Husker defense dominates Cajuns, preps for Tigers

Daily Nebraskan

Can we call them Blackshirts yet?

Carl Pelini isn't so sure now's the time to be passing out those coveted black practice jerseys, but his defense certainly made a case for them Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette.

"That'll be a staff decision, but I thought we had a heck of a performance tonight," Pelini said.

Thanks in large part to three takeaways and five forced three-and-outs, NU's defense stifled the Ragin' Cajuns' spread offense, holding Lafayette to zero points and showing little hangover from last weekend's heartbreaking loss to Virginia Tech.

That fatal final drive against Tech overshadowed an otherwise dominant performance, but junior defensive end Pierre Allen said the drive gave NU's defenders a chip on their shoulders entering Saturday's game.

"Everybody was sitting there and thinking, ‘If I just could've done this in the game, maybe we would've won,'" Allen said. "Nobody wanted to feel that feeling again, so we weren't going to leave anything on the field, and we went hard every play."

After forcing no turnovers against the Hokies — a stat Bo Pelini called "unacceptable" — the Huskers responded with the team's first plus-3 turnover margin in a game since 2005.

Those timely takeaways sealed the shutout, as mistakes ended some of ULL's most promising drives.

On Lafayette's longest drive of the day, safety Larry Asante jumped a Chris Masson pass in the second quarter and ran 74 yards untouched for a touchdown to put NU up 34-0.

The closest the Ragin' Cajuns came to scoring was on a drive that ended on NU's 17 yard line when linebacker Sean Fisher scooped up a fumble and took it back 21 yards late in the third quarter.

"With all the difference-making plays that could have been a week ago, a turnover could've changed our result," Carl Pelini said. "We wanted to be more aggressive to the football, take chances, get after it and don't let an opportunity go by."

Though Pelini was happy with the shutdown play of his starters Saturday, the fact that NU still earned its first shutout since 2006 despite playing backups for much of the fourth quarter was even more pleasing.

"We have to learn how to finish, and it looks like they're starting to get it," Pelini said. "Even our twos were locked in, and I thought they executed the game plan very well."

Pelini insisted his defense lost no confidence in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech loss — if anything, allowing only 16 points to a top-15 team confirmed their progress.

The lesson learned from the loss, he said, was the importance of dominating for an entire game, and NU's defense took that to heart Saturday.

"I think it was big for us," Fisher said. "We were really determined to come out and play four quarters of good defensive football."

NU's defense is now ranked No. 3 in the nation for points allowed after giving up only 7 per game during the non-conference schedule. That stinginess will be put to the test on the road against Missouri.