Let's check out defensive snaps from the Mississippi State game...
Auburn vs. Mississippi State
75 snaps
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Daniel Thomas — 71
Jeremiah Dinson — 67
Noah Igbinoghene — 62
Javaris Davis — 60
Christian Tutt — 41
Jordyn Peters — 35
Jamel Dean — 28
Smoke Monday — 11
Jamien Sherwood — 8
DEFENSIVE LINE
Marlon Davidson — 66
Nick Coe — 56
Dontavius Russell — 55
Derrick Brown — 45
Andrew Williams — 28
Big Kat Bryant — 17
T.D. Moultry — 16
Daquan Newkirk — 11
Tyrone Truesdell — 5
LINEBACKERS
Deshaun Davis — 61
Darrell Williams — 49
Montavious Atkinson — 29
K.J. Britt — 4
If you'd said before the Mississippi State game that Nick Fitzgerald had broken Tim Tebow's rushing record, I wouldn't have believed you.
Auburn had just had too much success against Fitzgerald in previous years to think he could go for 144 yards.
He went for much more than that.
As you can see in the three-minute mashup above, Mississippi State did a few things differently pre-snap than the Bulldogs typically do. That caused some confusion and required some adjustments that took the Tigers' defensive staff a little while to react to.
KEVIN STEELE'S TAKE: "The thing that happened in the process is they basically changed some things around in terms of how they approached how to get to their final formation before the ball was snapped. We had a few misunderstandings. They were not busts. It wasn't like that. It was just in terms of gap fits, just in terms of who's inside, who's outside. The width of it even, sometimes, being too wide on something, being too tight on something. They allowed the reloading of that empty back back into the backfield. We just didn't fit things very cleanly. And then the missed tackles. The missed tackles were not good at all, just uncharacteristic, something we have not done, but we'll get it corrected."
As Kevin Steele describes below, Auburn took a little bit of a chance on this play call.
The Tigers sent Deshaun Davis full-steam ahead in the A gap. Davis did enough to make Fitzgerald make a play to avoid him. When Fitzgerald did, he was able to get close enough back to the line of scrimmage to make a play at the goal line.
The replay review will be questioned until the end of time, but Steele said it could've been avoided if the play was just made in the backfield.
KEVIN STEELE'S TAKE: "I thought, we made a call that took a little bit of a chance and kind of left something open to do what we did, but we wanted no direct runs so we shot the mike linebacker in the A gap and the nose in the other A gap. Both of them came clean. One of them kind of missed him and the other one redirected him. He got back too close. You don’t let them get that close and put it in the hands of officials then that’s on us. Don’t put it in their hands. Make it in the backfield then you don’t have to review it."
You may not want to hear about the positive plays against Mississippi State, but we'll bring up one.
Jeremiah Dinson recorded a first-quarter interception that gave Auburn some of its best field position of the night. According to Dinson — and the tape certainly shows it — it was one of the easiest interceptions he'll probably ever have.
But he breaks down the specifics of what took place below.
JEREMIAH DINSON'S TAKE: "Just some zone coverage. Guys kind of ran a mesh concept in the zone. I’m just sitting in the zone, watching Fitzgerald. He probably didn’t even see me. I think he tried to fit the dig in right behind me. I just intercepted the ball."
PRO FOOTBALL FOCUS GRADES
TOP 5 OVERALL DEFENSE
K.J. Britt — 80.9
Jamien Sherwood — 75.9
Javaris Davis — 75.6
Dontavius Russell — 74.7
Jeremiah Dinson — 73.5
TOP 5 RUN DEFENSE
Dontavius Russell — 76.7
K.J. Britt — 76.1
Christian Tutt — 74.0
Jeremiah Dinson — 70.7
Marlon Davidson — 70.4
TOP 5 TACKLING
Javaris Davis — 79.8
Jordyn Peters — 79.7
Christian Tutt — 78.6
Dontavius Russell — 75.9
K.J. Britt — 75.7
TOP 5 PASS RUSH
Nick Coe — 60.7
Javaris Davis — 60.0
Montavious Atkinson — 59.8
Daquan Newkirk — 58.3
Andrew Williams — 57.3
TOP 5 IN COVERAGE
Daniel Thomas — 81.1
Javaris Davis — 78.5
Jeremiah Dinson — 76.3
Jamien Sherwood — 75.6
Darrell Williams — 73.4
