Auburn Coaching Staff Impressed With Defense's Response During Baylor Win

While the offense had untimely turnover at times, the Auburn Tigers used their defense to win the most important plays of opposing drives.

Auburn's defense only forced two touchdowns and a field goal despite allowing eight drives of nine plays or more. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The Auburn Tigers got headlines this offseason for the offensive potential they could possess under head coach Alex Golesh. But in his first-career win on the Plains, it was the Tigers’ defense that helped bring in the victory over Baylor. 

Defensive coordinator DJ Durkin saw his defense force two turnovers, two turnovers on downs in its own territory and force a missed field goal by the Bears. On its final defensive play of the game, safety Eric Winters made a tackle inches away from the goal line on a two-point conversion to win the game for Auburn. 

Golesh saw that when his offense wasn’t working, the defense was putting energy into its other unit, allowing it to play in a complementary manner to keep the Tigers in front. 

“The energy on the sideline, the body language on the sideline, coming off the sideline, taking the field,” Golesh said on Monday, “and then on the flip, defense creating turnovers and the offense taking the field and feeling like you were playing for each other.”

Despite quarterback Byrum Brown throwing three interceptions, Durkin’s defense held strong, which has been a recurring symbol of Auburn’s culture since he’s been with the program. The Tigers only allowed three points off of their turnovers, which also included a turnover on downs at the end of the third quarter. 

A drive later, the defense turned Baylor over on downs, and Durkin said that the adjustments made throughout the game allowed for the finish. 

“We had to adjust our leverage and alignments to defend the type of routes we were getting,” he said. “To our players’ credit, they made those changes in-game. They made adjustments and certainly cleaned some stuff up and finished better.”

Golesh sees room for improvement, though, and he knows that Auburn will get better with each week to eliminate the growing pains. Baylor went 4-of-6 on fourth down, as well as recording eight drives with nine or more plays. The Tigers’ head coach said that the fourth-down efficiency was “really, really bad.”

However, it was a bend, don’t break mentality. The Tigers forced their turnovers on those eight drives, ending up being the drive winners in the end. 

“That was a huge point of emphasis, having situational awareness enough to understand leverages and coverage,” he said. “To play tighter on the perimeter. All learning moments, but certainly we should have been better.”

Auburn will get a Southern Miss opponent that dominated its first opponent in Week 1. The Golden Eagles won 49-3 at home against Alcorn State, but Golesh and Durkin will look to tighten up on that side of the ball. 

Similar to Week 1, Durkin wants his group to pay attention to the details, especially with a Florida opponent looming that surpassed 600 yards of offense last week.

“A lot of first-game stuff, our message to them was attention to detail,” he said. “It was alignments and leverages, which make a big difference because it all fits. What they start to learn is the rush and the coverage fit into one another, or are supposed to.”

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