LINCOLN — Niles Paul watched Oklahoma receiver Adron Tennell try to run a slant route Saturday night only to have Prince Amukamara cut him off, intercept a Landry Jones pass and return it to the Sooners' 1-yard line.
Paul goes against Amukamara and fellow Nebraska cornerback Alfonzo Dennard all of the time in practice. So the Husker receiver wasn't witnessing anything that surprised him in the second quarter.
“Those guys are incredible defensive backs,'' Paul said. “They do it in practice all the time and I'll always make a comment like, ‘You better do it in a game if you're going to jump 'em in practice' — and they do.''
Amukamara has intercepted three passes this season, but has also taken the right angle and initiative to get his mitts on several others with a team-high nine pass breakups. Dennard has six breakups, and he nearly duplicated the Amukamara interception when he jumped a slant in the third quarter vs. OU.
Together the starting cornerbacks have ratcheted up some risk-taking and aggressiveness that Nebraska lacked a year ago — and provided another element in making the Huskers among the best pass defenses nationally.
“I think the confidence is better,'' said NU assistant coach Marvin Sanders, who handles the secondary. “Confidence in what they're doing and also knowing that we have a system that allows them to be that aggressive. Now they're finally seeing that and taking advantage of it.''
Nebraska leads the Big 12 in pass efficiency defense, a formula helped by the Huskers allowing just three passing touchdowns in 305 attempts. Opponents are completing 49.8 percent of their throws — only Texas is close in the Big 12 at 52.7 — and managing 179.6 passing yards per game.
Jones passed for 245 yards Saturday night, but the freshman fired 32 incompletions and was intercepted five times in a 10-3 loss to NU.
“We were aggressive,'' NU defensive coordinator Carl Pelini said. “We played really aggressive in the back end.
“We preached that this week. We gave them the license to go get the ball. Don't play it safe — take some chances, take your shot. And we did.''
The success with pass defense goes front to back, starting with the defensive line. With those four providing pressure, the Huskers have been able to play more defenders in coverage.
But Sanders thought that Nebraska would match up athletically with Oklahoma, which regularly has produced some of the best receivers in the Big 12 and featured Ryan Broyles as the national leader with 10 touchdowns.
Broyles reached the neighborhood of his usual numbers (eight receptions, 74 yards) but he never recorded a back-breaking play. The NU defense, meanwhile, followed Amukamara's interception with three by safety Matt O'Hanlon and one by linebacker Phillip Dillard.
“Our defensive backs played great,'' Pelini said. “They executed the game plan to perfection.''
The promising part is at cornerback, where Amukamara is a junior who easily could be a sophomore — if not for playing sparingly in 2007 rather than redshirting — and Dennard is a sophomore who made just his fifth career start Saturday night.
Of Amukamara against OU, Pelini said: “I don't think he made a mistake all night.''
Pelini said the cornerbacks are starting to better understand when they can or can't take risks. They have played the ball better and more often than before.
And Sanders isn't surprised to see it.
“I can't commend those guys enough for the effort they put in during the week,'' he said. “The game is just kind of topping on the ice cream.''
Contact the writer:
444-1042, rich.kaipust@owh.com
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