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Flynn tosses three touchdowns, leads LSU past Auburn

Oct 21, 2007 - 6:01 AM BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Ticker) -- Louisiana State's national championship hopes are still alive.

Matt Flynn capped an impressive second-half comeback with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Demetrius Byrd with one second left as No. 5 LSU defeated 18th-ranked Auburn, 30-24, on Saturday night in a battle of Southeastern Conference rivals.

With second-ranked South Florida suffering a loss to Rutgers on Thursday night, LSU (7-1, 4-1 SEC West) will likely move up in all the polls and should jump to third in the Bowl Championship Series standings.

"I thought our defense played really well," LSU coach Les Miles said. "With our offense, what Byrd and Matt Flynn did was spectacular. The return of Early Doucet on the offensive side helped us a ton."

With the clock ticking down, Flynn threw a strike to Byrd, who had a step on the defender in the left sideline of end zone, giving LSU a 30-24 edge. Flynn completed 22-of-34 passes for a career-high 392 yards and three touchdowns.

"I started waving to (offensive coordinator Gary Crowton) in the press box that I was open, and he called it for me," Byrd said of his game-winning touchdown catch. "I had a free release to the outside. I thought I was going to have to go up to catch the ball but it went right in my hands."

"That really surprised me," Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox said of LSU's decision to go for the end zone in the final seconds. "It was a gutsy call and I think there was only one second left on the game clock. An incomplete could end the game, but they converted and my hat's off to them."

With LSU leading, 23-17, in the fourth quarter, Cox orchestrated a nine-play, 92-yard touchdown drive to give Auburn the lead. Cox found Rodgeriqus Smith in the end zone from three yards out to cap the game-winning drive with 4:43 remaining.

Trailing, 17-7, at the break, Flynn passed for 222 yards and led LSU on five scoring drives in the second half.

LSU's comeback started on the opening drive of the second half when Flynn's 34-yard strike to wide receiver Early Doucet helped set up a 29-yard field goal by Colt David, which cut Auburn's advantage to 17-10.

LSU squandered a great opportunity to tie the game with seven minutes left in the third quarter. With the ball at midfield, Flynn tried to connect with Brandon LaFell, who was behind the Auburn defense.

LaFell, however, juggled the attempted reception right into the hands of Auburn defensive back Patrick Lee. It was Lee's third interception of the season.

"It is not like that was a perfect game in anyway," Miles said. "It was sloppy, but played very competitively. The bye week hits us at the right time."

On LSU's next drive, Byrd took the ball to the Auburn 9-yard-line by hauling in a 58-yard catch on a perfectly thrown deep ball by Flynn. LSU had to settle for a field goal, though, as Flynn threw three consecutive incompletions.

LSU took its first lead of the night when Flynn connected on a six-yard touchdown pass to running back Jacob Hester with 12:42 left in the fourth quarter. On a play-action rollout, Flynn found Hester in the flat and the 224-pound senior dove for the pylon to give LSU a 20-17 lead.

David tacked on another field goal - his third of the night - with 8:12 left in the fourth to extend LSU's lead to 23-17.

"Colt David kicked some pressure field goals," Miles said.

Auburn (5-3, 3-2) set the tone early, marching down the field on its opening possession of the game. Cox capped an 11-play drive with a 17-yard touchdown toss to Montez Billings to take an early 7-0 lead.

Cox passed for 199 yards and two touchdowns and Brad Lester, who missed the first five games of the season, racked up 114 total yards.

"We came out very physical and got the running game going, but in the second half they shut down the running game and that's are game," Cox said. "We had to score late and we started throwing it around and moved (the ball)."

LSU answered when Flynn connected with Keiland Williams on a 46-yard touchdown strike with 3:19 remaining in the opening quarter to knot the score at 7-7.

Backup quarterback Ryan Perrilloux, who is much faster than Flynn, came in to run the option but the plan backfired. Perrilloux took a rush to right side and fumbled right into the arms of Auburn defensive back Jerraud Powers, who scrambled 37 yards before being pulled down at the LSU 3-yard-line.

Three plays later, Carl Stewart plunged into the end zone from one yard out to give Auburn a 14-7 edge with 9:34 remaining in the first half.