Auburn DC Ron Roberts didn’t need to explain himself after UGA loss

Auburn football defensive coordinator Ron Roberts spoke out in support of his defense’s struggles with Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, who had 157 receiving yards, 121 of them in the fourth quarter, and two touchdowns, on social media in response to a troll.

“Don’t know what game you we’re watching! He was bracketed most of the day,” Roberts said to an internet troll in a now-deleted post AL.com’s Mark Heim was able to screen-capture. The troll accused Roberts of not bracketing/doubling Bowers.

He didn’t need to, though. And not just because social media negativity in general should be ignored if it isn’t an honest critique; which it usually isn’t.

Ron Roberts’s Auburn football defense has delivered on his offseason edict

There’s a very uncomfortable conversation to be had about Georgia’s struggles to hold onto the ball. The Bulldogs don’t turn the ball over as such, and this game may not be a loss with such a razor-thin score disparity.

We’ll table that black-pilled talk for another day. Roberts’s defense did what the DC said they would do leading into the season: cause havoc and create chaos for opposing offenses via turnovers and the like.

“We call it havoc — the havoc rate,” Roberts said of his goal for the defense (h/t Auburnundercover). “We calculate tackles for loss, sacks, PBUs (pass breakups), interceptions, turnovers, any of that stuff. Our goal as a defense is always to work in the 20 percent category. That means on 20 percent of the plays, we’ve got to work to create havoc.”

Because of that, Roberts earned the right to hang his hat on a job well done after his defense nearly dragged Philip Montgomery’s offense; if the former Tusla head coach is still running the offense given recent Hugh Freeze comments about his own involvement in game-planning on that side of the ball.

Not feeding trolls, and paying the troll toll — clowning on social media from opposing fanbases for engaging at all — is part of that celebration.