How Diego Pavia was needed more than ever as Vanderbilt football's defense causes concern
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As good as Diego Pavia has been this season for Vanderbilt football, he hasn’t faced many games like the one he did against Auburn.
The Commodores didn’t have an early lead to play with. The defense was giving up consistent chunk plays. They had to lean on Pavia and ask their star quarterback to win the game.
He delivered.
The 16th-ranked Commodores (8-2, 4-2 SEC, No. 16 CFP) defeated Auburn 45-38 in overtime Nov. 8 at FirstBank Stadium. They got 377 passing yards and 112 rushing yards from Pavia, both highs for his Vanderbilt career.
“What is there to say about Diego Pavia?” coach Clark Lea said. “In my eyes, he’s the best player in the country. Found a way to win a game for us tonight. Credit (offensive coordinator) Tim Beck, too, but Diego made it happen.”
Pavia was not made available to the media after the game.
The Commodores needed a legendary performance from him because of their defensive struggles. Auburn (4-6, 1-6), which had been a bottom-three scoring offense in the SEC entering the matchup, produced 563 yards of total offense as quarterback Ashton Daniels put up a strong performance of his own, throwing for 353 yards and running for 89 for four total touchdowns.
“We weren’t really used to the offense committing that much to tempo,” linebacker Bryan Longwell said. “Some teams have tried to tempo us but usually they abandon it pretty quickly against us, but I think them committing to the tempo and really just taking what we’re giving them instead of trying to make big plays was hard to deal with sometimes.”
Vanderbilt should heed the game against Auburn as a bit of a warning call after two straight poor defensive showings. The Commodores are off next week before facing Kentucky at home on Nov. 22 and Tennessee on the road in the regular-season finale on Nov. 29.
At first glance, Kentucky would seem like an easy win, but another defensive performance like this one could throw everything into question; this same Auburn team lost to Kentucky 10-3. And Tennessee runs an up-tempo offense that will give Vanderbilt problems if it can’t fix its defensive issues.
The good news is that the Commodores will have Pavia for those two games, and an equally good performance from him could lead them to the College Football Playoff. To the defense’s credit, it did get a stop when it was most needed, on Auburn’s fourth-down attempt in overtime.
Pavia wasn’t the only player who made big-time plays. Tre Richardson (three catches, 124 yards, TD) and Eli Stowers (12 catches, 122 yards) shined as pass-catchers. Stowers became the first tight end in program history to have back-to-back 100-yard games.
“Diego makes it go,” Lea said. “Those guys made plays on the ball in critical moments.”
Nothing Pavia does can surprise his coaches or teammates anymore. He has already struck a Heisman pose and declared his own belief that he should win the award — and that Vanderbilt can still win the national championship.
But if Vanderbilt’s defense can’t step up, Pavia might need to find a few more tricks up his sleeve to get the title he has prognosticated.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt football needed Diego Pavia as defense struggled vs Auburn
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