LINCOLN — So you've watched the Nebraska defense allow just one touchdown in eight quarters, and maybe you're wondering about all this talk of inconsistency and sloppiness from coach Bo Pelini.

Just what does he want?

Allow Rickey Thenarse to explain.

“Our job is to make the offense feel our presence even before the play starts,” the senior safety said. “Go out and impose our will. Be mad if they get a first down. Be mad if they get an inch on us, a yard. That's not acceptable. We want to smash everyone. They're going to eventually make a play, but be angry about it.

“Don't accept that. Come back the next play 10 times harder. That's the kind of defense we want to be this year.”

Easy to understand, then, why the NU defenders and their coaches still weren't satisfied after a 38-9 victory over Arkansas State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

The Huskers missed tackles and assignments en route to allowing 18 plays of 8 yards or longer.

After listening last week as Pelini described his defense as “soft,” the Huskers agreed that they played a more physical brand of football Saturday than in the season-opening, 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic.

Still, it wasn't good enough. Not even close.

“We need to take this win with a grain of salt and come into next week ready to play,” freshman linebacker Will Compton said.

Compton is talking about that looming trip to Virginia Tech, the marquee game on the Huskers' nonconference schedule Saturday in Blacksburg.

The consensus from Nebraska defenders after allowing 274 yards is that the task is about to turn much more challenging. They've got reason to think so. The Hokies, 52-10 winners Saturday over Marshall, beat Nebraska 35-30 last year as quarterback Tyrod Taylor rushed for 87 yards and threw for 171.

Arkansas State QB Corey Leonard provided a preview of Taylor's style. Leonard gained 55 yards on the ground but was also sacked four times for 33 yards in losses.

Taylor looks more difficult to contain.

“As a competitor, I always get excited to play the best opponents,” defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “And so I'm looking forward to play them.”

Carl Pelini said he believed Bo Pelini's comments last week about the defense were misinterpreted. The head coach wasn't so much upset at the Huskers' play as he was expressing his high level of expectation.

“We expect excellence,” Carl Pelini said. “Anything other than that, we're going to be hard on.”

Bo Pelini told the Huskers the same things he said publicly, according to Blake Lawrence. And the junior linebacker agreed the Huskers could play much better, despite the 46-point win.

“We wanted to be more physical, let them know how we play football here,” Lawrence said. “As a linebacker group, we walked off the field last week and said, ‘That wasn't our best effort.' We watched the film on Sunday and said we can bring it so much better than we did.

“We can always be more physical. I think today we took it up a notch, but going into next week, we need to go up a whole new level.”

The defensive coordinator said he, too, saw some level of improvement against Arkansas State.

Mainly, he said, it involved the Huskers' attitude.

“I thought we took the field with a killer instinct,” Carl Pelini said.

Others had the same message.

“We basically knew what we had to do,” defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said.

Suh led the defensive effort with three tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 1½ sacks among his five tackles.

But guess who wasn't satisfied?

“I thought we would be a little bit further,” Bo Pelini said. “We're sloppy at times. Sometimes our inexperience shows. The communication is better but still not where I want to be. We're coming, but we're not there.

“We're not to the standard that I envision it.”

Contact the writer:

402-473-9587, mitch.sherman@owh.com