Auburn's defense holding its own

The philosophy is simple.

“If they don’t score, they don’t win,” Auburn junior defensive end Antonio Coleman said.

True. But, usually, it works both ways. For one team to win, an offense needs to score. Or does it?

Today’s Auburn-LSU game, which kicks off at 6:45 p.m. on ESPN (Channel 28 in Lee County) at Jordan-Hare Stadium, might be the exception to the rule.

Defenses rule this matchup.

And today will be no different. Both defenses are tops in the conference and in the nation. Auburn’s giving up a league-leading 5.0 points per game, which is also third in the country. LSU is giving up 8.0 points a game, which is 10th.

Scoring against these two teams has been virtually non-existent.

So maybe they don’t need any offensive help to win.

And with Auburn’s spread offense struggling to put up points, especially in the red zone, the Tigers will need all the help they can get as SEC play heats up.

“Our offense doesn’t have to put up any points,” Coleman said. “We can go to overtime, overtime, overtime. It really doesn’t matter to me. We’ll get some points from somewhere, because if they don’t score on offense, we’ll score on defense.”

And the Tigers have.

But they’d still like some help. And the defense believes the offense is just a step away from giving them the cushion they need to win games.

“I don’t even worry about those guys over there,” AU linebacker Tray Blackmon said. “I just try to let them do their job. I feel pretty good about them. I think they’re coming along pretty strong. They’re going to do a good job.”

But what about when they’re not? What happens when the offense can’t get anything on the scoreboard, like it did last week vs. Mississippi State, and the defense has to bail them out?

“A couple of offensive guys were holding their heads down,” Coleman said after the MSU game, “but they were telling us, ‘Good game, man, y’all covered us on this one.’ But that’s what a team is supposed to do. When one end is not clicking, the other end has to click. That’s what we did.”

Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads agrees.

“Nobody on the football team looks at any angle of this team other than being a team and working together,” the first-year Auburn DC said. “If there’s an onus of any kind, it’s just to play great defense. We have a lot of pride in how we play.”

And so far, it’s been spectacular.

“I haven’t even thought about the offense,” Coleman said. “They’re going to get the job done. They’ve started off kind of slow. But if they (the other team) don’t score, they don’t win.

“There’s something special going on at Auburn right now with the defense. We’re gelling together like never before.”

mszvetitz@oanow.com | 737-2513