Auburn's Malzahn takes blame for blown lead vs. LSU

Gus Malzahn isn't making excuses for Saturday's disappointing loss to LSU.

The Auburn head coach took the blame for his team blowing a 20-point lead against the Tigers on Saturday.

"That starts with me as a head coach, regardless," Malzahn told Tom Green of AL.com. "We've got to be aggressive. We can't lose a 20-point lead. It doesn't matter if it's running the ball on first down. It doesn't matter if we give up a punt return, which is uncharacteristic for us. Giving up 20-point leads are unacceptable."

Auburn called 17 straight running plays on first down, a conservative approach that drew criticism after the game.

"Obviously when you look back we'd like to do things a little bit different there," Malzahn said. "There was about four or five RPOs that were a chance to run or pass, but obviously they ended up being running plays. Each game unfolds differently, you know. But like I said, I'm going to say this too, it's the head coaches' responsibility. We've got to do better next time."

LSU scored the game's final 20 points, as Auburn dropped its second game of the season. In each of their losses, the Tigers failed to score in the final two quarters.

"We're not executing," Malzahn said. "But I'm going to say this again, OK, we've got to correct that and that's my responsibility. We've got to do better in the second half, especially when we have leads. You're talking about just the last five losses. We've got to do better and we've got a plan to do that and that's got to happen."