Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule on his defense’s performance in the loss to Indiana
Indiana faced its first third down opportunity of the game on its opening drive — a third-and-one from its own 34-yard-line.
Quarterback Kurtis Rourke pitched the ball to running back Justice Ellison, who cut back to his right, made safety DeShon Singleton miss and 43 yards later was finally pulled down by Nebraska’s Malcolm Hartzog Jr.
Indiana scored to take an early 7-0 lead six plays later.
The play was indicative of how the game went for Nebraska’s defense against the Hoosiers. The tackling wasn’t good enough and the Hoosiers found big plays on the outside of the field while pounding away with the running game.
“From the very beginning, we weren’t tackling at the level we were capable of,” Rhule said Monday. “The first third and one, we have an unblocked defender there who doesn’t make the play. It just was bad all around.”
Indiana kept Nebraska on its heels for most of the game, tallying 495 yards of total offense and scoring on four of its first five offensive possessions in the game. Indiana ran for 215 yards and five touchdowns against the Husker defense which game into the game having not allowed a rushing touchdown all season.
“The game came down to the run game,” Rhule said. “We were not able to stop the run. In some cases, some inexplicable, we’re blitzing into the run – and there’s an unblocked defender. Just didn’t tackle, didn’t play well.”
Rhule said Nebraska’s defense didn’t adapt well to Indiana being able to move the ball on the ground, with defensive linemen getting quickly up the field. Rhule said he was particularly frustrated by the fact that Nebraska had worked on tackling during the bye week.
“I thought a lot of our issues maybe started up front in the fits,” Rhule said. “Tackling, especially as you go on throughout the course of the year, pad level, fundamentals and tackling are the first things to go. So you find a way to prepare and practice those things moving forward. The disappointing thing about last week was it was coming off a bye where we took a lot of time to work on the fundamentals. When I go back to the question earlier about perimeter blocking, I do believe we’re repping those.
“To me, anytime something doesn’t show up, we’re not going to just throw it on the kids: ‘Hey, you got to go execute.’ We have to rep it until it’s good enough. Tackling wasn’t an issue against Rutgers. It was in this game. It’ll certainly be a challenge versus a running game like Ohio State’s.”
Indiana didn’t just grind away at Nebraska in the running game, but found success with big plays down the field as well. Nebraska had cornerback Tommi Hill available in Saturday’s game, but he said overall “we struggled at the corner position.”
Rhule said Nebraska expects to win its share of battles on deep throws, but that didn’t happen against Indiana.
“You should win 50 percent of the time and they won most of them,” Rhule said.
Nebraska must reset quickly this week as it prepares for an Ohio State team that comes in averaging more than 200 yards per game on the ground.
Rhule said his team needs to be prepared to challenge Ohio State — something it wasn’t ready to do against Indiana.
“A lot of times in that game, it felt like we were playing not to lose,” Rhule said. “And I think defensively the minute you lose that edge where you’re trying not to lose, a really good defense becomes very average very quickly.
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