Ole Miss Safety AJ Finley Reveals How Ole Miss Defense Can Improve vs. LSU
OXFORD, Miss., -- The No. 7 Ole Miss Rebels are riding high following their Week 7 48-34 home victory over the Auburn Tigers. While a win is a win, the Rebels did not look like a great team defensively in the second and third quarters.
Ole Miss safety AJ Finley spoke with the media postgame after beating Auburn and talked about what the defense needs to work on heading into Week 8.
"I think we stopped doing the little things right," Finley told reporters. "We got a little lazy and started missing a few tackles. I feel like that's a big deal, it popped up the last two games, and [tackling] is something we need to get a handle on next week."
Finley continued about how the team can improve on the missed tackles.
"It's definitely something we can work on in practice," Finley said. "We hit it pretty hard last week, we just need to keep working on it. It's honestly hard to do, we just need to keep working at it every week."
Auburn ran the ball 48 times against Ole Miss, and Finley discussed if the Tigers' game plan caught the defense off guard.
"That's what [Auburn] has done since I've been [at Ole Miss]," Finley said. "It's always been a heavy run game, so we expected it."
Finley started the game on the right foot when he intercepted a tipped pass from Auburn quarterback Robby Ashford. Finley talked about what was going through his mind as he recorded his second interception of the season.
"I saw the ball get tipped and I didn't know if I was close enough to actually dive and get it," Finley said. "So I just dove out and made the best effort that I could."
Finley and the Ole Miss defense will face the LSU Tigers in Death Valley on Saturday with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will also be televised on CBS.
You can follow Ben King on Twitter at @BKing_2023.
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