Fournette runs wild on Auburn, leads LSU to 45-21 victory

BATON ROUGE, La. It didn’t take long for Leonard Fournette to make Auburn safety Rudy Ford regret his choice of words Saturday afternoon at Tigers Stadium in Baton Rouge.

Earlier in the week, Ford said it wouldn’t be “that much of a challenge” to stop the sophomore.

Oops.

Fournette went 71-yards on the first play of the game through the middle of Auburn’s defensive line. Jonathan Jones made a touchdown saving tackle at the 4-yard line, but it didn’t matter.

Three plays later, quarterback Brandon Harris dove into the end zone on an option-run play. Jonathan Ford was on the outside by himself, and had no chance trying to defend the edge without help.

No. 18 Auburn (2-1, 0-1 SEC) found itself looking up at a 7-0 deficit less than two minutes into the game, and Fournette was just getting started as he helped LSU close out a 45-21 victory.

“Bottom line is we got our rear kicked, that’s what happened today,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.

Fournette rushed for a career-high 228 yards with three touchdowns on 19 carries to hand Malzahn his worst loss in two-plus years at Auburn. The running back beat the career-high of 165 yards he set last week by halftime.

He closed out the second quarter with a memorable 40-yard touchdown run to put LSU up 24-0.

On the play, defensive back Blake Countess’ attempt to bring Fournette down ended with him looking up at the clouds, and cleat marks on his navy blue jersey.

Right after Fournette crossed the 200-yard mark in the third quarter, he broke three more tackles to score his second touchdown on a 29-yard run.

“They did a good job blocking, the kid broke some tackles early too, made a couple really good individual runs,” Malzahn said.

LSU’s offense looked nothing like the one that could barely manage a first down last year at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It operated like a well-oiled machine as it added a second first quarter touchdown on a 13-play, 78-yard drive.

Harris capped it off with a bootleg pass in the corner of the end zone to tight end Colin Jeter for the score. Earlier in the drive, he made a key play with his legs scrambling for 28-yards on a broken pass play.

In a role reversal from last year, it was Auburn quarterback Jeremy Johnson who looked rattled.

With Auburn approaching midfield on its first drive, he let the football slip out of the back of his hand on a pass attempt. It went bouncing 18-yards behind the line of scrimmage putting the offense in a third-and-29.

In the second quarter, Johnson threw his sixth interception of the season, over-throwing a deep pass attempt to Duke Williams. LSU safety Jamal Adams helped defensive back Kevin Toliver in coverage, and managed to get behind both of them for the pick.

On Johnson’s last throw of the half, Adams dropped an interception that he could have easily returned for a touchdown.

“In the first half, the offense was awful,” Malzahn said. “Really didn’t give our defense any kind of spark or hope, put us behind the eight-ball. It was (an) uphill battle, and when you are out here at this place, uphill battles aren’t very good.”

Johnson earned a brief reprieve by breaking a 65-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter. On a drive similar to the one LSU opened the game with, Auburn went down the field in four plays to get on the board.

The quarterback did a nice job hiding the ball from LSU’s secondary to get into the second level of defense. By the time the defense figured out it was a run, Johnson had everyone beat down field. The touchdown cut LSU’s lead down to 24-7 with 13:19 left in the third quarter.

LSU forced a second turnover late in the third quarter when defensive tackle Frank Herron came through the line unblocked. He knocked the ball loose from Johnson with Auburn backed up on its own 25-yard line.

Leonard scored his third touchdown of the afternoon two players later from 1-yard out to make it 38-7.

The final numbers were ugly with LSU going for 486 total yards of offense to Auburn’s 260. LSU ran for 411 yards as a team, and Fournette almost had more yardage individually as the entire Auburn offense.

Johnson threw a late touchdown pass to Williams, and finished 11 of 19 for 100 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He ran the ball 12 times for 41 yards, and was sacked five times.

“They whipped us,” Malzahn said.

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