I like Joel Erickson on al. I am a gay twerker that has no balls!!!! I also have no idea how to use the quote function to post stories, so I annoy the piss out of others. I like male genatalia in and around my mouth.. He normally just reports what's happening with Auburn without interjecting his opinion or sunshine pumping. While this isn't exactly ripping anybody a new one, it's about as "scathing" a piece as you'll get from him. But to me, it sums up our defensive problems perfectly.
No matter how much Auburn's defense looked like an improving unit on the verge of a turnaround through the first five games, maybe the potential for the Tigers' defensive decline the past three games should have been evident.
Auburn's foundation simply isn't strong enough.
Elite SEC defenses are built around disruptive, relentless defensive lines, fronts that have separated the SEC from the rest of the conferences around the country for the better part of the last decade.
Auburn's defensive line hasn't met that standard.
And as much as a malfunctioning secondary deserves its share of the blame for the Tigers' three-game skid against the pass, Auburn's front four hasn't offered a lot of help.
Take the Tigers' upset loss to Texas A&M. A freshman quarterback making his first SEC start on the road should never look as comfortable as Kyle Allen did last week.
"We knew coming into the game that our best chance to have a really good defense was to make the quarterback uncomfortable," defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said. "How do you do that? You take his running game away, which we did very average, below average of being consistent with that. Then we didn't hit the guy, couldn't cause enough pressure on him."
Both of those problems start in the front, and the pass-rush problem has plagued the defense all season long.
The losses of Dee Ford and Carl Lawson, along with a couple of other key seniors, should no longer be an excuse.
Ford and Lawson are incredible talents, to be sure. Losing a first-round pick and a freshman All-American on the edge would hurt any team. A drop-off at defensive end had to be expected.
What's killed the Tigers' defense is that one of the most experienced interiors in the SEC hasn't done much to ease the pain of those losses, even if Auburn's rush defense has improved this season.
Denying Auburn's overall improvement against the run would be a mistake. Auburn is 44 yards better per game, giving up almost a yard per carry less than it did last season, and after allowing six teams to rush for more than 200 yards a year ago, only one has performed the feat in 2014.
The problem is that Auburn's defensive line isn't merely expected to take up blocks in Johnson's scheme.
Auburn's defensive line is expected to make plays.
"We don't run a read defense here," defensive tackle Gabe Wright said. "We like to get off the ball and cause chaos in the backfield."
The numbers indicate that Auburn's defensive linemen hasn't caused a whole lot of chaos. Montravius Adams, who leads the Tigers' line with six tackles-for-loss - behind linebackers Cassanova McKinzy (8.5) and Kris Frost (6.5) -- is only tied for 28th in the SEC in that particular category.
Twenty-four SEC players have as many or more sacks than DaVonte Lambert's team-leading 3.5. Nobody on Auburn's defensive line is within the top 50 in the SEC in tackles.
In other words, Auburn's defensive line isn't making enough plays in a scheme designed to get big plays from its front four.
"That's a big factor in our defense is being able to put pressure on a quarterback with just four guys," Gus Malzahn said. "At times, we have not gotten that done."
And what makes it worse is what the Tigers have up front, even without Ford and Lawson. Five members of Auburn's regular eight-man defensive line rotation are seniors; two of the others, Adams and Elijah Daniel, arrived on campus with five-star ratings from one recruiting service or the other.
No matter who the Tigers lost, that combination of experience and talent should have been enough to set the foundation for the improved defense fans glimpsed in the first five games.
The problem is that this defensive line hasn't lived up to its billing.
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