In a high-scoring loss to the Florida Gators where the Auburn Tigers defense put up a performance that was out of the ordinary, a couple things stuck out, one of them being the inability to get off the field on critical downs.
The Gators scored five touchdowns in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 19, three of which occurred on third or fourth down.
Overall, Florida was 7-for-16 on third downs and 3-for-3 on fourth downs, a mark that Auburn Head Coach Alex Golesh was desperate to fix after the game.
Fast forward one week, and while the mark was not entirely better, the improvement was significant.
The Tigers held the Vanderbilt Commodores to 4-for-17 on third downs on Saturday, but fought to go 4-for-5 on fourth downs. It was not perfect, but Golesh said there were things that were better about the performance.
“Defensively, as not pretty as it was, we were one for five on fourth down,” Golesh said. “We got stops on third down, and then we didn't on fourth down, and that was a little bit of the story defensively. Kept fighting, kept swinging, kept fighting, kept swinging.”
It was not just the stops on third down though that stuck out, it was making the stops on third-and-longs at critical points in the game.
Two of those moments came in the fourth quarter of play, as Vanderbilt was driving comfortably into Auburn territory, but the Tigers forced incompletions on a third-and-10 and third-and-17 to get the Commodores to kick field goals instead of continuing to move for possible touchdowns.
Fighting on each play was a message sent from Golesh to the defense through the entire week of preparation. Evidently, it worked.
“I feel like third-and-long was a big key for us this week,” said defensive lineman Cody Sigler. “Last week, I mean, there were so many third downs where we were just shooting ourselves in the foot. This week, we really executed. We were being urgent and trying to finish them. Third down is where you get paid. That's the biggest thing we wanted to do.”
To Golesh, it has been all about taking it one play at a time, especially after how “emotional” Auburn played a week ago.
“The challenge to our defense, and to be honest with you, our offense as well, after these first three weeks, is just the ability to go play this play, like one play at a time,” Golesh said. “I talked last week about being, like playing in this crazy emotional state. Like, ‘Let's play this play, man. Play the next play. Play the next play. Play the next play.’ I thought we did that. That was the challenge of all challenges was just respond play-to-play. Both of those field goal situations were absolutely huge.”
In a game that was decided by six points, it was not the only factor that played into deciding the game.
However, walking out of the stadium, the defense felt good knowing it limited points on a number of drives.
"It was big,” said Tigers defensive back Sylvester Smith-Reed. “It was bend but don't break defense, and to get all the way down there, we just stood tall, hold them to three, that's always big, keeping them getting out in the end zone."
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
