Nebraska gave up more yards to Maryland in the first quarter than it allowed against North Dakota in the entire game.
That won’t be enough against the Huskers’ biggest test yet: undefeated defending national champions Indiana. Rob Aurich knows it too, and the Huskers’ defensive coordinator says Saturday’s game will be decided by how NU handles the little things, from players doing their jobs to high-level tackles.
The Hoosiers’ offense ranks 14th nationally, averaging 489.6 yards and 44.2 points per game. Aurich said some simple qualities will be key to slowing down Indiana.
“Style of play, speed and physicality,” Aurich told reporters on Tuesday. “Running to the ball. I thought two weeks ago we ran to the ball harder than last week. That disappointed me. I want people to talk about our defense as the toughest group in the country. So we have to play extremely hard.”
“The backs have a high tackle rate,” he continued. “We need to get after their backs at the elite level, and that’s something we’re going to work on today.”
The Huskers allowed several explosive plays against the Terrapins last week, which is a major concern heading into a matchup against the likes of Indiana.
Aurich knows Nebraska won’t be able to completely stop the Hoosiers. But he wants to see the Huskers continue to lose in the red zone, which they do at a high level.
Aurich mentioned Dwayne McDougle’s game-changing 81-yard pick in the second quarter against Maryland.
“He looked that look all week and so he had an opportunity to execute something he did,” Aurich said. “I’m extremely pleased with our guys’ ability to toughen up in some big moments.”
“I was really proud of how we survived that first half where things were a little noisy,” he continued. “I was really, really happy with the way they responded and we toughened up. And then obviously we got into the half and had the ability to make the few corrections we needed to keep them down in the second half.”
With a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 15:0, Indiana quarterback Josh Hoover will try not to let the Huskers adjust. Outside of a close contest against Northwestern, he and the Hoosiers basically did what they wanted.
“He’s exploiting their system,” Aurich said. “There’s a lot of steals going on on the perimeter right now and he hasn’t forced a ton of throws. … But yeah, he just hasn’t put the ball in danger yet.”
With kickoff set for Saturday at 11 a.m. CDT and the game televised by FOX, Husker fans will be able to see how well the Big Red defense performs.
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