Blackshirts turn up intensity against KU, record six sacks

For the first half of Nebraska's season, the lack of a consistent pass rush plagued an otherwise solid defense. After the Cornhuskers' first seven games, the Blackshirts had accumulated just 12 sacks.

But the pressure has picked up considerably in NU's last three contests. The Huskers brought down Kansas quarterback Quinn Mecham six times during Saturday's 20-3 win, bringing their sack total in the past three games to 14.

The coaching staff made a conscious effort to pressure Mecham, a junior college transfer making just his third career start for KU.

"We thought if we could get in his face and get on him a little bit, we could force him into some throws or at least rattle him," secondary coach Marvin Sanders said. "I think we did."

The strategy certainly seemed to work.

Mecham completed just three of his 13 pass attempts and missed on all eight of his throws after halftime. The Jayhawks finished with 15 passing yards, the lowest total against the Blackshirts had given up since Nicholls State had zero on Sept. 9, 2006.

NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said the coaching staff saw some factors on film that made the Huskers believe they could blitz Mecham effectively. They wasted no time bringing the heat.

"Everybody came at one time or another, and both of our safeties came," Pelini said. "We were pretty creative with the pressure package this week."

Linebacker Lavonte David led the first half charge, bringing down Mecham twice before intermission. Also contributing to the sack total were Jared Crick with two and DeJon Gomes and Will Compton with one apiece.

Once the Huskers established the blitz and built a solid lead, they stopped dialing up quite as many blitzes and let the front four do their job.

"I challenged those front guys," Pelini said. "When you're dealing with a young D-line and the transition from the run down to the pass, you've got to play it differently. If there was any complaint I had about their playing coming in, it was that in obvious passing situations, they were too conservative.

"I told them, ‘Have some fun and wreck some shop in the backfield,' and they did that today."

Crick credited the strong pass rush to the work the Blackshirts did on first and second down. NU shut down KU's offense on the early downs and forced the Jayhawks into obvious passing situations on third downs.

"When we do our job on first and second down, it always looks good for us from a pass rush perspective, just knowing that we have the talent to get to anybody in the nation," Crick said. "We have to do our job on first and second down, and tonight we did that. It gave us an opportunity to get after him a couple more times than usual."

Also aiding the pass rush was the return of cornerback Alfonzo Dennard. After missing all of last week's game against Iowa State and much of the Missouri contest the week before with a concussion, Dennard's presence took away one of Mecham's passing options on almost every play.

After the game, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini called the cornerback duo of Dennard and Prince Amukamara as good a tandem as there is in the country.

"We're a different defense when he's opposite Prince," Carl Pelini said. "It's tough, because we can do a lot of things inside to stop the run and just trust that guys aren't going to get open on the outside."

Combining the strong pass rush and suffocating coverage downfield helped the Huskers hold KU to just 87 total yards, the lowest total NU has allowed since 2000.

"87 yards," Carl Pelini said, shaking his head. "Shoot, unless you hold them to zero, you can't do much better than that, right?"

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