Opportunistic Auburn Upsets Louisiana State

AUBURN, Ala. â€”  Auburn’s offense made the big plays when it needed them most. The defense dominated up front and forced five turnovers.

Ronnie Brown ran for 95 yards and two touchdowns in place of injured tailback Carnell Williams as Auburn defeated No. 10 Louisiana State, 31-7, Saturday.

The victory featured everything Auburn (5-3, 3-2 in Southeastern Conference) had failed to do in its previous two games, when it gave up 68 points in losses to Arkansas and Florida.

Louisiana State’s Domanick Davis ran 14 times for 42 yards.

“We forced them to throw the football, and we knew we needed to take [Davis] out of the game and we did,� Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville said. “We held him to 42 yards, and I would have never believed that would happen going into today.�

Louisiana State (6-2, 3-1) managed only 242 yards. Quarterback Marcus Randall had four passes intercepted -- three in his first five passes -- and completed only nine of 20 for 79 yards.

“We turned the ball over too many times to be successful,� Louisiana State Coach Nick Saban said.

Jason Campbell, making his first start of the season for Auburn since he took over for a struggling Daniel Cobb, completed seven of 11 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Louisiana State, which had won six consecutive games, didn’t score until the fourth quarter.