How Nebraska football buckles down when teams hit red zone

Defensive coordinator Tony White doesn’t care for any of them.

Not only has Nebraska recorded 20 sacks and built a top-10 run defense over a 5-1 start, but it’s also the only program nationally yet to allow a single rushing touchdown.

“In the first six games that was a great accomplishment, but we’ll see if it holds,” White said.

It’s no surprise that the Nebraska defensive line has led the charge in stopping the run, but the Huskers’ level of play up front has impacted the way the entire defense plays.

White’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme may not have changed — but it works much better when he doesn’t have to allocate additional defenders up front.

“It starts up front,” White said of Nebraska’s ability to defend the pass. “When you’re able to bring four guys and get pressure it allows you to do all that stuff on the backend.”

Nebraska may have to defend plenty of passes when it faces an Indiana team that averages over 300 yards in the air and 200 yards on the ground per game. All that yardage can mean just one thing for the Nebraska defense — they’re going to have to be at their best to keep Indiana from reaching the end zone.

Luckily for Nebraska, that’s another area of the game where the Blackshirts have impressed thus far. Of the 13 times Nebraska has allowed an opponent to drive into the red zone, just nine have resulted in scores — a rate that places the Huskers as the 11th-best red zone defense in the country.

But what has enabled the Huskers to successfully defend in the red zone? According to defensive lineman Ty Robinson, it’s their mentality.

“They don’t get in,” Robinson said. “That’s what we tell each other when we’re in the huddle, ‘They don’t get in.’ And we go out there and work together.”

Nebraska’s do-or-die mentality in the red zone was highly visible in the team’s win over Rutgers, a 14-7 victory that couldn’t have happened without a six-play defensive stand on its goal line.

“When our back’s against the wall, we just start throwing punches,” linebacker Javin Wright said.

Having averaged 47.5 points per game as the nation’s second-best scoring offense, Indiana has plenty of punches to throw. A pair of running backs who average around 5 yards per carry and a deep group of pass-catchers have helped Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke lead an efficient offense and throw for 1,752 yards this season.

Pressuring Rourke is one way the Huskers will hope to slow down Indiana’s high-powered passing offense, a task Robinson is looking forward to.

After playing 270 snaps over the season’s first six weeks, Nebraska’s first bye week came at the right time for Robinson, who said he feels “young again” after a free weekend.

However, Robinson said that while he and other veterans in the Nebraska defense thought they would “get taken care of” over the bye week, they still had to suit up in full pads last Wednesday and Thursday and practice at full speed.

Robinson may dominate the snaps up front, but he hardly does it alone. From Nash Hutmacher, the only other Husker defensive lineman to play over 200 snaps thus far to the young backups like Vincent Jackson and Keona Davis, Nebraska tends to rotate early and often up front to keep its linemen fresh.

Thirteen different Husker linemen have played double-digit snaps this season, and eight have played 50 or more snaps.

“We’ve played so many guys young and the competition level hasn’t dropped off, it’s actually increased,” White said. “You’re either going to raise your level of competition and your ability and performance, or you’re going to fade to the wayside.”

There are certain situations that call for specific players on the field, such as James Williams and Kai Wallin’s tendency to play pass-rushing snaps, but White and the NU coaching staff know they can rotate players in and out without affecting the unit’s overall output.

The depth Nebraska has built has allowed such a situation to transpire, but equally as impactful is the attitude of togetherness that has developed among the group — something Robinson credits to their position coach, Terrance Knighton.

“T-Knight’s built a great relationship individually with everybody, and even as a whole creating this brotherhood between a bunch of guys who may have come from different places,” Robinson said. “We’ve molded so well into being one unit.”