No. 2 LSU trailed 13-10 midway through the second half of its 23-20 win against Auburn.
Then the Tigers’ offensive staff made a decision.
“We got on the headset and Coach Steve (Ensminger) and coach Joe (Brady) said let’s just pound on this drive,” LSU quarterback Joe Burrow said. “We’re just going to run the ball and see if they can stop it.”
The 8-0 Tigers of Baton Rouge then proceeded to hand to ball to junior running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire on four straight plays. He rewarded his coaches with 45 yards and a go-ahead 6-yard touchdown run.
“Four runs in a row… it’s not a lot, but thinking back on it, it was a real pressure moment,” he said. “We knew we needed to score the ball and made our half time adjustments and coach E(Ensminger) and coach Joe, that’s what they believed in. And we believed in it, executed the plays and scored.”
The Tigers went up 16-13 and proceeded to ride the momentum from the score to victory.
Edwards-Helaire saw a career-high 26 carries and finished with a career-high 187 total yards from scrimmage including a season-high 136 rushing.
He picked up 87 of those rushing yards in the second half as the Tigers pulled away from Auburn.
“When we start running the ball like we did in the second half, people have to play us honest and our play action starts opening up,” Burrow said. “They have to play more vanilla defenses, they can’t give us the stuff they gave us in the first half.”
Burrow finished with his sixth 300-yard passing game of the season tying Rohan Davey’s 2001 record. But even with over 200 yards passing in the first half LSU head coach Ed Orgeron said it was “tough sledding” in the passing game. He said there was “no question” that Edwards-Helaire’s drive helped his team get rolling.
“(Edwards-Helaire) made some key plays, made some key first downs,” Orgeron said. “It was kind of tough sledding. Passing game was tough sledding. We had some 1-on-1s outside and I thought Ja’Marr Chase had a great game but, we just wasn’t on the mark. I think it was because of the pressure, but it enabled us to run the football and that made a difference.“
With Edwards-Helaire running the ball efficiently and LSU’s defense playing well, Auburn was held to just 287 total yards, The Tigers played with confidence.
Edwards-Helaire was asked after the game if he was playing his best football and the Baton Rouge native said he still had room for improvement. He added that he simply was ready when his number was called.
“It just shows that every week, every game, you never know when it’s going to be your time,” he said. “It’s gonna be the same way for (Jordan Jefferson) and Ja’Marr (Chase) and Terrace (Marshall) and our receiver core. Understanding like ‘Ok well we need the receiving core to make catches’
“So today I feel like the running backs need to do our job.”
One group that was happy to see Edwards-Helaire’s big night was his offensive line.
“We love it,” center Lloyd Cushenberry said. “Everytime we have a big gain, we are looking to the sideline saying ‘run it again. Run it again’ We wanted to keep running the ball because we felt like we could beat those guys, in the double teams, and we felt like that once we got going, they got little tired so we just wanted to keep pounding.”
