AUBURN | After a frustrating first half, Auburn’s defense bounced back in the second to give the offense a chance to win the game.

It was one of the few highlights from the Tigers’ 21-14 loss to California Saturday afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“I guess if we could take anything from it is that our defense, I thought really, really improved as the game went on in the second half and gave us chances,” said AU coach Hugh Freeze.

California raced up and down the field for much of the first half totaling 222 yards. AU couldn’t slow down quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who was 19 of 21 for 205 yards with two touchdowns at the break.

The Tigers held Cal to just 110 yards in the second and Mendoza was only 6 of 15 for 28 yards.

“I mean, they couldn’t run the ball on us,” said outside linebacker Jalen McLeod. “They had 2.9 per carry, we knew they wasn’t going to run the ball. The DB’s had to step up and play in a major way, which they did in the second half.”

Auburn’s coaches implored the defensive players to do a better job of tackling in space at halftime. Some of the other adjustments included moving Keionte Scott back to nickel and bringing in Antonio Kite at cornerback, and turning up the pressure on Mendoza.

Defensive end Keldric Faulk led the defense with eight tackles, three tackles-for-loss and two sacks.

"We’ve got to learn how to deal with success and we’ve got to learn how to deal with failure. A loss is something you can learn from. If you don’t learn from it, it’s pointless,” said Faulk. “If we actually learn from the loss, we learn from the mistakes, we learn how to slant right, we learn where to put our hands, we learn how to rush on the edge when the quarterback drops and we think it’s a run play.

“We’ve gotta get better on that. We’ve gotta learn from that. Our young guys are tremendously talented. They’ve got so much talent to do what they do. They just need to watch the film and come back ready to work.”

Auburn (1-1) hosts New Mexico for Homecoming next Saturday. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2 or ESPNU.