Nebraska Football: Huskers Offense Comes Alive vs. Huskies, Defense Falters

Nebraska’s offense was much improved in their 51-38 victory over Washington on Saturday.

After two weeks of sloppy play, the Nebraska offense was able to consistently move the ball down the field on the Huskies. Taylor Martinez led the charge with three touchdowns, and the offensive line looked like an entirely different unit on Saturday. Nebraska was also able to find two stud freshmen running backs in Aaron Green and Braylon Heard. Both will be welcome additions in the Nebraska offense.

The problem on Saturday was the Blackshirt defense. Can we even call them the Blackshirts?

Nebraska gave up 38 points against Washington. This is after they gave up 29 to Fresno State. Those kinds of numbers would have been unheard of the past two seasons under Bo Pelini.

What is wrong with the Nebraska defense? Is it the loss of cornerback Alfonzo Dennard?

While I think the defense will improve when Dennard returns, there are other problems with the Blackshirts other than the cornerback position.

Jared Crick was constantly double teamed on Saturday. When he was not double teamed he was able to chase around the quarterback in the backfield. If Crick is double teamed that means other players were working one-on-one. Why couldn't these other defensive linemen make a play?

In the past, when Ndamukong Suh was double teamed, Jared Crick stepped up and made a play. Last year, when Crick was double teamed, Baker Steinkuhler would make a play. This year no one from the front four other than Crick is putting heat on the quarterback.

When the front four is able to generate pressure, this allows the secondary to make plays. While the secondary was able to make some plays on Saturday there is no consistency in their play.

One series Nebraska would look like the Blackshirts, and on the next series they would look like the Blackskirts.

People say Bo Pelini is a defensive genius. If so, now is the time to prove it. The defense needs some work before the team travels to Wisconsin and Ohio State visits.

Would the return of the Peso defense be such a bad idea? Does Nebraska even have the personnel to run the Peso defense as they did last year?

Next week Nebraska has a soft game against Wyoming. I believe this would be the time to try different defensive schemes. Nebraska should be able to beat Wyoming no matter what defense they roll out on the field.

What can Nebraska try defensively? Maybe more blitzes, maybe a return to the Peso defense and maybe let the secondary play more zone defense instead of man-to-man.

Whatever needs to be done to fix the problem, Nebraska has two weeks to get it done.

Nebraska finally got the offense close to where it needs to be. Fix the defense and the championship dreams may be fulfilled!