COLLEGE STATION, Texas | Derrick Brown is rarely satisfied.

Granted, that attitude is what's gotten the senior this far: an All-American-caliber defensive tackle who had two sacks and three tackles for loss — both career game-highs — along with his fourth career forced fumble and a near-pick-six that went off his fingertips in No. 8 Auburn's 28-20 win over No. 17 Texas A&M.

But Brown still wants more out of himself and his defense.

“Nowhere near," Brown said when asked if Auburn's defense has peaked. "I think we got a lot of room to go.”

Kevin Steele's unit did what it intended to early and often at Kyle Field: make Texas A&M's run game, which is down starting running back Jashaun Corbin for the season, a non-factor.

The Aggies rushed for 56 yards on 21 carries. However, 22 yards of that total came on a third-and-30 draw play in the first half where Auburn's defense was in full deep-pass prevent coverage, with its safeties nearly 40 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Another 13 yards were essentially negated, as Daniel Thomas punched out the ball and recovered the fumble on the first play of the third quarter.

Auburn is now holding teams to just under 90 rushing yards per game on average — good for the 21st-best mark in the nation.

"Our defense stopped the run," Gus Malzahn said. "That was our goal, and that was an impressive, impressive deal."

Like Brown, a host of other names across the defense had standout games, too. Thomas' forced fumble was the third such play of his career; nickelback Christian Tutt made a few big hits in the open field; corner Noah Igbinoghene notched a career-high in tackles with eight; safety Jamien Sherwood and corner Roger McCreary did the same, with five and six tackles, respectively; and linebackers K.J. Britt (seven) and Zakoby McClain (four) tied career highs for tackles.

Where Auburn feels it most needs to improve is closing out games. Texas A&M hung 17 points in the fourth quarter as quarterback Kellen Mond reached 49 passing attempts and 335 yards through the air.

It was all for naught, obviously, as all Auburn really cared about was the final score — and the Aggies' success passing was almost to be expected, with their big and athletic receivers going against a tired Tigers defense that had been downright better for three quarters.

But, after the game, Auburn's defenders said it wasn't fatigue that allowed Texas A&M to draw within a single possession with minutes remaining on the clock. It was focus, they said.

"Next time, we've just got to come out and finish," Thomas said. "We got kind of lackadaisical, kind of complacent, and we just got to go out and play four quarters of football next time."

The defense's senior leaders reiterated that Steele treats them like NFL players during their weekly meetings, meaning they receive far more constructive feedback and corrections than they do positive praise and recognition.

“You get like two minutes of recognition for the good things, and then you get like an hour and a half of meetings of ‘let’s correct this film,'" Brown said. "That’s just kind of how our coaches work."

It's that standard of excellence that resonates through the defense, with the belief that it should become more dominant as the season rolls on, culminating with a group that is relentless and constricting in all facets — even more so than it already is as one of the most feared defenses in the SEC and the nation.

“I think we can dominate teams," Brown said. "We just got to be able to do it, man. We got to be able to correct all the flaws.”

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