Say that again, coach. Must have misunderstood you.

That would Brian Kelly be up there on the podium Saturday. The LSU head coach was rehashing the Tigers’ 48-18 demolition of Auburn.

“We felt our offense is the one that needed some help,” Kelly said with a straight face.

Huh? Come again, please.

You mean the offense that has scored 48 or more points in three consecutive games? The offense that has streaked to 500 or more yards in six consecutive games for the first time in school history, including the Burreaux Gang of 2019? The offense that was probably one more white-knuckler shootout from suing its defense for non-support? They’re the ones who need help?

Fortunately, Kelly clarified.

“I don’t mean within its own ranks,” he said of his offense. “I meant the defense needed to play better.”

Funny way to put it, but OK.

He complimented that offense — and defense — while talking about “complementary football,” a word meaning, basically, one hand washing the other, one unit having the other’s back.

On the other side of Tiger Stadium, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze was full of questions.

“They beat us every way you could,” he said. “We had no answers defensively for them.”

Or, wonders of wonders, he later noted, did he have any answers for his own offense against the LSU defense?

There’s your story.

It might have been the last LSU-Auburn game for the time being. The series that has brought you so many crazy, iconic, nutty and occasionally scary moments — the earthquakes and barn fires, etc. — isn’t on the schedule for next year when the SEC drops its two divisions and, beyond that, the office is still working on a scheduling format for what will be 16 teams.

Nothing burned down Saturday and the campus seismograph was idle.

But there was, of course, something very quirky, a little unexplainable and totally unexpected. Maybe scary. It had its own “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” moment.

Mainly, hold on to your hats and strike up the Golden Band from Tigerland, LSU decided to play some honest defense.

LSU tackled just about everybody it came across and even found some Auburn receivers its secondary could cover.

With that, the home Tigers squeezed out what looked like a totally dominating football game in lieu of all these offensive freak shows that LSU has been holding its breath through over most of the season.

It was worth firing up victory cigars as Auburn famously did in 1999 after routing LSU.

LSU settled for the traditional victory rendition of the alma mater, this time with no fear of the offense looking askance at the defense.

The offense only added to its gaudy résumé. It was occasionally sloppy, particularly in the red zone, but 12 penalties seemed only a minor nuisance while squeezing out 560 yards and scoring touchdowns on every second-half possession. The closest thing to a cheer-blast that might have moved the earthquake needle probably come when quarterback Jayden Daniels showed he could get down and slide out of harm’s way while still accounting for another 422 yards.

There was a breakout game from Kyren Lacey— four catches for 111 yards and a touchdown — as if LSU needed another weapon at wide receiver.

LSU ran for 238 yards against a pretty good Auburn defense that was allowing 128 per game.

But you’ve heard all that before from an offense that is starting to draw comparisons to 2019’s undefeated national championship team.

For a change, all these offensive shenanigans weren’t just to frantically keep up in a football 400-meter relay, but to extend a bulging lead posthaste.

The LSU defense — are you sitting down? — had the offense’s back. They forced four three-and-outs, five if you count a subsequent failed fourth-down gamble while holding Auburn to 293 yards.

There were two chunk pass plays for the War Eagles — 39 and 32 yards — but both were both fairly well covered before making great catches. Absent was the familiar sight of opponents running wide open.

“They’ve been under a lot of scrutiny,” Kelly understated. “To see that kind of development over the past couple of weeks. It’s been it’s been fun to see … pretty excited about it.”

There’s a disclaimer, of course. Rebuilding Auburn wasn’t a very good offense when it arrived in Tiger Stadium. But surely the War Eagles studied enough season film to think 60 minutes alone with the LSU defense could be their own breakout performance.

That wasn’t happening.

But if LSU’s defense can dominate a pedestrian offense, it’s not a huge leap of faith to think it might at least be decent against more challenging attacks down the road.

And, with this offense, that’s probably all the Tigers need to play complementary — and winning — football.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com