AUBURN — Three weeks into the season, the biggest concern for Auburn and Hugh Freeze has been the continuous struggles within the secondary.
“Defensively, we did get two takeaways, but we seemed chaotic and unsure. Now I will say (New Mexico) had an open week, and they threw the kitchen sink at us," Freeze said on Monday. "Every formation, every motion, every unbalanced and a quarterback they could run around and make plays, but we didn't tackle well, didn't think our effort was great, and hopefully that's a good learning lesson for us. And I know DJ (Durkin) feels that way and will work hard this week to make sure that we don't see a repeat of that.”
New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier had a field day with the Tigers’ defense in the first half, throwing for 203 yards. The elusiveness and willingness to keep the play alive gave Auburn trouble in downfield coverage as there were several blown coverages from the young secondary.
“Several of those plays, we're in post high safety, and the high safety, when the quarterback starts scrambling around, decides he needs to not be a post high safety anymore. Let me run up and try to help my friends," he outlined. "No - if you're deep, you stay deep. And that happened twice. Our kids have to understand that and execute that. If we're in one-high and you're the post safety, then be the post safety. And that hurt us a couple of times, and we didn't contain the quarterback very well.”
Durkin has shown his willingness to adapt mid-game with halftime adjustments this season. For the second week in a row, the Tigers’ defense kept their opponent's explosive pass game in check coming out of the locker room in the second half. Dampier had just 88 yards passing in the third and fourth quarters. The week before, they held Fernando Mendoza to under 30 yards in the half.
“I definitely think DJ and his staff are one of the better staffs at adjusting at halftime, but they don't lack in preparation effort either,” Freeze said. "They had a lot to prepare for, and we didn’t see a lot of this, all of the X-off motions and extra tackle in the game. It was just a lot coming at us pretty fast there in the first half. But no excuse for us.”
An underlying factor in the chaos in the defense's backend is that starting cornerback Kayin Lee did not play against the Lobos, and behind him is a young, inexperienced room.
“We still have growth to take place; I don’t think we are playing with great poise back there or discipline. Our eyes are in bad spots at times, we’re handsy,” Freeze said.
Freeze noted that Lee could have played against New Mexico, but they opted against it as he was dealing with a nagging calf sprain. The addition of Lee will give Durkin and that defense a leader on the outside to help alleviate some of the woes in that secondary.
The Tigers will need all the help they can get when Arkansas comes to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. The Razorbacks bring a top-three offense in the league, with offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and quarterback Taylen Green working together.
“What makes him (Petrino) so different is typically it’s a very, very good mixture of the pro-style offense with some of the college flare in it and doing it out of a lot of mixed sets with a lot of tight ends that present extra gaps in the run game. Yet, he’s able to throw all of the three-level routes and play-action off of it also. If you can get 12-personnel and be effective in running the ball and take shots out of it, that’s scary. That’s a scary world to live in.”
Kickoff for Saturday is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.
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