Jeremiah Dinson couldn’t help but laugh when he tuned in to last weekend’s SEC Championship Game.

Of course, Dinson and his Auburn teammates once hoped they’d be the ones representing the Sec West in Atlanta at the end of the season, but things didn’t work out that way for Auburn. Instead, it was LSU squaring off against SEC East champion Georgia, with many of Auburn’s players watching on TV. When LSU took the field for its first drive, Dinson and many other Auburn defenders quickly noticed something: Georgia was going to try to emulate the same gameplan Auburn sprung on LSU during the teams’ late-October meeting in Baton Rouge, La.

That’s right; Georgia opened up the game with a 3-1-7 defensive formation — something Auburn utilized relatively successfully against LSU during a 23-20 loss in Death Valley. Except the Bulldogs weren’t nearly as successful in slowing the Bayou Bengals in Atlanta.

“Got to have some goons on defense to run that type of personnel,” Dinson tweeted during the game.

While Auburn limited LSU to 10 points in the first half, which included two punts, a fumble and a turnover on downs by Ed Orgeron’s team (and just 47 first-quarter yards), Georgia wasn’t nearly as successful with the 3-1-7 look, giving up 14 points in the first quarter — with LSU getting touchdown on two of its first three drives — on the way to a 37-10 SEC title game loss.

So, why was Auburn’s approach more successful than Georgia’s defensively against LSU?

“We were able to just go out there and apply pressure on Joe (Burrow) from a three-man rush,” Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown said this week while in Atlanta for the College Football Awards Show. “It was something that coach (Kevin) Steele put in a week before, and it was kind of like a whirlwind, because it was just different. It was just kind of one of those things that Coach Steele put in that was able to put us in a position to win.”

Got to have to have some goons on defense to run that type of personnel 🤷🏾‍♂️ — Jeremiah Dinson 3⃣ (@New_EraJD3) December 7, 2019

Auburn was able to disrupt Burrow, the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy this weekend, with a three-man pass rush of Brown, Marlon Davidson and Big Kat Bryant, while Georgia struggled to get penetration at the line of scrimmage. Georgia’s defensive line is stout, particularly against the run, but few teams can generate the kind of pressure Auburn can with the likes of those three linemen. Burrow was sacked three times in the first quarter against Auburn, while Georgia totaled just two — both of which came in the second half after LSU already staked a 17-3 lead.

Georgia’s inability to adequately pressure Burrow — and allow him to escape and make plays when the Bulldogs did get in the backfield — was ultimately the biggest difference. Auburn largely prevented Burrow from getting in too much of a rhythm during the teams’ October meeting, holding him to arguably his worst performance of the season. Burrow completed 32-of-42 passes for 321 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. His 7.6 yards per pass attempt were by far his lowest of the year, as he averaged 10.7 yards per attempt on the season.

“(Steele) never puts us in position that he thinks is going to hurt what we do as a defense or what we do as players,” Brown said. “It’s just been one of those things that I’ve been blessed to be in a situation with Coach Steele, because at the end of the day he’s one of the coaches that he actually cares about what his players have to say. So, if we’re going through something in the walkthrough on Thursday — and Coach Steele will tell you, ‘If you’re not comfortable with it, tell me now; we’ll scratch it and we’ll play base.’

“It’s one of those things where Coach Steele’s been openly communicating with us, and it’s very beneficial to us, because at the end of the week if you’re not feeling confident with certain things, then you know, it’s not something you need to hold back so when you out on Saturday you mess up. You got to say and be able to expand and talk to Coach Steele about it.”

Against Georgia, Burrow completed 28-of-38 passes for 349 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, averaging 9.2 yards per pass attempt. Two of those touchdowns came in the first quarter as LSU raced out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back.

Auburn ultimately held LSU to nearly 25 points below its overall season average and limited LSU to 0.26 points per play — well below its season average of 0.67 points per play. Georgia, meanwhile, gave up 0.5 points per play in the SEC Championship Game after trying to replicate Auburn’s success in the 3-1-7 look, which Burrow gave the Bulldogs credit for, saying LSU didn’t expect it and it forced Burrow to scramble more.

Still, Kirby Smart’s team wasn’t as successful with that look as Steele’s defense was, even if both teams ultimately suffered the same fate against top-ranked LSU.

“Coach Steele is a genius in my eyes, because at the end of the day we could be sitting there and Coach Stele is like, all he needs to know is the formation and he already knows the call,” Brown said. “He has his call-sheet on gameday, but if you watch him, he never looks at it. It’s like one of those things where I just don’t know how he does it. Again, he’s done it for a long time but it’s still amazing because when we put in that defense, it was just something new. I was trying to wonder how it was going to work out after practice, because (we were) simulating it versus scout team and it’s doing well, but Saturday is different. I was just curious how it was going to work. I was going to try my best. We were able to do what we did.”

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