Welcome Husker Nation to Blackshirt Monday!

Let’s dive right into it, shall we?

There was some good, and there was some not so good from Saturday’s defensive performance.

I want to start with the good. Two more INTs. That gives the Huskers nine INTs forced on the season and puts the Huskers at a +6 in the turnover margin, which is a vast improvement over last year. I love that forcing turnovers has basically become the Blackshirts calling card this year.

Now, some things that need to be addressed. The rush game: against Oregon they gave up 336 yards and 5 touchdowns; but it’s Oregon, so take it with a grain of salt, right? They gave up 137 yards on 32 carries at 4.3 a pop on Saturday, which isn’t too shabby. But the concern is a lot of it was right up the middle, right up the gut of the defense; and that is a little bit of a concern. Also, the Clayton Thorson 42 yard touchdown rush that happened in the second quarter kind of continued some of the problems they had with Northwestern from a season ago. And the linebacking corps coming into this year was supposed to be strength of the defense. I’m not saying they played poorly, I just feel like they’ve been a little bit quiet so far this season. They could be a little bit more physical, a little bit more smash mouth, if you will.

Now as far as the front four they struggled to get some consistent pressure just with 4-man rushes this game against a Northwestern O-line that had given up 11 sacks in three games. They did end up with four total sacks, which is a good number. Kevin Maurice had two of those four sacks, which gives him three and a half on his career. This actually leads me to a couple of questions I got. Barbara Rooney (I hope I’m saying that right) from Facebook says, “Don’t we have to rush the quarterback more?” Josh McDougall on Twitter says “Where is the inside pass rush?”

Now, I want to remind you of some of the people who are not here this year that could be here: Maliek Collins – 3rd round draft pick; Vincent Valentine – 3rd round draft pick; Greg McMullen who started every game the past two years would have been a three-year starter; Kevin Williams, who thought he was a starter. The fact is, this is a lot of people that are gone and a lot of them were guys that played on the inside for the most part. So in my opinion – and I’m not trying to be harsh on the D-line – but the back seven is the strength of this defense. And so if I’m the coaches, I’m gonna say I’m going to have to blitz and use five, the occasional six-man blitz. Don’t do it too much as you leave your cornerbacks and your safeties in zero-man coverage. But you’re going to have to mix in some blitzes to get some consistent pressure on these opposing quarterbacks.

When you give up 13 points to the opposition, it’s hard to complain. There was some good and things that need to be addressed going forward.

Big day tomorrow on the Carriker Chronicles, I’m going to start my first ever weekly Huskers in the NFL update; and the first guy I’m going to do it with is Ameer Abdullah. He has a message that he related to me when I spoke to him that he wants me to share with you tomorrow, Husker Nation. Also, we are going to announce the winner from last week’s raffle. And it is going to be two individuals who win one of these lucky Hall of Fame t-shirts. So tune in tomorrow. Go Big Red, and always remember to Throw the Bones!