schadenfreude...

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So the most painful moment of the game for yours truly was not the 15-yard sack of Chris Todd on Auburn's final desperate possession that for all intents and purposes ended the game, not the LSU touchdown that snatched away in decisive fashion the lead Auburn's offense had so thrillingly scratched out for itself, not even the long silent walk out of the Jordan-Hare upper deck, a walk that after a loss always feels like leaving a giant birthday party where one of the guests accidentally ran over the birthday kid's dog.

No, the most painful moment was LSU's fourth possession of the second half, when after watching the 14-3 lead somehow become a 17-14 deficit, Auburn's defense at least had the good fortune of seeing LSU pinned back at their own nine with the chance to reclaim a modicum of field position. Instead, Charles Scott burst through a gigantic hole for 12 yards. The next play Scott ran untouched into the secondary for nine more. A quick screen to a wide-open Brandon Lafell gained 18. And then, for your coup-de-grace, Scott dashed footloose and fancy-free through the heart of Auburn's defense for 31 more yards. In four plays, LSU had gone from their own 9 to Auburn's 21.

Each one of those plays felt like having a nice clean hole in the pit of my stomach carve out with an ice cream scoop. I'd been wrong. There weren't any capes after all. None of them could fly. Antonio Coleman? Human. Tray Blackmon? Human. Jerraud Powers and Zac Etheridge and Merrill Johnson and Antoine Carter and Chris Evans? Human, every one of them. Even Sen'Derrick Marks, terror of terrors, who for all his blindingly-obvious brilliance was one of our two defensive tackles on a drive where the middle of the line parted in a fashion the Red Sea would be ashamed of? Achingly, heartbreakingly human. The Auburn defense is not, as it turns out, composed of an unending chain of demons. It's just made up of very, very good football players.