After whipping Arkansas in their 56-3 win on Saturday, the Auburn defense could’ve gotten caught up in daydreaming about how easy everything was, and of how well they played.
Allowing just 22 yards on the ground to the SEC’s leading rusher and pressuring the quarterback in roughly half of his dropbacks is plenty cause for celebration, of course. Celebration, but not surprise. If anything, it was just validation for a defense that’s been confident in its abilities all season long.
“I mean, really, it just proves to us that we can be as good as we want to be when we go out on the field,” said defensive tackle Montravius Adams. “To me, that all it really says. To be a senior and to be a leader of this team, it's really just great to see you and your teammates out there playing ball.”
Adams, Carl Lawson and the rest of the Auburn defensive line manhandled the Razorbacks’ front five the entire game, and even when the starters came out, Auburn’s second-stringers still overpowered anything Arkansas tried to do.
When a team so thoroughly eviscerates another like the Tigers did on Saturday, it can be easy to get complacent and assume every game from that point on will be a walk in the park. It’s a natural feeling, but it’s one Auburn isn’t letting anywhere near themselves.
Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele is making sure of it. At his press conference Sunday night, he emphasized how quickly his unit must turn the page to a dangerous Ole Miss team. The Rebels enter this Saturday’s matchup having lost two games in a row, both to teams that Auburn has already defeated in Arkansas and LSU.
But, as Steele noted, that’s hardly an indication of how this game will turn out.
“In the SEC West it’s hard to say, ‘Well this happened last week or the week before, so this is what’s going to happen this week,’” Steele said. “I think that was evident in watching Saturday night here. there was no indication that anybody would’ve ever said watching the games preceding that both by us or by them that the results would’ve been what they were. So I think each game has a life of it’s own if you will.”
Ole Miss is unique in that Chad Kelly, the Rebels’ quarterback, is also the team’s leading rusher, and his yardage comes not only from scrambles, but from designed runs as well.
It provides a unique challenge for Auburn’s defensive front, but not one they’re going to shy away from.
“They're a great team,” Adams said. “Even though they're like 3-4 or something, they played top teams like Alabama and Georgia and all of those. Just being in the SEC, the record doesn't really speak for the team. At any given day, anybody can get beat. Him as a quarterback, I think he's a great player. We're just looking forward to the task.”
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