According to defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, the Auburn defense played well for the most part in their 59-13 victory over San Jose State.
But after reviewing the film, Johnson saw "a dozen plays or so" that he was particularly disappointed with.
"We could have played a lot cleaner," Johnson said. "I was disappointed with some of the plays we left on tape. I think we played 77 snaps, 60 of them as good as you want to see. But there are still those dozen plays or so every game that we do something that we really worked on, kids are keyed in on it, and we seem to make a mistake."
Those mistakes kept drives alive and allowed San Jose State to put points on the board. On the Spartans' 75-yard touchdown pass, Johnson said the problem was communication.
"They had the miscommunication on the touchdown," he said. "It was between one of the safeties and the corners. It wasn't the safety's fault, but I think there was a check going on that may have confused the other one."
Johnson said it is the "trashy plays" that are holding the Auburn defense back.
"There are some things that can be fixed," Johnson said. "It's not getting beat, it's not things from a fundamental standpoint. I think we're playing really well but it's just one or two guys that make a mistake here or there that are costing us some trashy plays we ought to clean up."
Johnson was quick to point out though that San Jose State did a good job in their execution.
"They are a good football team," Johnson said. "I think, obviously, talent-wise we had better players. But you have to give them credit. They can execute. They know who they are, the precision of their routes and some of the things. They made some great catches. We could have played better, but I thought we improved in some areas."
Even with the mistakes, Johnson thought the defense played well overall.
"You've got four punts, three takeaways, should have been four takeaways," he said. "I think they had half of their series they had no first downs or one."
The "should have been" takeaway Johnson mentioned occurred on San Jose State's first offensive play, when the Tigers caused and recovered a fumble in Spartan territory.
But, a facemask penalty negated the turnover, something Johnson disagreed with.
"The facemask was not a penalty," Johnson said. "There was no facemask on that play. What can you do? That was first-and-10 for Auburn at the 22-yard line, and instead it was first-and-10 for them at the 37."
Moving forward, Johnson says he will focus on getting his players to limit the mistakes that result in big plays for the offense.
"At the end of the day you go back and look at those plays and say 'When are these going to get cleaned up?" Johnson said. "That's the thing we're going to really put emphasis on."
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