Hugh Freeze Thinks Auburn’s Defense ‘Played Phenomenal’ Against Oklahoma

The Auburn Tigers have been hit and miss on the defensive side of the ball so far this season, but Hugh Freeze likes the progress against Oklahoma.

Auburn's Austin Keys sacks Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. / Photo by Taylor McLaughlin/Auburn Tigers

Despite starting 2-3, dropping three winnable games at home and having to play on the road for the entire month of October, there are some positive things for the Auburn Tigers to take away from their season so far.

Auburn’s defense has kept it competitive in each game, and Saturday’s 27-21 loss to the No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners was another example of that. Auburn held the Sooners to just 291 yards of total offense.

Head coach Hugh Freeze was pleased with the Tigers’ effort on that side of the ball against the Sooners and believes the unit has improved throughout the season.

“Other than the third and longs they’ve been really constant and containing the quarterback with rush lanes,” Freeze said. “So you take this game you can’t argue the improvement on containing rush lanes and the third down defense. I thought that our kids and our staff did a marvelous job, it comes down to the few plays we’ve described earlier when you asked me about that. And then defensively, it comes down to, truthfully, the explosive pass play that we gave up in the fourth quarter." 

The Tigers have not always played at a high-level on defense this season but they stepped it up against the Sooners, particularly on third-down.

“Defense held them to 290 yards, 2-for-11 on third downs, which is a huge improvement from the previous weeks on our third down work,” Freeze said. “It's just frustrating to sit here and tell you all that and to know what the results are.

“That quarterback was going to have one or two, but I’m glad it came early. Then after that I thought our rush lanes were contained pretty well. The big, explosive plays there later in the games were the ones that really hurt us. Outside of that, I thought our defense played phenomenal.”

An impressive factor of Auburn’s improvement on defense has been the emergence of young players contributing to its success. Freshman Demarcus Riddick led the team with six tackles and a sack.

“I thought he (Demarcus Riddick) and Jay Crawford played solid also,” Freeze said. “(Malik) Blocton is playing a ton of snaps and of course all the receivers. Just playing a lot of young kids for sure and proud to see them start having some successes. T (Terrance) Love got in the game and did some good things and that’s good to see. Playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores. It's good to see and get those experiences in the game.”

Auburn’s level of play on defense will be even more important as the team plays three road games in a row; two of them against top 10 opponents.