AUBURN | Auburn came out of its opening win over Oregon with plenty of reasons for excitement, and also plenty of areas to shore up.

Special teams is certainly near the top of the list after the Tigers allowed 188 return yards against the Ducks, the most since giving up 191 to Arkansas in 2018, a game Auburn won 34-3 and kicked off seven times.

“That’s two of our biggest focuses, really, on our team is to correct those two,” said Gus Malzahn of Auburn’s punt and kickoff coverage. “That will be a very important factor for this week and we’ll do a better job this week with that in both areas.”

Oregon’s Jevon Holland returned three punts for 131 yards, an average of 43.7, including an 81-yarder that set the Ducks up at the AU 9-yard line with a chance to go up 21-3 in the second quarter. UO quarterback Justin Herbert fumbled on the next play, which was scooped up by Big Kay Bryant and returned to the UO 3-yard line and eventually led to an Anders Carlson field goal.

Holland also had a 29-yard return in the first quarter, with led to a missed 20-yard field goal by Camden Lewis, and a 21-yard return in the third quarter that set up a 53-yard touchdown drive and gave UA a 21-6 lead.

Last season, Auburn ranked ninth nationally and third in the SEC allowing just 3.4 yards per punt return. The longest punt return the Tigers allowed was 13 yards on two occasions.

Auburn, which ranked third in the SEC allowing 19.4 yards per kick return, gave up two kickoff returns for 33 and 24 yards for an average of 28.5 yards against the Ducks.

“We’ve got to cover better. I mean, that’s really the bottom line,” Malzahn said. “They did a good job of holding us up, we did a poor job of covering. That’s definitely one of our biggest things that we’re addressing this week.

“It could be personnel. It could be some personnel changes. But we were pretty solid on that last year. But give Oregon credit but at the same time our expectations are to do a lot better job, especially with the veteran punter we have.”

Auburn returns to action this Saturday against Tulane. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2.