Breaking down Huskers defense vs Southern Mississippi
For 30 minutes the Nebraska Cornhuskers‘ defense played their best football of the season. During the 36-28 victory over the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles, the Huskers defense held Southern Miss. scoreless. Although there were a few breakdowns in the first half, the defense repeatedly came through to help Nebraska take a 22-0 halftime lead.
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Unfortunately, the good feeling of the Huskers defensive performance didn’t last into the second half. Following a Tommy Armstrong interception, the Huskers defense let running back Ito Smith get loose for a 17 yard touchdown run. From that point, the entire tenor of the ball game changed. The Golden Eagles only scored one touchdown in the third period, but their offense was operating without much resistance in the second half. The Husker defense clearly had help from Southern Miss’ special teams issues.
It’s evident the Nebraska secondary is poor. In this case, we’ll include the linebackers as well. Yet, the problem might not be on the players anymore. They are repeatedly put in difficult situations, knowing it’s a lost cause. How bad has it gotten for the Huskers defense? Well, every quarterback has gone over 300 yards passing this season.
Nick Mullens
Yesterday, Nick Mullens torched the defense for 447 passing yards. Due to pressure up front, Mullens was only 26-41 passing, with two touchdowns, but he sliced through the Huskers defense in the second half. Nebraska couldn’t come close to forcing an interception, and only produced one turnover in the game. In addition, the big plays remained a problem for the Huskers defense.
Wide receiver Casey Martin led the way with eight catches for 102 yards, and two touchdowns. However, he only averaged 12 yards per catch. The rest of the skill players were on a different level as well. D.J. Thompson averaged 39 yards per reception, while Michael Thomas averaged 24 yards per reception, on five catches. So far, Nebraska has been decimated by game changing passing plays.
The blueprint is officially out. Most teams won’t even try to run the ball once conference play starts. Once again, the Huskers defense displayed some dominance up front. They held Southern Miss to 11 yards on 23 rushing attempts. Still, the Golden Eagles quickly got back into the game.
One shining spot for the Huskers defense is Freedom Akinmoladun. Nebraska tallied four sacks on the day, and Akinmoladun recorded two of them, including the game winner. If Akinmoladun wasn’t able to get to Mullens a second time, we could be having a whole different conversation. It’s one that Nebraska fans aren’t ready for.
The Huskers thought they had the game with seven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Nebraska switched up their defense, and went into a zone. The simple philosophy change confused Mullens and he threw a pass to Martin, but Joshua Kalu intercepted it at the goal line. Seconds later a ref nullified the play with a pass interference call. The bad officiating overshadowed one of the best plays by the Huskers defense. Soon after, the Golden Eagles scored from one yard out, to cut the lead to eight. Fortunately, the Golden Eagles ran out of time.
For now, the Huskers are (2-2) after the win, but they have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks.