Auburn Football’s Defensive “Stop Rate” Ranked Shockingly Low by ESPN

In a year where it seems like the offense hasn’t been able to get any forward momentum, particularly in the Oklahoma and Texas A&M games, the Auburn Tigers’ defense has been one of the main bright spots on a struggling team.

The defense single-handedly kept the Tigers in the Texas A&M game, forcing a crucial fourth-quarter interception that not only removed the risk of additional Aggie points but also landed the Tigers on the two-yard line, setting up for their only touchdown of the day.

This play, along with Xavier Atkins’ 10 total tackles and a sack, made the Texas A&M game closer than many felt it should’ve been, but ESPN’s breakdown of defenses has the Tigers’ “stop rate” ranked surprisingly low given their output throughout the season.

Auburn’s defensive “stop rate,” or more simply, how consistently the Tigers can prevent other teams from scoring on each drive, stands currently at 68.5%, allowing 1.48 points per drive on average. This ranks the Tigers 33rd in the nation, behind teams like James Madison, Wisconsin, and Old Dominion.

Granted, the Tigers have had a much tougher schedule than teams like Old Dominion, so that stat should be taken with a grain of salt; the Tigers rank eighth in the SEC, which is a bit more of an accurate stat given the strength of SEC opponents. 

As nonsensical as it may seem for the Tigers to be ranked so low, an SEC team leads the rankings: Texas. Texas is a similar team to Auburn in a sense, as both have struggling offenses and strong defenses. The difference? Texas is stopping its opponents on almost 90% of their drives, allowing just 0.66 points per drive on average, which includes games against top-ranked teams like Ohio State. 

For Auburn’s purposes, though, the defense is far from the reason the Tigers have lost their past two games. They’ve struggled with the run at times, but that can be attributed to fatigue, as the opposing team has dominated the time of possession in both of Auburn’s losses.

If Auburn wants to turn this season around, it’s not going to be the defense that necessarily needs to improve, but rather the offense that didn’t convert a single third down and had just one fourth-quarter yard against Texas A&M.

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