After a 38-24 win over Baylor, Hugh Freeze was let down by one unit of the Auburn Tigers: a "sluggish" looking defense.
It was just Friday that Freeze complained about his defense not looking as good as it should, and by Monday, he had a whole plan ready on how he and defensive coordinator DJ Durkin would make those changes.
“We had a long talk yesterday with Coach Dom (Studzinski), myself, DJ (Durkin) and the defensive staff trying to figure out how to process what we felt, 'Freeze said in his press conference. "Feelings can be misleading at times and you don’t want to make too much of that. Obviously, we found a way to win the football game, but do we feel like we were crisp and fresh? I get making mistakes. You miss some tackles in week one, usually. However, I feel like we tackled really well in the live scrimmages, the two we had.
"It was 140 degrees when we got there and our emotions on defense, we’re an emotional group, and that adds to the drain. Then, give Baylor credit. They hit us in the mouth pretty early. I don’t know if it was just a combination of all of that, but it just seemed like we weren’t fresh and crisp. Even at the end, when we get a fourth down stop to win the game, there was very little emotion or celebration. It was almost like relief."
Dealing with emotions and feelings in a charged environment like a football field can get tricky. Instead, Freeze dealt with it when everyone, including himself, were calmed down.
Retrospecting how they trained their defense, especially in the week before, helped Freeze on what they need to do next.
"I don’t know if we pushed too hard during the week," the Auburn head coach said. "We looked at all of the load counts on all of the bodies to try to figure out where we not fresh enough going into it? We’ll try to make changes on whatever we process that to be with Dom’s help, nutrition’s help and DJ’s in the practice format and stuff.
"There were still some good things. Our D-line crushed the pocket in the run game. They only have really two decent runs, but the backend we did not play with great technique or eyes. We just didn’t play like I’ve seen us play. That’s the good thing is I know we can get better.”
It may not be too big of a deal this week when they face off Ball State, but it will be once they start facing off against SEC opponents.
Freeze and Durkin have till then to "crisp out and freshen up" their defense.