Oct. 14, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- Kevin Steele says Auburn's defense is making progress. And who could argue?
"Did I think we could do that? Yes. Did I know exactly how it would unfold? No," said Auburn's defensive coordinator.
Auburn has allowed 10 touchdowns through the first six games, the lowest total since 2008. And four of those scores came when games were long decided. Mississippi State scored 14 after trailing 35-0. Arkansas State scored one of its touchdowns already trailing 41-7. Louisiana-Monroe scored its touchdown down 28-0.
"The truth of the matter is, I think every player you coach wants to be able to look at something and say, you know what, we're doing this pretty well and we're getting better, we're making progress and we got a lot of ways that we can improve," Steele said. "We've done a really nice job but how can we make it better?"
Only Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Arkansas State have scored more than one touchdown against the Tigers, and opponents have scored fewer than 20 points five times. The Tigers are 12th in scoring defense nationally, allowing 16 points a game, and 29th in total defense.
Auburn was 71st in total defense last year, 66th the year before that and 87th the year before that.
The Tigers, winners of three straight to improve to 4-2, are sitting on their improving numbers during this bye week. Auburn wrapped up its open-week practice Thursday and will report Sunday to begin working on its Oct.22 home game against Arkansas. That'll wrap up Auburn's midseason self-analysis.
"We also do a statistical average of where everything is in all those key categories," Steele said. "We do study that and we make markers about where we can improve and get better from where we have left meat on the bone and so these numbers would be better if we had done this, or done that."
There have been big defensive plays along the way, and several of them came last time out against Mississippi State. There was the Carl Lawson hit that caused a fumble, and Montravius Adams' scoop-and-score on the play. There was a Stephen Roberts interception. And there was a three-and-out early that set the tone after Auburn threw an interception on its third play setting up State on the Tigers' 19. Three plays later, the Bulldogs missed a field goal.
'We're firemen. Go put the fire out'' says Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. Video pic.twitter.com/hWgHVf53mq
-- Auburn Gold Mine (@AUGoldMine) October 13, 2016
"If you're on the road and you go down by seven, then you're behind the 8 ball," Steele said. "And if you go down by three, there's still a momentum there. We went out and stopped them. Then we went down and scored. So that was a big swing.
"But we do talk about that a lot. We try to indoctrinate them with, just play the next play. It doesn't matter where they put it down. That's not our job. We don't control that. We're firemen. Go put the fire out. They've responded that way a couple of times."
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine