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Inside the Numbers: A Closer Look at the Auburn Defense
Here we take a closer look at the Auburn defense and just how good they’ve been this season, and whether or not they can keep it up.
The Auburn defense has been outstanding this year, and is the main reason Auburn football is in a position to win the SEC West.
We knew coming into the season that this Auburn defense had a chance to be really good, but they’ve exceeded expectations thus far.
Let’s take a closer look at just how good this defense has been this year.
Scoring
The Auburn defense currently ranks 11th in the country in points per game, giving up just 16 points per game.
That’s even more impressive when you look at the teams Auburn has played this year. They’ve faced a Clemson team that is averaging 36.6 points per game, and a Texas A&M team that is putting up 40.2 points per game.
They held Clemson to just 19 points, and allowed just 29 to the Aggies.
To be fair, none of the other four teams they’ve played are averaging more than 28.5 points per game. Still, they didn’t give up more than 14 points in any of those games.
In fact, Texas A&M is the only team this year that has scored more than 20 points against the Auburn defense. In the other five games they’ve given up just 13.4 points per game, which would rank fourth in the country.
Our offense has not been great this season, but they haven’t had to be with how good the Auburn defense is playing.
Oct 1, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers lineman Andrew Williams (79) and linebacker Tre
Yardage
The Tigers have given up a good bit of yardage this season as they only rank 30th in the country giving up 347 yards per game.
However, that number is a bit skewed because they gave up 478 total yards to Texas A&M, and that’s the only team that has gotten over 400 yards against the Auburn defense.
Outside of that Texas A&M game the defense has given up an average of 320.6 yards per game, which would be good enough for 20th in the country.
They’ve been better against the pass this year giving up just 199.7 yards through the air per game, while giving up 147.2 rushing yards per game, which ranks them 52nd in the country.
It’s surprising that they’ve given up that much on the ground this season as it seems like they’ve done a good job of shutting down the run.
Texas A&M and LSU are the only teams that went for over 200 yards rushing against them. They gave up 452 rushing yards in those two games. In the other four games combined they’ve only given up 431 yards rushing.
The defense has bent at times this year, but they’ve proven they can come up with the big stop when they need to.
Impact Plays
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This is something that has been missing from the Auburn defense in recent years, but they’ve been doing a much better job of creating impact plays in 2016.
They started off the year slow after not recording a single sack against Clemson, and had just three tackles for a loss. Again they struggled with a mobile quarterback against Texas A&M with just 1 sack and 4 tackles for a loss.
However, in their four victories the Auburn defense has tallied a total of 13 sacks and 28 tackles for a loss.
Creating negative plays is crucial for any defense to be successful, and you can see how much more effective Auburn’s defense is when they’re making tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Already this year they have a total of 14 sacks and 35 tackles for a loss. This after having just 19 sacks and 54 tackles for a loss all of last season. The 2016 Auburn defense is on pace to nearly double last year’s numbers.
Turnovers
If there is one area where the Auburn defense can really improve on going forward, it’s creating more turnovers.
They’re tied for 84th in the country with just 8 caused turnovers this year with 5 fumble recoveries and just 3 interceptions.
What’s curious is that the Auburn defense is seventh in the country with 33 passes defended, which means they’ve had several opportunities to get interceptions.
For this defense to become elite, I think it needs to start creating more turnovers and converting them into points.
Our offense has been better lately, but it could use a boost from a defensive touchdown every now and then.
The Auburn defense ranks 13th in the country in ESPN’s defensive efficiency rankings. That’s good enough for just fifth best in the SEC.
I would like to see this defense turn it up even more in the second half of the season and finish as a top 10 defense. They have the talent, coaching and ability to not only keep up the pace they’re on, but be even better.
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