Alex Golesh revealed what he noticed on film while going back and watching the Tigers defeat Arkansas on Saturday.
Golesh opened his Monday press conference discussing what he saw from the Auburn offense.
“Offensively, the first half was exactly what it looked like on the field," Golesh said. "It was six drives, five of which guys took turns. And it was all over the place of being off in our detail. And therefore, the execution piece was awful. I thought, to go finish the first half, be able to put a two-minute drive together and get points out of it gave a little bit of a glimpse of, like, all right, if we can just operate and go. It gives you a chance. We obviously have to figure out how to not be in that situation. As frustrating as it is, I'm proud of our guys for fighting to get out of it and finding a way to go look like an offense in the second half. Regardless of the situation, regardless of how you play, the ability to reset and go play the next drive was as big as imaginably possible. Proud of the way that when the game got tied up to go find a way to create a couple of explosives and then be able to handle essentially a four-minute type situation. As crazy as it is, I've been in four of those now in the last two years. The management of kicking the game-winning field goal or do you go, and with time outs, do you try to keep creating? And it was back and forth, back and forth. There was a review in the middle of it and kind of gave me time to think through it. And to be honest with you, if I didn't have as much confidence as I got in Alex [McPherson], the game probably would have played out a little bit different at the end. But we got a ton of confidence in him. We had it in the spot where he wanted it, and he continues to be a really clutch, which is huge for us."
The Tigers' defense was able to keep Auburn in the game early after its offense got off to yet another slow start against the Razorbacks. Golesh gave his thoughts on their effort on Monday as well.
“Defensively, I thought as good of an effort in the sense of fundamentally detailed," said Golesh. "The ability to get people on the ground. There was some really good things on the perimeter, getting people on the ground. We had three missed tackles on the day, which is absolutely huge for us. That has been such a point of emphasis and being able to play that way created a ton of negatives. Obviously, a ton of sacks. That's the way you truly want to play. We gave up the two explosive runs, both misfits, that obviously can't happen. On the bright side of it, two saving tackles that end up allowing us to continue to play defense and then do some big things in some critical moments there. Third down and short, fourth down and short, continues to be an issue defensively. As big of a point of emphasis as you can imagine. We were 0-for-5 on the day. Which has been an issue, the ability to get stops."
Auburn returns to action Saturday when the Tigers take on Mississippi State.
