AUBURN | Auburn had some clear goals during the bye week to improve in several key areas on both sides of the ball.

Most were accomplished in a 48-14 win over ULM, but not all.

“Thought the defense won third down, offense won third down. Those were two critical areas we focused on,” said Freeze. “We took care of the football. We didn’t get any takeaways so that was disappointing.”

The Tigers were 12 of 17 on third down and held the Warhawks to 2 of 12. Auburn was (-1) on turnovers with backup quarterback Walker White fumbling in the fourth quarter, and the defense again unable to come up with a takeaway.

Auburn ranks just 124th nationally with eight takeaways this season. Six of those are interceptions including a team-high two by Kayin Lee.

“I wish we could have got a hand on a few more balls and got takeaways this week, but we know it's coming,” said Lee. “So we just be on each other, pushing each other to just go harder every day.”

The offense had a couple of other focuses over the previous two weeks in improving their execution in the red zone and goal line. AU was 5 of 5 in the red zone with walk-on Ian Vachon making both of his field goal attempts, from 22 and 26 yards, in his first action as a Tiger after transferring from Birmingham Southern.

In the only goal-line situation, Payton Thorne connected with Cam Coleman on a touchdown pass on first down at the 3-yard line in the second quarter.

The task will be much tougher for the offense this week facing a Texas A&M defense, which Freeze described as loaded with NFL talent.

“I thought it was a solid day, for sure, against a team that was playing really good football,” said Freeze. “We did some things that hopefully give us confidence heading into these last two SEC games, which will be against two of the better teams in the country.”

Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.