alabama State 9.  I actually spent all day elsewhere and my TV provider unfortunately does not carry the SEC Alternate channel so... I did not see a second of this football game.  However after looking at the stats I am glad I did not put myself through that.  It was typical Gus Malzahn cupcake game where he ran the ball 60 TIMES and Jarrett Stidham only threw 11 passes (there were 14 overall) and I bet half of those were glorified pitches.  Yay we can run on Alabama State.  I cannot imagine a more boring game to sit through.  No thanks.  I have now been through enough of these with Gus Malzahn that I cannot stand watching them.

 

So what can we talk about?  I guess in anticipation of the upcoming LSU game we can talk a little bit about the LSU rivalry.  It has featured some big wins for Auburn but it has also included some of Auburn's most painful defeats.  I have even called LSU Auburn's nemesis.  They just seem to pop up at the worst times and ruin a season and it has happened many times now.  It is just uncanny as you look through the history of the series.  I believe Auburn's history and tradition far outweighs LSU but they have beaten some of Auburn's best teams.  I mean when you start sifting through the records it just makes you shake your head.

 

Let's go opposite this week and go with "The Ugly, The Bad and The GOOD"...

 

THE UGLY

I have already written this up in the most read post on this blog.  It is what I consider the worst loss in Auburn football history.  I am of course talking about the 1988 Auburn vs. LSU game.  This is painful but must be covered in any retrospective on this series:

 

"This is a hard one to write.  This is the worst one for me and for Auburn in my opinion.  First to set it up, we knew this was a very special team.  This senior class at that time was the winningest in Auburn history.  We knew this team was as good or better than anybody else in the country and that this defense was something very special. 

This game was played on October 8, 1988.  Auburn was 4-0 coming into the game while LSU had lost two tough ones on the road at Ohio State and Florida.  The loss to Florida would be their only one in conference this season.  The two teams had not played since Dye's first season in 1981.  It was of course a Saturday night game in Baton Rouge as it always seems to be when we go to LSU.

I had come home from Auburn that weekend and had planned to watch the game with my family.  Unfortunately my dad had to go out of town on a business trip and my mom and I started out watching the game.  She cleared out shortly after halftime if I remember correctly.  By the third quarter I was pacing and fuming like well.. an agitated tiger in his cage. 

 

Auburn controlled the game but just could not get points on the board.  As it got later and later, I got more and more worried.  Auburn kicked a field goal in the second quarter and then in the fourth quarter.  I remember having a very bad feeling in the fourth quarter when we did not punch it in but just got another field goal.  We just needed one touchdown.

It was excruciating to watch.  There was just so much on the line for Auburn and they were so close to escaping with the win.  Everyone knows how it turned out though, LSU drove the ball down the field in the last two minutes.  Auburn got it to fourth down around the 13 yard line and then LSU quarterback Tommy Hodson completed the touchdown pass to running back Eddie Fuller and LSU would win 7-6.  No I will not be providing the link for that play...

The legend of the game would grow in coming years as it was claimed that the eruption in the stadium after Fuller caught the pass actually registered as seismic activity.  Thus the nickname "The Earthquake Game" was born.  It certainly was a real earthquake for Auburn as they would have definitely played Notre Dame (and Lou Holtz) in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship and they would have won that game. 

 

Auburn would have won that game because the Irish was a running team and nobody ran the ball on this Auburn defense.  But... since Auburn lost to LSU Notre Dame would get their national title against West Virginia.  West Virginia, a team who would probably have been lucky to be in the top 15 in the country but was given their shot by doing it the "Miami Way", i.e. going undefeated with a few big wins but a much easier schedule than everyone else like say Auburn.

Auburn would go to the Sugar Bowl and lost a close one, 13-7, to a good Florida State team who had only one loss as well but lost big to Miami early in the season.  I remember it being an uninspired performance as I believe this is when the LSU loss finally hit home for the players.  It was certainly still with all of the fans..."

 

The memory of this game still makes me sick to my stomach. 

 

THE BAD

That is just the worst game.  LSU has wrecked several more good Auburn seasons as well.  The two teams did not play from 1942 though 1968.  In 1969 LSU would beat Auburn and Pat Sullivan by blocking an extra point 21-20.  The next season in 1970 Auburn and Sullivan would again lose to LSU in the rain and mud.  Looking back Pat Sullivan only lost 5 CONFERENCE GAMES in his career at Auburn and TWO were to LSU.  The other defeats were one a piece to Tennessee (1969), Georgia (1970) and Bama (1971). 

 

These two LSU losses were major factors in Auburn not winning the conference in '69 and '70.  It would not be long before the Bayou Bengals would taint another great Auburn season.  The 1972 Amazins' beat everyone including #2 Bama in the famous "Punt Bama Punt" game except... you guessed it, LSU.  Bama destroyed LSU but LSU would play their finest game of the season and beat the 1972 bunch pretty bad, 35-7.  If you are keeping count that is three horrible losses in four years!  These were some of Shug Jordan's finest teams.  Record-wise they were all better than LSU but it just seemed LSU had Auburn's number.

 

Oh and LSU would beat Auburn again the next year in 1973 and then again in 1980 (as every SEC team did that year).  Auburn won a few but over the last 25 years the Bayou Bengals would ruin Auburn's chances at a title several more times.  In 1995 LSU would beat a better Auburn team 12-6 in the ungodly humidity in Baton Rouge (I was unfortunately there) and would do it again the next season in Auburn as the old Auburn barn gym burned behind the stadium.  Auburn would miss going to Atlanta by one loss both of those seasons and they were better than LSU both of those seasons.

 

Auburn only had to beat LSU to get to Atlanta at the end of the 2001 season (the game was postponed because of 9/11) but lost that one too.  Auburn would become one of the only teams in SEC history since divisions were formed to go 7-1 in conference and miss Atlanta in 2005.  The only loss was of course to LSU in overtime as Auburn kicker John Vaughn missed five field goals.  Two years later LSU in Les Miles' first season would beat Auburn on a Hail Mary to end the game.  I mean is it starting to sink in???  Am I getting through???  These guys are Auburn's true nemesis!!!

 

In the Gus Malzahn era there have been two awful losses by good Auburn teams to LSU in 2013 and last season.  However the historic trend was broken and those two awful losses did not cost Auburn their shot at a title.  Maybe the curse is lifting, maybe things are changing, maybe it is Auburn's turn to start putting some of these losses on LSU...

 

THE GOOD

I mean wow that is a LOT of bad there.  It just boggles my mind how many bad losses Auburn has to LSU.  Fortunately there have been some big wins as well.  I think the record is still tilted in their favor but that is what makes these wins so sweet.  Interesting enough, Auburn's first win over LSU since the series started back in 1969 was in 1981, Pat Dye's first season in 1981.  Auburn would only go 5-6 that season but they would beat LSU 19-7.  Another interesting note from that game was I believe Pat Sullivan's brother Joe Sullivan was quarterback for Auburn that day.

 

Auburn would get some measure of revenge for the heartbreaking loss in 1988 by beating LSU in an eerily similar game the next season 10-6.  Auburn would go on to win a share of the conference title that season.  I was a student in the stands that day.  That victory actually started a four game winning streak over LSU, the longest in the entire series for Auburn.  In 1992, the SEC would split into divisions and LSU replaced Tennessee on Auburn's schedule.  That first season the Tigers from the plains would beat LSU in their biggest win of the season 30-28.   

 

The next season the amazing 1993 team would travel to Baton Rouge and put a complete beatdown on LSU 34-10.  I was there and it still maybe the best road win I ever witnessed.  It was so much fun.  Auburn dominated and quarterback Stan White broke Pat Sullivan's record for the most career passing yards at Auburn.  The play that stands out to me is a flea flicker off a reverse where White threw a long touchdown.  I was there with a friend of mine from Auburn and man we were whooping it up, I am actually surprised now that I know LSU fans better that we did not get in trouble that night...

 

The next season would feature the game that is probably the game that pains LSU fans the most.  It was a unique one-of-a-kind win like "Punt Bama Punt" or the "Kick Six" that you will never see again.  It was "The Interception Game".  I was there and it was my now wife of almost 25 years first ever Auburn football game.  She sure started on a good one although it did not look good in the fourth quarter with Auburn down 23-9.  There was no way LSU should have lost this game.  Auburn's offense was awful.  However LSU for some reason kept throwing the ball and the result was an inconceivable.  Auburn would intercept the ball FIVE TIMES with THREE PICK SIXES in the FOURTH QUARTER to win the game 30-26. 

 

Auburn scored NO offensive touchdowns in that game and scored 30 points.  The game stands as an absolute nightmare for LSU fans and football coaches everywhere of what might could happen.  It definitely felt good to give LSU one of those type of losses after all the pain they had inflicted over the years.  We now come to what I consider the most underrated win in Auburn history.  You never hear it mentioned with some of Auburn's big wins and you do not hear much about Dameyune Craig's epic performance.  Craig led one of the greatest fourth quarter comeback drives in Auburn history in this game.

 

It is up there with Pat Sullivan's epic last minute drive to beat Tennessee in 1971.  It is up there with Randy Campbell's drive to beat Florida State in the final seconds in 1983.  It is up there with Jeff Burger's end of game march to beat Bama in 1986.  It is up there with Slack-to-Wasden in 1989.  It is up there with Jason Campbell's unbelievable late throws to beat LSU in 2004 (which is next up after this entry).  It is up there with Nick Marshall's play to tie the game in 2013 to set up the "Kick Six".  In fact of that list this drive and Sullivan's were the only ones on the road in enemy territory.

 

Auburn was good in 1997 and would be the first team in Auburn history to get to Atlanta.  However they would not have gotten there without this monstrously underrated win.  People tend to forget Dameyune Craig after Cam Newton but Craig was an amazing player.  He was one of the first that was exceptional running and throwing.  On this night the deck was also stacked against him.  First it was a Saturday night in that hell hole in Baton Rouge.  Auburn did not have much on a running game and the defense was getting absolutely shredded by LSU running back Cecil "The Diesel" Collins.  They guy ended up with 232 yards rushing and two touchdowns.  

 

Auburn was down 28-24 and got the ball back on their 20 yard line with 3:26 remaining.  A field goal would not help, Auburn had to score a touchdown.  If Auburn gave it back to LSU they would not get the ball back.  It was now or never.  Dameyune Craig coolly led Auburn down the field and to the game-winning touchdown.  He finished the game with 342 yards passing and two touchdowns.  Craig not only put up one of the biggest clutch drives in Auburn history but broke LSU's heart as well.  I do not know why you do not hear much about this game but it is up there and definitely one of Auburn's biggest wins against LSU.

 

Before I finish this section let me pause to recognize some of the beat downs we laid on LSU during this period especially the ones involving Nick $aban.  Before that though Auburn would get one of their most improbable routs in 1999 over LSU 41-7.  This was Tommy Tuberville's first season and before this game Auburn had barely beaten Appalachian State and Idaho.  It was just incredible, it featured a touchdown off a fake kick and a dominating performance by Auburn receiver Ronnie Daniels.  This is known as "The Cigar Game" as Tuberville was trying to start a tradition after big road wins which was then labeled as the most insulting thing ever even though Bama has done it for forever against Tennessee, well maybe when Tennessee still used to be an actual competitive rival. 

 

Auburn then stomped $aban in 2000 and 2002, 34-17 and 31-7 respectively.  However Auburn's greatest win over LSU during the $aban era and maybe the biggest overall was in 2004 where Jason Campbell led another famous do-or-die drive and hit wide receiver Courtney Taylor first on a 4th and 12 play to keep the drive alive and then again on 3rd and 12 at the LSU 16 yard line for the game winning touchdown.  This would turn out to be Auburn's closest game and maybe it's biggest win for the 2004 perfect season.  This loss would send $aban running from LSU to the Miami Dolphins after the season.

 

Unfortunately though Auburn would lose 7 out of the next 9 games to LSU.  Auburn won a slugfest in 2006 7-3 and then Cam Newton had one of his greatest games as an Auburn Tiger, possibly his greatest play to help beat LSU in 2010 24-17.  Auburn just took LSU's manhood that day as the vaunted LSU defense was the #1 rushing defense in the SEC coming into that game with a bunch of future NFL players but Auburn still had over 400 yards rushing.  I was there and that was a game for the ages.  I will never forget Cam's run and Ontario McCalebb taking it to the house for the win.

 

Auburn is 2-5 against LSU since then, the biggest win was Auburn's 41-7 blowout of the Bayou Bengals in 2014 at Jordan Hare.  That was far and away that team's best performance of the season.  Auburn won again in 2016 at home and that brings us to this coming Saturday...

 

THE LAST WORD

Well there is a good summary of the history of this series.  I am not sure even the Iron Bowl or any of Auburn's great rivalries have as many historic or memorable games than this series.  Something odd or memorable just always seems to happen in this series.  There is a good chance this coming game could be a match up of top ten teams.  Auburn and LSU both started the season with big wins over Washington and Miami respectively.  This will be the opening conference game for both teams.  There will be a lot on the line Saturday afternoon in Auburn and you just never know what might could happen.