After a 14-point first quarter for Oregon's offense last week, Auburn's defensive leaders said their adjustments — which resulted in a dominant final three quarters — were mostly mental. Nerves and anticipation played a big role, they said.

Against Tulane in their home opener, the adjustments were, instead, made on the sidelines.

After the Green Wave scored on its first drive with a field goal, No. 10 Auburn allowed 175 yards of offense and 3.1 yards per play for the remainder of the game in the 24-6 win.

But even in holding Tulane out of the end zone, Auburn still wanted more.

"We didn't want them to score at all, so I'm really kind of mad," said senior safety Jeremiah Dinson. "They got them six points. But you know man, the W is the big picture, like I said last week. The big picture is always the win, so. But there is some things that we could fix, some things that we going to feel tomorrow and look at."

Dinson, who hauled in a diving interception of Tulane quarterback Justin McMillian, had another strong night after his SEC Defensive Player of the Week performance against Oregon. He now has 19 tackles, a sack and a pick through two weeks.

"Yeah, this week we actually made adjustments," Dinson said. "Tulane, their OC is a good offensive coordinator. Showed us a lot of eye candy, some different things that we hadn't seen before. But, you know, coach still came in and we adjusted. And he got different calls in his back pocket. We going out there and we shut them down."

The rest of Auburn's veteran defense knew the first few minutes would be scripted, too.

"An offensive coordinator's first 10 plays are his best 10 plays — stuff that you ain't never seen before," said defensive end Marlon Davidson. "And then they get in to what they do. We adjusted well to it. We played Auburn football."

Davidson led Auburn's defensive front after minimal contributions last week. The senior totaled six tackles — tying Dinson and safety Daniel Thomas for the team lead — and including two for loss and a QB hurry.

After Tulane's opening drive, Kevin Steele's defense allowed minus-3 total yards over the next four possessions and forced four consecutive three-and-outs. The Tigers allowed just 2-of-15 third-down conversions for the game, both of which came on Tulane's first possession of the second half. The Green Wave didn't score on that drive.

"I feel like we left a lot of plays on the field on first and second down — where they got all their yardage," Davidson said.

"We can get better, man, on first and second down. Like I was just saying, I feel like we dominated third downs pretty good today. We can clean up on run fits and stuff like that. We just got to play Auburn football, at the end of the day."