Pelini: "We've let their offense dictate our defense"

After giving up over 650 yards in a loss to UCLA last Saturday and spending plenty of time reflecting, Bo Pelini is ready to move on to week three.

“I’ve been sick to my stomach since that game. I felt we should have won that football game. We didn’t. You know, it hurts. It’s hard to live with. But you have to move on. You have to. That’s part of the deal. It’s part of this profession. It’s sickening to you, but you can’t turn back the clock.”

After playing a few teams (Southern Miss and UCLA) that like to spread it out and run the zone read, Pelini believes that they've let the opponents offense dictate a little too much of what they do on the defensive side of the ball.

The Husker defense will see another spread offense this week with Arkansas State.

“I want to get them back to coming off the football and being more aggressive up front. I think to a certain extent, we’ve let the style of offense dictate to us instead of us dictating to the offense.”

Defensive coordinator John Papuchis noted that they're looking to counter that by getting more speed on the field.

“Team speed is something that has been a little bit lacking over the first couple games. So we’re going to try to get some of our faster guys on the field and see how that works this week."

"Everybody is in the equation right now. If we have to work 24 hours a day for the next seven days, and really for the next three months, we’re going to figure it out.” Papuchis explained.

Even while coaching a national championship defense at LSU, Pelini noted that there were rough patches along the way. At this point it's important to stay the course.

“You’re going to have games where you have a rough go of it. It’s how you come back from those things that are going to define you in the end.”