Nebraska Football: Erik Chinander emphasizing defensive progress
Nebraska football defensive coordinator is pleased with the progress.
As Nebraska football gets set to take on Purdue, defensive coordinator Erik Chinander seems to be pleased with the progress of the defense.
Take Nebraska football’s performance against Illinois and compare it with the performance of the defense against Iowa. Those looked like to completely different games as far as run defense is concerned. Nebraska got gashed by the Illinois running game, while they were able to hold Iowa to 4.3 yards per play, and 2.9 yards per carry.
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I was very pleased with the way that they were able to stop the rushing attack. I personally thought the Iowa running backs were going to have a field day against Nebraska. Nevertheless, the defense stood tall.
Tyler Goodson they end up having a good game for Iowa, carrying the ball 30 times for 111 yards. Mehki Sargent did have a touchdown, but he only had five carries for 18 yards overall. The Huskers did a nice job of defending the second level, something I have been complaining they have not been doing well all season.
I thought the run defense was excellent. I still see certain areas where Nebraska football needs to improve defensively. They seem to have trouble defending the middle of the field. I noticed a bunch of catches up the seam, as well as defenders allowing space for receivers towards the middle. As a result, it forced the defenders to take bad angles on some plays.
Even still, there is no denying that the Nebraska football defensive performance on Friday was much better than the one against Illinois. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, defensive coordinator Erik Chinander seemed to be pleased with the direction the defense was headed.
"“(Our defenders) did what we asked them to do — they defended the run and they got off the field on third down,” Chinander said. “So it hurt them pretty bad to not be on top at the end of that game. But it shows the guys that consistency is as important as anything else. You have to be consistently good on defense in stopping the run week to week, and get off the field on third down."
Next. Assessing expectations against Purdue. dark
I will be interested to see what happens against Purdue on Saturday. Honestly, I’m more worried about the offense playing at a high level than I am the defense for this game. It sounds a little bit strange to say that, but so be it. Hopefully, Nebraska will be able to put together a complete team effort on Saturday.