⚡ CFB Dashboard

ATLANTA, Ga.--Nothing went as planned on Saturday in Mercedes-Benz. The offense struggled to run the football and Byrum Brown threw three interceptions. Auburn's defense gave up over 300 yards passing and Baylor's offense ran 99 plays. The Tigers fielded a punt inside their own 5-yard line and had a botched fake punt attempt. That's a lot to go wrong in a game, but Alex Golesh and his staff have preached staying together and playing the next play. They did that time and time again on Saturday in Atlanta and came away with a wild 17-16 victory to open the season.  "That goes back to our connectedness and just love, trust and believe in one another," Auburn tight end Jake Johnson said. "That's something you build in the off-season and workouts and really just the mentality of your team. No matter whether the offense is doing good or bad, or same with the defense. We trust and believe in each other. We're going to play hard every single play and just grind with one another. We just trust each other." How important was staying connected on the sidelines to Golesh. He had a handful of staffers who had the job of keeping tabs on the bench area during the game to make sure everyone was focused on staying locked in. That's how important that part of the game was for him and he saw some things to build on. "Today what I saw was a team that played together," Golesh said. "I mentioned it earlier. Defense would get a stop, come over to the offense, man, we got you. Offense would have to punt, hey, we've got to get the ball back for the offense, from the defense. "When I tell you that that has been as big of a focus to bring these guys together, it's probably the hardest thing to do in college football right now. I'm not saying we are perfect, but I saw a bunch of dudes that played for each other. I saw a bunch of dudes that genuinely love each other. They picked each other up." Playing the next play has been a focus on both sides of the ball. On defense it's known as 'good' Good if something good happens and good if something bad happens. Just play the next play. Offensively it's all about putting the negative plays behind you and not letting it impact you later in the game.  Golesh said he saw a team that was able to handle the good and the bad and find a way to make plays when it mattered. "Are we a mentally tough football team? I would tell you we are today," he said. "I thought they showed a lot of grit. I thought they never, never put their head down. I talked about this next-play mentality on both sides of the ball. I thought they did that. I never saw like, oh, man -- and there was plenty of opportunity offensively for sure to be like, come on, or defensively if like, man, we keep fourth down stop, fourth down, stop, turnover, like where are the points? Never saw it. Didn't see it in the locker room. "So I would tell you we took a giant step in terms of our identity. If we are going to stay connected and we're going to go finish football games in the fourth quarter and that's our identity, I'll take it, but I thought it was a step."