That’s the simple way to look at it.
The offensive outburst sandwiched between games against top-12 teams can cloud perception. It’s easy to see what Auburn did against Alabama State and assume that it should do that against every team it plays (or at least signs of the same things).
The defense that LSU trotted out onto the field Saturday was much, much, much better than Alabama State. The Auburn offense shouldn’t be able to execute the same way against any SEC team, let alone one the caliber of LSU and one of the nation’s top defensive coordinators in Dave Aranda.