Alex Golesh Talks Auburn Defensive Line Dominance In Mississippi State Win

The Auburn Tigers picked up a much-needed convincing win on Saturday, taking down the Mississippi State Bulldogs 41-9. The Tigers were favorites going in, but few expected Alex Golesh’s squad to run away with it as thoroughly as they did, and that production came largely from the Tigers’ stellar defensive line play.

The Bulldogs tried three different quarterbacks throughout their loss, and the Tigers were consistently able to bring pressure on all of them, sacking Jeff Lebby’s signal-callers a total of seven times, while also forcing a total of five fumbles, four of which the Tigers were able to recover.

Sacks were a big part of keeping the Bulldogs limited, but the fumble recoveries set up the Tigers for their first four scores of the game, which proved to be a big difference-maker in the final result. After the game, Alex Golesh took to the stand to talk about what stood out to him, and, of course, he had a lot of praise for his defensive line.

“That was the plan to win,” he said. “I thought Darrion [Smith] was really special in some pass rush opportunities. I thought [Da’Shawn] Womack affected it; I thought [Shadarius] Toodle stepped up again. There were some really impressive efforts up front, again, to bend and not break.”

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Even beyond their dominance at the line of scrimmage throughout the game, the Tigers showed up in big ways throughout the later stages of the game, stuffing the Bulldogs at the goal line on two different occasions, contributing to Lebby’s squad scoring just two points in the second half.

Darrion Smith led all Tigers in forced fumbles with two, both of which were recovered by the Tigers, while Shadarius Toodle led all Tigers in tackles (10) for his second straight game in just the second game of his career.

The Tigers’ defensive front has struggled this season, so a showing like that against Mississippi State is certainly a sign that, even late in the season, things are trending in the right direction. The Tigers still have two games left, including a marquee matchup against Alabama, and if Golesh can get his squad to peak at the right time, the Tigers’ defense could prove to be a problem for the Tide, even if offensive and special teams miscues continue to haunt the program.

“This is November, man,” Golesh said. “You gotta go finish this month… I was more than anything impressed with the long drive and then being able to get the stop, and off of the bad punt, to get the stop… I thought that those guys answered the bell to go finish.”

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