Getting pass rush back on track

[aubiefifty 17,488]

Auburn wants to be ‘relentless’ in getting pass rush back on track

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

4-5 minutes

These are the games Derick Hall looks forward to.

Auburn’s defense knows what it’s getting when Mississippi State comes to Jordan-Hare Stadium this weekend. The Bulldogs are going to throw the ball—a lot; that’s the nature of Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense.

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For Hall and the rest of Auburn’s defensive front, that means one thing: an opportunity to affect the game in the pass rush.

“You have opportunities throughout the season when you know the other team is really going to throw the ball a lot, but when that’s what they live and die by, you can be more loose and more relentless in your pass rush,” Hall said. “You don’t have to worry about a lot of play action and stuff like that…. It’s something you always look forward to, being able to get after the quarterback and showing what we’re able to do with our pass rush.”

For as effective as Auburn’s defense has been this season under first-year defensive coordinator Derek Mason — including the unit’s current roll of six straight quarters without allowing a touchdown — pass rush has been an area of inconsistency for the Tigers. Auburn is eighth in the SEC and 45th nationally in sacks, averaging 2.44 per game this season.

That’s despite the Tigers’ defense ranking second in the SEC and top-20 nationally in tackles for loss this season, with 67 total and 7.44 per game.

“Lately here, I think we’ve been playing a lot of mobile quarterbacks, so it’s been more focused on just containing them and keeping them in the pocket and just letting the sack come to you,” Hall said of the discrepancy in those numbers. “But obviously, this will be our opportunity in (Mississippi State quarterback) Will Rogers; he’s a really good guy, a really good quarterback, completes a lot of passes and can move around a little bit. But I think we can be a little more relentless in our pass rush this week, so just being able to work that this week, knowing the opportunity that we have.

“I think we know this Saturday we’ll have more opportunities to get sacks. And just to put that on display to be more relentless in our pass rush.”

Auburn’s defense is coming off a stalwart performance last weekend against Texas A&M, albeit in a losing effort, but the unit failed to record a sack against the Aggies. It was just the second time in nine games this seasons the Tigers failed to record a sack, with the other being the early-season loss to Penn State.

The defense has a prime opportunity to bounce back in that regard when it hosts Mississippi State at 11 a.m. Saturday. Not only do the Bulldogs pass the ball more than any team in the country — leading the nation with 54.6 pass attempts per game (completing 75.2 percent of them, to boot) — but they also rank 12th in the SEC and 97 nationally, out of 130 FBS teams, in sacks allowed (2.78 per game). In the Bulldogs’ four losses this season, they’ve allowed an average of 3.25 sacks per game, though that number is skewed by the seven given up to Alabama last month.

The opportunity is there for Auburn’s defense to get home and try to impact Rogers while grounding Mississippi State’s Air Raid. It’s just a matter of whether the Tigers will take advantage of it.

“Just coming into this week, I think building depth is going to be huge,” Hall said. “Just across the D-line and just being able to rush the passer. We know they throw the ball a lot, so we just have to be efficient this week in delivering our pass rush and making sure we’re doing the right efforts and technique to make sure it shows up on Saturdays.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.