Nebraska’s defense has already learned the hard way that strong football for three quarters doesn’t guarantee a win, and Rob Aurich isn’t pretending otherwise.
The Huskers’ defensive coordinator pointed straight back to the 17-14 loss to Oregon in Week 7 when he met with the media Tuesday, using that game as the kind of painful lesson a team has to absorb and move through.
“You wear your scars; you grow,” Aurich said. “I don’t know if it stayed with me longer; it pissed me off.
Pissed about it, but it’s part of our growing process here. I wish I could’ve been better at that last drive for our guys.”
He made it clear he wasn’t interested in pointing fingers. Even with Nebraska’s defense not being the main reason the Ducks escaped, Aurich put plenty of the responsibility on himself.
“You feel like, as a coach, you control a lot,” he said. “The players have to go execute it, but you always want to put them in situations to be successful, and you self-evaluate a ton.
That’s part of the job. But, self-evaluating, I can be better in the final five (minutes).”
Aurich also said the bye week gave the staff and players a chance to step back and look hard at what had worked and what hadn’t.
“I think there was a good chance to self-evaluate,” he said. “Obviously, there have been times during the past couple of weeks where we’ve played some exceptional defensive football, and then there’s been times during the last two games where we haven’t played our best in some key moments.”
“So, I enjoyed the bye week,” he continued. “I think it’s been good for our players and good for our staff.”
Nebraska shut Oregon out in the first half, then allowed 17 points after halftime. That kind of swing is exactly what Aurich wants to clean up, especially with his own standard for the unit centered on finishing games without giving up a fourth-quarter point.
He said the focus isn’t about a brand-new mindset so much as tightening the details and holding up the standard snap after snap.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a change in mentality,” the coordinator said. “But I do think there’s a little bit of grinding into the fundamentals and grinding into the accountability of the call, and just executing, executing, executing.”
“There are times we’re really doing that,” Aurich continued. “There are a few plays in that last game where we didn’t execute at the level we wanted to… If we don’t beat ourselves, it’s tough to beat us right now.
So, we’ve got to keep that mindset. Don’t beat ourselves.”
Now the Huskers turn to Washington on Halloween night, though the preparation comes with an extra layer of uncertainty because Nebraska still doesn’t know which quarterback the Huskies will roll out.
Aurich said the Huskers have enough film on both options to build a plan, but each one forces a different kind of stress on a defense.
“I think they’ve been a little bit more efficient in the pass game these last two weeks,” Aurich said. “I think No.
7 (Elijah Brown) has operated pretty quickly. His completion percentage has been pretty high.
He’s an older kid, has kind of a good feel for the system.”
“No. 1 (Demond Williams Jr.) is dynamic,” Aurich continued.
“His scramble tape looks a lot like (Anthony) Colandrea’s. They’re both scary in their own right… They’re completely different, and their offense is much different when they are in the game.”
The matchup lands on Nebraska’s second annual Blackout game, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. CDT at Memorial Stadium.
Fans in the stands are being asked to wear black. Those watching from home can stream the game on Big Ten Network.
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