After Clemson defeated Auburn and senior running back Andre Ellington donned the Old Leather Helmet trophy, head coach Dabo Swinney summed up Ellington's success by giving credit to his offensive line.
"Our offensive line was physical and dominant," Swinney said after the game.
\0x10The Auburn defense had already been insulted by allowing 320 yards on the ground, 528 total, and Swinney's comment was salt in the proverbial wounds.
\0x10The Auburn defense, on the other hand, refused to heed the barb and put the blame squarely on themselves.
"It's very bitter," junior defensive tackle Je\0x80ffrey Whitaker said of the yards allowed by the defense. "We played hard, but we didn't get the job done in a lot of areas, we had some missed tackles, a lot of di\0x80fferent things going on, but there's no excuses from us, we just didn't get the job done."
Numerous defensive linemen were asked Sunday if they thought they were beat physically.
When the question was posed to Whitaker, the starter bristled at the idea that he and his line were manhandled.
"It was missed fitting, I didn't see us getting physically beat at all," Whitaker said.
For Whitaker and the defense, the loss is already on the record, and paying attention to any afterthoughts is detrimental to the team.
"We're just moving on to next week really. One thing about playing here and playing in the SEC, you learn quick that you can't let a team beat you twice, and you just have to keep the ball rolling," Whitaker said.
Defensive tackle Gabe Wright agreed with Whitaker on Monday.
"As a whole, it was good to see it was the little things, things we could fix," Wright said. "It wasn't schematics, it was missed \0x95fits and missed tackles and things that we can easily adjust in practice."
Mississippi State won its season opening warm-up against Jackson State 56-9 last weekend, but its offense should pose less of a threat.
Quarterback Tyler Russel is not nearly as mobile as Clemson's Tajh Boyd, meaning the line's already consistent pressure should create more sacks.
The Bulldogs also have no true standout at the skill positions and split the load fairly evenly on Saturday.
No running back had more than nine carries and no wide receiver had more than three catches; however, the defense can't fall asleep on a team that still posted 377 yards of total o\0x80ffense.
"We just got to get up to championship quality," Whitaker said.
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