How Concerned Should We Be About Nebraska's Defensive Line?

How concerned should we be with Nebraska's defense, and in particular, the defensive line? That's the question much of the Nebraska fan base and media contingent have been diving into since Nebraska's 20-17 win over Cincinnati.

On this week's Saturday Morning Coffee Show, Josh Peterson and Matt McMaster discussed it all. Matt found some reasons to be optimistic. Is it something that could be replicable in future games?

Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Josh: What is the level of concern with what we saw from the defensive line on Thursday against Cincinnati? Allowing those yards, and Matt, most of those yards came in the second half. So on one hand, you're like, “wow, they had a really good first half,” on the other hand, did they wear down? What did you see with Nebraska's defensive line and Sorsby being able to escape for that 29-yarder amongst [96] rushing yards that he had on Thursday night?

Matt: So, I want to give myself some credit because I was looking at Mike’l [Severe] like – and I love Mike’l – what are you talking about? And they have an incredible quarterback and two really good running backs. They are going to run this ball. This analogy I used to begin the show, with the fishing in a mixed bag, is really just about the defensive line.

The combo of [Williams] Nwaneri, [Cam] Lenhardt, [Keona] Davis, and [Dasan] McCollough; best pass rush, best run fits. I honestly think their best packages are no Jacks with Lenhardt, Nwaneri on the edges.

Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby rushed for close to 100 yards against Nebraska. Should he get credit or should Nebraska's defense get the blame? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Josh: If you would have told me a month ago that Nwaneri would have the solid plays that he did, I would have said, “What the hell happened?” By the time it happened, I kind of was expecting him to have somewhat of an impact, but he made some plays that I did not see coming a month ago.

Matt: I thought he was the best player in the defense.

Josh: Really? The whole defense?

Matt: Here’s why I say that: the rest of the d-line was so lacking that his impact on the d-line meant so much. So sure, you could throw to me, man, Ceyair Wright was, and I'm to be like, I agree with you. He's awesome. He's great.

Josh: They were afraid of throwing it that way.

Matt: They're afraid of throwing him. But at the same time, if you remove Nwaneri and then you remove Wright, I think that your replacement for Wright is way closer to what your replacement for Nwaneri would be. That’s kind of how I'm looking at that.

Now, I think the best package Nwaneri and Lenhardt; no Jacks. Seriously. But they can't do that with how that defense is created. And you might as well just go to a 4-3, which they will never go to a 4-3 if they were to do that. So they're not going to do that. The drop off, though, from Davis and Nwaneri and Lenhardt and McCullough to then what would be [Jordan] Ochoa, Jaylen George, [Riley Van Poppel], and I guess it would be [Willis] McGahee, right?

Josh: He got smoked on that reverse.

Matt: He didn’t know what to do.

Josh: That was brutal.

Can Nebraska defensive coordinator John Butler scheme up a better run defense in the weeks to come? | Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

Matt: So, the drop-off is so massive. It's those four. I never want to see Jaylen George and Riley Van Poppel together in the interior of the defensive line. It was together. It was brutal. It was a bad package. I'm forgetting [Elijah] Jeudy. Jeudy had a weird game. Jeudy, I thought, was good. Jeudy, I thought, was bad. He was weird. But RVP and George… I can’t! I can't do it. I can't do it.

Jaylen George, when they marched down the field, Cincinnati did after Nebraska scored, so it was 20-10; when they marched down the field, Sorsby getting up the middle that entire time was because the offensive guard was like, “Alright, Jaylen, you want to go to the left and absolutely open up the middle with no spy. Be my guest. Go ahead and do it.” And he did it every time. And Sorsby goes,” Oh, okay!” And just runs up. It was terrible. He wasn't able to engage.

I thought that Riley Van Poppel and Jaylen George only ever went to where the offensive line wanted them to go. I never thought they went anywhere that they wanted to. It was almost as if they were like, “Oh my God, I'm recreating the line of scrimmage.” And Cincinnati was like, “We want you to go here because the play is here” and you're completely disengaged from it.

So I think the only option you have is you might have to just mix up of who's with who. That's what I think. I think you might have to put RVP with Lenhardt, and you might have to put George with Nwaneri. You cannot play those top four like 60 snaps a game; you can't do it. Like you still need everybody else to rotate on that d-line. I don't know what they do, but the second unit of that d-line was, it was not good.

Josh: Let me ask you this, Matt: how much, how much of what happened was them and “them” being Nebraska's defensive line versus how much of it was a running quarterback? You think it's more than the quarterback?

Matt: It didn't happen when the other four dudes were out there.

Josh: So you think it's definitely more Nebraska personnel-based than anything?

Matt: A million percent.

Josh: I wonder what that means for things moving forward.

Members of the Nebraska defense prepare to take the field for the opening drive against Cincinnati in Kansas City. — Members of the Nebraska defense prepare to take the field for the opening drive of the game against Cincinnati in Kansas City. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN

Matt: I'll have to go because I haven't rewatched the game; I'm pretty sure it was the second time Cincinnati ended up punting. I think Davis gets a tackle for loss. And then the next play, it was a third down and they ended up getting a quick little completion. And then they had to punt the ball; that whole drive, it was those four out there. It was Nwaneri, Lenhardt, McCullough, and Davis. And it was awesome. And it was great.

They got pressure up the middle. They got pressure at the edges. Sorsby was running around. I think that was like one of Nwaneri’s best pressures, because he had three of them. I think you know the play I'm about. Nwaneri comes off the edge, and he rolls. Buford comes in and tackles [him]; that whole drive was those four guys! Those four. And then you put the other four out there, and then Cincinnati looks like a different offense. So it's, it's totally personnel to me. Totally.

What does it look like, Josh? I don't know.

Watch the entire episode below!

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