Auburn football: LSU's defense overwhelming even without suspended star cornerback Tyrann Mathieu

BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU’s defense was supposed to be missing some of its bite without suspended star cornerback Tyrann Mathieu.

Auburn’s offense detected no difference.

LSU’s defense sacked Clint Moseley six times, forced two turnovers and overwhelmed Auburn at the line of scrimmage in a 45-10 statement for the depth of LSU’s defensive unit.

“I have never been under that kind of pressure before,” Moseley said.

Before Saturday night, Mathieu had been LSU’s most visible playmaker. The team’s second-leading tackler, Mathieu had produced six turnovers and 1.5 sacks.

Mathieu was suspended along with running back Spencer Ware and defensive back Tharold Simon for reportedly testing positive for the use of synthetic marijuana.But losing Mathieu took none of the bite out of LSU’s defense.

“We had to turn up the pressure and take the wheel away from them,” LSU defensive end Barkevious Mingo said.

LSU blitzed safeties off of the edge and attacked Auburn’s misdirection plays by blowing past the offensive line and into the backfield.

Auburn’s offensive line had no answer for LSU’s pressure. On the first two sacks of the game, Mingo beat pulling guard Chad Slade and left tackle A.J. Greene around the edge to crush Moseley.

Neither offensive lineman touched Mingo on his way to the quarterback.

“They did a lot of whatever they wanted to do,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. “They blitzed; they disrupted us. They four-man rushed; they disrupted us. There were no new things we had to adjust to.“

Auburn’s running attack entered the day ranked 27th in the nation. Overwhelmed by LSU’s defensive front, Auburn had only 20 yards on 25 carries in the first three quarters.

Moseley rarely had time to set his feet before he threw.

“You have to give LSU credit,” Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. “They’re one of the best defenses in America, and they made us look very bad at times.”

Even with their most disruptive player missing.