'We don’t give up': Auburn defense fights, paves way for rally
Kevin Steele’s group has just one gear.
As has been the case in each of Auburn's three losses this season, the Tiger defense fought for 60 minutes while the offense couldn't get much going until late against Georgia's elite defense in a 21-14 loss to the Bulldogs.
“I feel like that’s always our motto, to go out there and do our jobs each and every play," senior cornerback Javaris Davis said. "No matter what the score is, no matter what’s going on, just do our job and focus on their assignments and play together.”
The 2019 version of Georgia's offense hasn't been explosive or overwhelming by any means. But Auburn's defensive performance Saturday would have held up as impressive against any opponent.
Georgia only had three drives go for 20-plus yards — all of which it scored on. Auburn forced 11 three-and-outs. Georgia had no first downs and 2 total yards in the fourth quarter.
"Our coaches always tell us to give the best effort, no matter what, if the game’s not going your way," said senior defensive end Marlon Davidson. "At the end it’s all about pride, too. I feel like we have the best pride in the world. We don’t give up on nothing; we continue to fight and continue to grind, no matter what. I mean, it just — it’s just sad that it just came to an end like that. It hurts.”
The team's defensive leaders still found a way to put the loss on them and heavily critique their play postgame, deflecting mention of 10 three-and-outs, or Georgia's 2 yards of offense and zero first downs in the fourth quarter.
It's what they've been taught. It's how they're bred. Dominance isn't enough.
"We left too much out there," senior linebacker K.J. Britt said. "Twenty-one points is unacceptable."
"We didn’t come out and we didn’t play very good on defense," senior defensive tackle Derrick Brown said. "... You can’t put the blame on nobody else. Nobody did their job tonight."
Georgia was held to its lowest yardage output of the season at 251, and averaged less than four yards per play, including 76 yards in the second half.
Davidson got home in the first half for Auburn's only sack of the game, but the pressure from the defensive front picked up as the game went along. And when Fromm was able to get the ball out, the Tigers had seven pass breakups.
Auburn has now held every team it's played this year to 24 points or fewer, and has three losses on the schedule to show for it.
Unsurprisingly, "frustrated" isn't the word that the defense would use to describe that conundrum.
"Like I said, we can’t blame anybody but ourselves," Davis said. "If they wouldn’t have scored 21, we would have won. So it’s not on nobody. We just got to go back and watch the film as a whole, get better and get back to work.”