LSU football rallies from 17-0 down to beat Auburn on the road

“We have grit.” Those were the first words LSU football coach Brian Kelly spoke to ESPN’s Katie George following his team’s win at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The first-year frontman of the Tigers knew heading to the Plains would be tough. But it’s hard for him to imagine just how difficult his first SEC West road game would truly be.

This game had it all: backup quarterbacks, a billion penalty flags, Koy Moore mistakes and everything in between. If you didn’t expect a rollercoaster ride in a Tiger Bowl in 2022, I don’t know what to tell you. One of the wildest annual games in all of college football did not disappoint.

In the end, the Bayou Bengals improve to 4-1 on the season (2-0 in SEC play) with a 21-17 win over Auburn. Nothing about this contest was simple though. LSU fought for everything it got throughout the evening in this bout and the Tigers earned their win.

LSU football rallies from 17-0 down to beat Auburn on the road

The evening started tragically with LSU defensive back Sevyn Banks being stretchered off following a collision involving his head on the opening kickoff. The Tigers’ special teamer was taken to the hospital following a scary scene to start the game, but fans have since learned that he is now OK. Banks will travel back with the team to Baton Rouge on Saturday night.

Following the scary scenes, football became an afterthought to many inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. Nevertheless, the Bayou Bengals still had a job to do.

They started the first half as they did against Florida State and Mississippi State: slowly. Sluggish three and outs from the offense combined with lapses of concentration in the defensive secondary saw LSU go down 17-0 with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter. Things weren’t looking good for the Tigers as they stared defeat straight in the face.

And then BJ Ojulari and Jay Ward happened.

The former stripped the ball from Auburn quarterback Robby Ashford‘s hands and the latter picked it up for the scoop-and-score. There was life on the visitors’ sideline. Another stop followed from the defense and it was Jayden Daniels‘ turn to respond. He did so in an emphatic way, punching it in from one yard out following a 39-yard reception from John Emery Jr. to set up the score.

The purple and gold went into halftime down just three points, despite an abysmal first-half performance across the board.

The aforementioned running back went on to give the visitors a lead with 3:32 left to play in the third quarter. Emery Jr. ran in a 20-yard touchdown, high-stepping his way into the endzone. LSU would never give up this lead.

The fourth quarter was nervy—to say the least. The hosts were driving deep in the Tigers’ territory before the former LSU receiver, Moore, turned the football over on a trick play. The opposing offense couldn’t get anything going, but Auburn then muffed a punt to give the Bayou Bengals some great field positioning. LSU coughed it right back up in to cap off a comedic span of errors between the two teams, or so we thought.

Former Arkansas defensive back Greg Brooks Jr. stripped the ball out of Moore’s hands in the closing minutes of the game to set his team up to win. The Tigers’ offense, led by running back Josh Williams, would go on to get a first down to close it out.

Even though LSU continuously shot itself in the foot on the evening, Kelly’s team somehow found a way to leave a hostile environment with another victory. One cannot even begin to describe the resiliency that this football team has shown through five weeks of the season. The Tigers will need to improve in a lot of areas if they want to compete with Tennessee next week. However, they’ve shown their supporters that anything is possible with a win over Auburn.