Although a 31-15 win over South Alabama on Saturday gave Auburn another win this season, ensuring a 3-0 start for the Tigers, one thing was a complete letdown for head coach Hugh Freeze: Auburn's secondary.
The Tigers' secondary struggled throughout the game, making it clear that it still needs plenty of improvement heading into the SEC slate.
Freeze echoed the disappointment in his post-game press conference.
"We certainly have got to fit the run better... There's no question that we could play better that we did today... I'm not sure that anyone would say that we played to the standard we need to win games in the following weeks.," Freeze said.
The Tigers' defense looked particularly vulnerable in the fourth quarter, where they failed to prevent multiple first-down conversions from South Alabama.
Auburn's defense gave up 19 first downs, nine of them in the first half and the remaining ten in the second, to the Jaguars.
Freeze's disappointment was evident right from halftime, though. The Tigers' head coach bluntly criticized his team for their sloppy play in his halftime on-field interview.
"Defensively, we look like we’re sleep walking to me," Freeze said at halftime It’s frustrating. We’d rather talk too much than line up and play. We have to get some things corrected. We seem to care more about talking than playing. That’s frustrating because we can be a good defense. We’re not defending the counter very well. It’s just like we're half speed to me.
“They’re pretty good on offense, but we’re kind of slopping around, it feels like."