Photo via SEC

The LSU football team escaped Jordan-Hare Stadium with a win on Saturday night, but they don't have much else to celebrate.

In a game dominated by penalties and turnovers, the Bayou Bengals' defense trumped an inspired Auburn defense, while the two team's other units did what they could to give the game away.

After orchestrating an impressive opening drive Quarterback Zach Mettenberger fumbled the ball on a mishandled snap as LSU lined up at the Auburn four yard line, ready to strike. The defense quickly turned the situation around by stopping Auburn running back Trey Mason in the end zone and recording a safety. After Spencer Ware rumbled forward into Auburn territory, Michael Ford put LSU up 9-0 with 4:18 left in the first quarter. 

However, the game changed course after that. Auburn forced Mettenberger's second fumble of the night and capitalized with a score on Ontario McCaleb's one yard touchdown run. LSU committed nine penalties, costing them a total of 80 yards. Notably, personal fouls committed by Luke Muncie and Jalen Mills resulted in verbal lashings from Les Miles, who gave another connotation to the nickname Mad Hatter tonight.

Mettenberger started the game off strong, but seemed shaken by his two first quarter fumbles and first SEC start, which came on the road in front of the loud crowd at Jordan-Hare Stadium.  Additionally, Auburn's defense came to play, highlighted by defensive end Corey Lemonier's performance. Mettenberger remained under pressure for most of the game. The LSU running game was stagnant outside the first quarter, with the exceptions of a couple longer runs by Spencer Ware. The junior was one of the offense's only bright spots. After being absent for much of the season. He rushed for 90 yards on 16 carries. 

The decisive moment in the game came when Quan Bray was unable to handle a Brad Wing punt in the third quarter. Jarvis Landry recovered the ball for LSU and Mettenberger connected with Kadron Boone for a 29 yard reception. This led to Drew Alleman's game winning field goal in the middle of the 3rd quarter. The score would remain 12-10 to the finish. After that, LSU's defensive line pressured Kiehl Frazier and LSU's linebackers contained Auburn's speedy running backs. 

It wasn't pretty, but LSU survived.  The team has a lot of work ahead of them this week, as the normally calm Les Miles was visibly infuriated with his Tigers.  

"We were sloppy," he said after the game. "It's interesting, we practice the ability not to have penalties, but what happens is guys lose their poise. This is a tremendous lesson for us which is something that we'll certainly be able to teach from in a very aggressive manner."

They will need to take next weekend's home game against Towson as a serious tune up for their trip into The Swamp to take on the Florida Gators on October 6. The Gators will be LSU's first Top 15 opponent and have seemed to improve steadily each week, while today's game displayed the downside of LSU's young and talented players' inexperience. They will need to step up if the Tigers expect to have another shot at the national title.