After getting off the team buses and parading through the makeshift Tiger Walk outside of LSU’s Tiger Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Auburn football team emerged from the away team tunnel and made its way onto the field two hours before kickoff – just as the Tigers do during every road game.

As players filed out of the tunnel wearing their matching navy travel suits, many of them held their phone in an outstretched hand, taking pictures and videos of the college football mecca that is LSU’s Tiger Stadium.

For Auburn’s many first-year transfers and freshmen, Saturday’s trip to Baton Rouge was likely a game that had been circled on the calendar for quite some time – a bucket list trip of sorts — especially considering the Auburn-LSU rivalry is in question as the SEC continues to craft a new conference scheduling format to include Texas and Oklahoma.

And if playing under the yellow light of the “Welcome to Death Valley” sign that sits affixed to one of the walls along the south endzone doesn’t get a team fired up, what will?

Unfortunately for Auburn, it’s left looking for an answer to that question after losing to the 22nd-ranked LSU Tigers 48-18 on Saturday night.

Though Auburn has left plenty to be desired from an Xs and Os perspective a number of times this season, there have been few – if any – situations in which Auburn’s heart and desire to win could be questioned.

This is a team that kept the No. 1 team in the country on the ropes for four quarters on Sept. 30.

This is also a team that traveled just less than 2,500 miles in its first road trip of the season in Week 2 and managed to squeak out a win over Cal.

Both of those performances from Auburn – though they ended in different results in the wins and losses column – required an undeniable amount heart and effort.

However, both those things were lacking when Auburn took the field at LSU. And that’s not coming from someone who just watched the game from the press box Saturday night, that’s coming from the ones that were on the Auburn sideline Saturday night as the loss unfolded.

Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante has emerged as the Tigers’ passionate leader as the season has unfolded. It started way back in fall camp when Asante’s “Let’s work!” and “Work time!” catchphrases and his infectious energy took the Auburn locker room by storm.

But none of that was there Saturday night, Asante said.

“We need to be more juiced and ready to play the game and more excited to play the game. This is a big game,” Asante said after the loss. “We want to perform at the highest level. The effort level was low just to begin and it was fading in and out. It was very inconsistent tonight.”

Auburn’s defense was smacked in the mouth early by LSU’s high-octane offense as Jayden Daniels piloted a four-play, 75-yard touchdown-scoring march on the opening drive of the game.

Meanwhile, the Auburn offense continued its season-long trend of not being able to a spark away from Jordan-Hare Stadium as it combined for -8 yards after going three-and-out on back-to-back drives to open the game.

“That was certainly not a good way to start,” said Freeze, who said he wondered if the early struggles served as a nasty blow to his team’s morale.

Auburn went on to find itself in a 13-point deficit early as the LSU offense put up some sort of points in four of its first five drives.

And even then, the Auburn defense had a bit to hang its hat on after forcing Daniels and the Bayou Bengals to settle for a pair of field goals in the red zone – something Freeze said earlier in the week would be a key to Auburn’s success.

Auburn trailed LSU 20-7 by the intermission and was set to receive the ball to open the second half.

For the first time this season, backup quarterback Robby Ashford took the first offensive snap of the third quarter.

Ashford rushed for a yard on the first play, but Auburn still went backwards as a holding flag was thrown against tight end Brandon Frazier, giving Ashford and the Tigers a 2nd and 19 from their own 16-yard line to work with.

And, of course, Auburn was backed up right in front of the same LSU student section that forced it to commit a false start, burn a time out and nearly give up a fumble during Auburn’s first offensive drive of the game.

This time, however, with Ashford under center, Auburn sprinted down towards the more friendly side of Tiger Stadium, courtesy of a 39-yard pass play from Ashford to Frazier.

Auburn went on to have to settle for a 38-yard field goal off the foot of Alex McPherson, but the scoreboard’s margin had been trimmed to 10 points. And after many college football fans watched Stanford mount a 29-point comeback the night prior, it didn’t feel like Auburn was in “panic mode” territory.

But then Daniels and LSU’s offense happened again, and again, and again and again.

Daniels and the LSU offense had four possessions in the second half – two in the third quarter and two and the fourth quarter. And the home team ended their drive with a touchdown each time it had possession of the football Saturday night.

“We didn’t seem to have the same juice tonight,” Freeze said of the Auburn defense. “Didn’t think we played with the same intensity, but they’re really, really talented. You’ve got to give them credit too.”

And to be fair to the Auburn defense, Saturday’s loss all but falls squarely on the defense’s shoulders.

With LSU winning the time of possession battle by a considerable margin as the Auburn offense once again struggled to sustain drives, the Auburn defense was asked to chase around Daniels and the rest of the weapons on LSU’s explosive offense for nearly eight and a half minutes longer than what LSU’s defense had to defend Auburn – a tough ask for a defense that entered the game struggling with injuries and depth.

But when asked about some of the issues they faced Saturday night, those on Auburn’s defense didn’t use the lack of depth as a scapegoat.

“Whoever’s out there, regardless of what their name, number is, or class, we expect them to play at our standard and our level,” said Auburn Jack linebacker and team captain Elijah McAllister. “They didn’t do that. We didn’t do that as a defense.”

Auburn offensive lineman Kam Stutts, who was also elected a team captain before the start of the season, said it was up to the team’s captains to right the ship after a loss like the one Saturday night.

“We’re looking to get a big win here and we come up short. Leadership is big,” Stutts said. “We’re going to find out who the real leaders are and I’m going to do my best to make sure I’m one of those guys and encouraging people and uplifting people and keep us going in the right direction.”

Moving forward, it’ll be up to guys like McAllister and Stutts to find answers to the question previously raised: If playing under the lights of Tiger Stadium doesn’t fire you up, what will?

“We’ve got to own everything that’s on that field — the effort, the good and the bad. And go back to work and hopefully get better. This will test us; football does that. It will test us,” Freeze said after watching Auburn drop its third straight game of the season.

“The only way to get out of this funk is to work hard. To do that, you’ve got to have the right attitude and be able to put the past behind us, and at the same time own what we’re doing. I don’t know that we win the game, but we certainly could have played better.”