For the second straight season opener, Auburn allowed an inordinate number of sacks and tackles for loss. Only this year's 41-7 mauling of lowly Georgia Southern was a far less grueling task than facing Clemson in the first game of last year.

No. 13 Auburn allowed eight tackles for loss with three sacks last week. Only Florida and Texas A&M allowed more and they played Michigan and UCLA, respectively.

Auburn can't afford for a repeat performance against No. 3 Clemson, which had 14 tackles for loss with four sacks in last year's game on the Plains.

"Yeah there was some miscommunication that we got to get cleaned up, there's no doubt," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "Because the negative plays, obviously, we can't get behind the chains against these guys like we did last year. They got after us pretty good on first down and put us in some negative situations and we can't have that this week."

While Malzahn said the offensive line "did some good things," specifically in the running game with 351 rushing yards, he attributed most of the issues in pass protection to "miscommunication."

The sack that led to Georgia Southern's lone touchdown came via a blitzing linebacker that wasn't picked up by the left side of the line as left tackle Prince Tega Wanogho Jr. took an end and left guard Mike Horton tried to reach the second level.

Both Wanogho and Horton were making their first career starts.

"I think we did a pretty solid job for it being the first game of the year," right guard Braden Smith said. "Of course, we've got some new guys in. It takes some adjusting. The first ever start, it's going to be a little different. But I think once they started to get a feel for it, they started meshing together really well and executing. ...

"There's always positives and negatives. You've just got to look back. They've come a long ways. First start, nothing's going to be perfect. But they did a lot of good things. It's a good thing to build off of."

Despite some issues, Horton and Smith were each graded as the top offensive guards in the SEC last week by Pro Football Focus, receiving grades of 85.2 and 89.3, respectively.

"I think the line played pretty well," offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said. "We had a couple busts up front, just some young players that -- I think overall they played pretty well. I think the pass protection, I think we held the ball some; we need to get the ball out of our hand, I think, a little quicker. I think Jarrett would be the first to tell you that, but overall I thought it was a solid effort."

If last year is any indication, Auburn will settle in and correct the issues that led to so many negative plays. Whether further personnel adjustments will be necessary will remain to be seen.

"It's a new group working together, we've talked about that before, getting used to working beside each other," Malzahn said. "It really more than anything confirmed that we got a chance to be really good up front, I feel like."