Auburn had arguably its worst defensive performance of the season against New Mexico, giving up a season-high 448 total yards.
It was a relatively balanced attack for New Mexico, gaining 291 yards through the air and 157 on the ground. Quarterback Devon Dampier gave the defense issues with his mobility throughout the game, a skill Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green can utilize in Auburn’s next game.
“We didn’t tackle well. I didn’t think our effort was great. Hopefully that’s a good learning lesson for us,” Hugh Freeze said Monday of Auburn’s defensive performance.
Despite being 0-2, Auburn wasn’t the first Power 4 team New Mexico gave problems. The Lobos scored 39 points in a Week 1 loss to Arizona and had a bye week following that game to prepare for Auburn.
Freeze attributed some of New Mexico’s success to its extra preparation but put the majority of the blame on Auburn’s execution.
“We did get two takeaways, but we seemed chaotic and unsure,” Freeze said.
That chaos led to a number of big plays made by New Mexico, both in the run and passing game. It was the first time all season Auburn struggled to stop the run, giving up over 150 rushing yards.
Part of that came from New Mexico’s running backs, but Dampier was a threat on the ground too. Even more so than his ability to gain yards as a runner, Dampier’s ability to run and extend plays created explosive passes.
Freeze chalked up those big plays to undisciplined play in the secondary.
“Several of those plays were in post-high safety, and the high safety, when the quarterback starts scrambling, decides he doesn’t need to be a post-high safety anymore,” Freeze said. “‘Let me run up and try to help out my friends.’ No. If you’re deep, you stay deep. That happened twice.”
It wasn’t all bad from Auburn’s safeties, though. One of the highlights of the secondary so far this season has been freshman safety Kaleb Harris.
Freeze said Monday that he wasn’t even planning on offering Harris a scholarship to Auburn until he saw him practice at Thompson High School. Now, only captain Jerrin Thompson has played more snaps at safety this season than Harris.
He and freshman corner Jay Crawford earned praise from Freeze on Monday, but the head coach still wasn’t satisfied with the overall play of the secondary.
“We still have growth to take place,” Freeze said. “I don’t think we’re playing with great poise back there. Our discipline, our eyes are in the bad spots at times.”
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m
