Auburn’s secondary had a night to remember in the Tigers’ 17-16 win over Baylor, and Eric Winters delivered the biggest moment of all with his game-saving tackle on the Bears’ two-point try.
That one play helped seal a season-opening victory, but Auburn coach Alex Golesh still came away seeing room for more from his defensive backs even after Baylor threw for 333 yards.
“I thought at corner we played well. We played three guys there,” Golesh said.
“Andre Jordan Jr would tell you he’d want one of those back. Just playing more physical during the hands on the touchdown on the left side there.
I thought Rayshawn Pleasant played confident; he played tight. I thought Andre Jordan Jr played confident and played tight.
“Gavin Jenkins played somewhere around 15 snaps, and I thought played confident for his first real college snaps. To me, he fit in and he’s got a chance to be a really good player.
We wanted to play some more guys there just the way the game flowed. We didn’t feel as good to play anymore guys there.”
Pleasant and Jordan Jr. finished with four pass breakups between them, while Jenkins added four total tackles in his first extended college action.
The work didn’t stop there in the back end. Winters posted a career-high 11 tackles, and Kaleb Harris added six more. Champ Anthony and Sylvester Smith-Reed combined for eight tackles, and AnQuon Fegans chipped in a tackle for loss.
“At safety and nickel, we played (Champ Anthony), (Sylvester Smith-Reed), (Eric Winters), (Kaleb Harris) and (AnQuon Fegans). I thought for the most part we did a really good job keeping it in front of us,” Golesh added.
“We got to clean up some detailed things. The urgency for the detail to be elite has got to get cleaned up out there.
And it will be, it already has.”
Auburn now turns to Southern Miss in Week 2, when the Tigers return to Jordan-Hare Stadium for their first home game of the season.
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