• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 25, 2009

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Ever heard Yogi Berra’s line about déjà vu all over again.

It applied to the Auburn Tigers in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night against the LSU Tigers.

Auburn was 4-1 after September 2008: It came out of October 2008 at 4-5.

After September 2009, Auburn was 5-0. Three Saturdays into October 2009, its record is 5-3.

The October 2008 swoon sent longtime head coach and LSU nemesis Tommy Tuberville packing, and brought Gene Chizik back to Auburn.

Is it pure circumstance that Auburn’s worst loss to date last season and this season came on October’s third weekend?

“Man, I don’t know,” senior defensive end Antonio Coleman said after LSU popped Auburn 31-10. “I know we have to keep our heads up. We’re 5-3, now 3-5 and what we have to do is not what we did last year. We can’t let this go downhill like it did last year.”

Auburn finished 5-7 in 2008.

And Chizik faced the similar questions after Saturday’s loss as Tuberville did most of the last half of last season.

What about a new quarterback? The offensive line?

What about only 42 yards in the first half?

Was LSU’s defense as good as you and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said it was in your pregame media discussions?

“It’s not just the quarterback. It’s everybody,” Chizik said. “LSU played a great game from beginning to end. They executed better than we did and they were more physical than we were.”

Malzahn filled in more of those blanks, taking more than a fair share of time to talk about an LSU defense that held the Southeastern Conference’s No. 2 scoring offense (34.9 points a game), the No. 2 rushing offense (247.3 yards per game) and the No. 2 team in total offense (464.9 ypg) to three points, 112 net rushing yards and 193 total yards.

“LSU was as good as we said. They did not disappoint as far as that statement we made earlier this week,” Malzahn said. “You have to give them credit because they stopped us at the critical times. They made the big plays.”

Auburn ran only five plays on the LSU side of the field in the first half, and “…pressured us into two turnovers. We couldn’t make any big plays against their defense,” Malzahn added. “And you have to give them credit for that. They just wouldn’t let us make the big plays.”

The other side of the game, LSU’s offense versus Auburn’s defense showed the only bright spots for the visitors to Tiger Stadium, but only a couple Chizik and Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof said.

“I thought we had our moments where we played some things well,” Chizik said. “What he (Jefferson) did tonight is he hit some great deep balls on us. He was really accurate and put the ball about the only place you could put it.”

That was only the half of Jefferson’s 242 passing yards and the 71 more he added running.

“The quarterback (Jefferson) made good throws, and his receivers went and got them,” Roof said. “Other than the 69-yard run (Russell Shepard’s TD run) we did a good job getting pressure on the quarterback. But Jefferson kept the routes alive with his feet.”

There was more to moan about Auburn’s defense than Jefferson, Shepard and LSU’s 376 yards and 31 points.

Early penalties kept LSU’s first scoring drive alive twice, one on a pass interference penalty and the second on a 15-yard personal foul call after LSU failed to convert a third-and-13 on Auburn’s end of the field.

“We could have come off the field a couple of times, but penalties kept us out there,” Roof said. “Maybe it was the frustration (of two straight losses). Whatever it was, we have to learn to eliminate mistakes like that and get off the field, especially against a team like LSU. We just opened the door and they walked through it.”

Auburn’s next October chance comes at home next weekend against Ole Miss.

“We just need to step up to the challenge,” cornerback Walter McFadden said. “Like with Jefferson, we knew that he could make throws and that he was a great athlete. We just needed to step up to that challenge and we didn’t, and now we have to keep fighting to let everyone know that we are here and we are going to play hard every day. We didn’t do that often enough (against LSU.).”