BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -Auburn and LSU know a thing or two about thrilling, must-see football - a good deal of that knowledge comes from playing each other.

It's hard to forget Demetrius Byrd's last-second touchdown catch against Auburn that helped propel LSU to an eventual national championship two seasons ago.

Last year, they were each undefeated when they met in another down-to-the-wire affair. LSU won again, 26-21, on a touchdown pass from Jerrett Lee - who at the time was a redshirt freshman without a college start - to Brandon LaFell with just more than a minute remaining.

In 2006, it took Auburn safety Eric Brock's jarring hit on LSU receiver Craig Davis at the Auburn 4-yard line on the last play of the game to preserve Auburn's 7-3 win.

``My experience right now is if you win the last play, you win the game,'' Auburn cornerback Walt McFadden said. ``If we can just go out there and play that last play, we'll win. The last three years, it's been a tough game.''

In fact, more than the last three Auburn-LSU games have been close. In 2005, LSU triumphed 20-17 when Auburn kicker John Vaughn's attempted tying field goal in overtime hit an upright. In 2004, LSU was called for a disputed penalty while blocking Auburn's attempted game-winning extra point with just more than a minute to go. Auburn connected on its second chance for a 10-9 victory.

Another thriller could be in the cards on Saturday night in Death Valley. Both No. 9 LSU (5-1, 3-1 SEC) and Auburn (5-2, 2-2) need to win coming off tough loses at home.

A 13-3 loss to Florida on Oct. 10 ended a streak of 32 Saturday night home wins for LSU. The Tigers had last weekend off, reflecting on what has gone wrong with their offense - ranked last in the SEC with an average of 295 yards per game.

Last weekend, Auburn faded against Kentucky, yielding two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 21-14 setback that came one week after a 44-23 loss at Arkansas. Now Auburn needs help to win the SEC Western Division, but help becomes irrelevant with another league loss.

The stakes are higher for LSU, which despite not resembling a national title contender, remains in the hunt if it sweeps its final four conference games, including a Nov. 7 contest at No. 1 Alabama.

Defeating Auburn guarantees LSU a shot to vault into first place in the SEC West at Tuscaloosa.

``All the goals we have on our team are still in front of us,'' LSU left tackle Ciron Black said. ``Everything we want to achieve is right there. Of course, we had a little downfall against Florida, but there were a lot of good things that came of that game ... things we're going to learn from.''

LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, who was sacked five times and completed only one pass longer than 20 yards against Florida, pledged to be more decisive throwing downfield and trusting receivers Brandon LaFell and Terrance Toliver to make plays.

Head coach Les Miles intends to give Jefferson more opportunities to throw deep, but also said the Tigers need to run better.

``We're trying to run the ball more efficiently, and if we do that, we feel like that will open up the opportunity to throw it,'' Miles said. ``We spent a lot of time in the open week throwing the ball downfield, and our guy can do that.''

Auburn hasn't had much trouble moving the ball, ranking eighth nationally with 464.9 yards per game. Running backs Ben Tate (122.3 yards per game) and Onterio McCalebb (113.4 ypg) have led the charge. Auburn has made the wildcat formation part of its offensive mix, while quarterback Chris Todd, who runs Auburn's spread attack, already has more TD passes (12) than the team had all of last season (seven).

Auburn may have stumbled lately, but remains confident - and angry.

``There's a lot of people upset,'' Tate said. ``There's probably not going to be a lot of people that expect us to go down there and do too much. But we can upset them and shock everyone and be talked about again.''

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AP Sports Writer John Zenor in Auburn, Ala., contributed to this report.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.