Nebraska gave up more yards to Maryland in the first quarter than it allowed against North Dakota the entire game.
That won’t be good enough against the Huskers’ biggest test yet: the undefeated, defending national champions from Indiana. Rob Aurich knows it, too, and the Huskers’ defensive coordinator says Saturday’s contest will be decided by how well NU handles the little things, from players doing their jobs to tackling at a high level.
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 Indiana down.
“Play style, speed, and physicality,” Aurich told reporters Tuesday. “Run to the ball. I thought two weeks ago we ran to the ball harder than we did last week. I was disappointed in that. I want people to talk about our defense as the hardest-playing group in the country. So, we’ve got to play extremely hard.”
“The backs have a high break tackle ratio,” he continued. “We’ve got to tackle their backs at an elite level, which is 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 shut the Hoosiers down. But he does want to see the Huskers continue to bow up in the red zone, something they’ve been doing at a high level.
Aurich mentioned Dwayne McDougle’s game-changing 81-yard pick-six in the second quarter against Maryland.
“He looked at that look all week, and so he had an opportunity to execute something he’s done” Aurich said. “I’ve been extremely pleased with our guys’ ability to toughen up in some big moments.”
“I was really proud with how we survived that first half when things were a little noisy,” he continued. “I was really, really pleased with how they responded and we toughened up. And then obviously we went into halftime and had the ability to make the few corrections we needed to make and hold them low 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 with Northwestern, he and the Hoosiers have essentially done whatever they’ve pleased.
“He is operating their system,” Aurich said. “There’s a lot of stealing going on in the perimeter right now and he hasn’t forced a ton of throws. … But yeah, he just hasn’t put the ball in harm’s way yet.”
With kickoff set for 11 a.m. CDT Saturday and the game televised by FOX, Husker fans will get to see how well the Big Red’s defense stacks up.
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