A season-opening victory over Georgia Southern and, in turn, the following week’s loss to defending national champions Clemson, proved that this Auburn defense has the potential to be historic.
Georgia Southern’s 78 total yards is tied for the second-fewest allowed by Auburn, and is one of seven times the Tigers has held an opponent to under 100 yards. The last time Auburn’s defense pulled that off was against Ball State in 1991, when Pat Dye was still head coach.
The Eagles’ eight passing yards are the fifth-lowest allowed by Auburn, the least since Vanderbilt had seven in 2001. In addition, it was the first time since LSU in 2014 that Auburn held an opponent without a third-down conversion, Georgia Southern failing to move ahead of the chains on 15 attempts.
Up to week four against Missouri, Auburn had yet to allow 300 total yards. No. 2 Clemson, who only managed to put up an arguably tough 18 points, had 286 yards.
Auburn is ranked No. 4 in the nation in total defense, allowing just 236.3 points per game and is ahead of the No. 1 team in the nation, Alabama. To put that in perspective, an undefeated 2004 team averaged 277.6 yards per game while holding opponents to a 28.6 third-down conversion percentage.
That team only allowed 14 points just once the entire season -- Tennessee in the SEC Championship with 28 points -- en route to being denied a ticket to the BCS National Championship.
This team has held opponents to a 30.6 third-down percentage, allowing just 19 of 62 total attempts.
The 2010 BCS National Championship team held opponents to 368.4 points per game. That team did not have as many defensive standouts, but relied on defensive tackle Nick Fairley, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, to quarterback comeback efforts and destructive victories.
No other Auburn team will ever compare to the efforts of Mike Donahue’s 1914 squad. “Iron Mike’s” defense held all nine of their opponents without a single point, utilizing one of the first forms of the defensive end position by moving his halfback, Richard “Bull” Kearley, to the defensive line.
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