Auburn Three Keys: LSU

Three-keys-Auburn

The biggest SEC matchup of the season so far will see Auburn take on a surprisingly good LSU squad at Jordan-Hare in Week 3. The Tigers (LSU) have already taken down Miami this year and they would love another scalp.

By Steve Wright

Here are the three keys:

A better game from Jarrett Stidham

When these two teams met last season it was not a good day for the Baylor transfer. Seemingly shaken by his reception and the pressure put on him in Baton Rouge, Stidham had one of his worst games of the season in a contest that his team needed him the most.

Stidham completed just nine passes on the day, going 9-of-26 for 166 yards and a touchdown. While it would be unfair to blame the defeat on the quarterback entirely – some very crucial passes were dropped at inopportune times on catchable balls – this was the type of game that Stidham was recruited to Auburn to win.

Now he will get his chance again against the other Tigers, with Auburn’s College Football Playoff hopes on the line.

Win the battle of offensive lines

It is not often that a battle between two offensive lines will be as important as this. Both schools have units which would best be described as incomplete, with Auburn being solid at guard and questionable elsewhere, while LSU seems to be rotating its line on a weekly basis based on injuries and suspensions.

Stidham has been well protected for the most part – he has been sacked just twice – but that 3.3 yards per carry effort on the ground against Washington cannot just be shoveled into the corner. The benefit for Auburn is that they have the better of the two defensive lines, but LSU has enough about it in the front seven to possibly cause Auburn some problems on Saturday.

Blitz, blitz, blitz

LSU put up just 78 yards of offense last week in a 31-0 win over Southeastern Louisiana. It is easy to look at that number and assume that Ed Orgeron just called off the dogs with the Tigers up at half time, but that was far from the case.

The LSU offensive line was just bad against Southeastern, and the receivers didn’t help matters by putting down a number of catchable balls. The big change came in the second quarter when the FCS outfit began throwing caution to the wind and blitzing the Tigers to upset quarterback Joe Barrow.

It worked so well that LSU is expected to make changes on the offensive line this week against Auburn. Even so, it is a game plan that can be followed to cause LSU major problems in trying to move the ball.

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