Pelini's got tough standards for Husker team

In football, a 46-point win tends to be a good thing. Holding an opponent to three points is impressive as well.

In the eyes of Bo Pelini, though, the statistics surrounding Nebraska's season-opening 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic aren't worth celebrating.

At Tuesday's press conference, Pelini insisted his team's performance wasn't as strong as the game's final score would indicate.

"You can look at that and say we won the football game, but we didn't play to the standard that we wanted to play to," Pelini said. "We did a lot of good things in the football game, but after you look at the film, you have to look at it very critically of yourself."
When Pelini watched the film, he said he saw poor technique and inconsistent passion from his defense. He saw a defense he considered "soft."

"We did not play tough, physical, hard-nosed, disciplined defense," he said. "I'm not going to paint a picture that we went out there, and we held them to three points and played great. We did not. We did not play real good defense."

Pelini saw a defense that gave up 358 total yards. When asked if he was disappointed by that number, Pelini was stern.

"You better believe it," he said. "It was way too many for my liking."

Not even Ndamukong Suh escaped Pelini's criticism. The star nose tackle produced seven tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup.

Pelini, of course, called the performances of Suh and defensive tackle Jared Crick "average at best."

"We expect a high, high level," he said. "They didn't play awful, but I thought it was average, and we don't accept average."

What about NU's three takeaways? Surely Pelini would be pleased with that improvement, right?

Three was good, but Pelini expects more. Safety Larry Asante dropped an easy interception at the end of the second quarter, and safety Matt O'Hanlon had an interception taken away due to a roughing the passer penalty by Crick.

"You can't drop balls that are in your hands on defense," Pelini said. "We let some slip through our fingers. That's a big area of emphasis for us, and one that we have to take advantage of."

You can accuse the second-year coach of nitpicking and being overly critical, but Pelini is right.

He holds his players to a high standard – he expects championship-caliber football – and he won't come close to being pleased until he sees that on a consistent basis.

"I can tell you this, there were a lot of guys on our football team who were not happy about how they played," Pelini said. "They didn't feel like they played to what they are capable of. I loved the attitude that our players came out with to practice yesterday. They practiced hard, and they practiced fast with an attitude, and that needs to continue."

Pelini can't expect a perfect game from his defense, and he admits that. Reasonable expectations, though, are probably something along the lines of what his defenses accomplished during his time at LSU.

In each of his three years in Baton Rouge, Pelini's defenses finished No. 3 in the nation in total defense. During their 2007 national championship season, the Tigers surrendered only 288.8 yards per game and forced 36 turnovers.

Pelini is realistic. NU's defense is quite a ways away from accomplishing such feats, and celebrating the positives of a win over FAU won't get the Huskers any closer to reaching those standards.

"Obviously, we have a long way to go," he said. "I saw some things out there I liked, and I saw a bunch of things that we need to get fixed."

Being better than last year's squad isn't good enough for Pelini, either. A win is always nice, but there's a bigger picture to keep in mind.

"I think we are ahead of where we were last year," he said. "We had light years to go last year. Now, instead of two galaxies, we have maybe one galaxy. We might be in the same solar system now."

MAX OLSON IS A SOPHOMORE NEWS-EDITORIAL MAJOR. REACH HIM AT MAXOLSON@DAILYNEBRASKAN.COM.