Looking back on Indiana's commanding win over Nebraska, many may focus on the Hoosier offense and the 56 points it dropped, yet the defense had a similarly great, possibly even better performance overall.
The Hoosiers put up a historic performance, a win tied for the largest margin of victory against a Big Ten team with their 1945 performance over Minnesota, the defense was just sensational, as it tackled well in the open field, stopped Nebraska on several key fourth downs, and forced five turnovers throughout the game.
Coach Cignetti said postgame that "The defense kind of got to a point there where it made it really hard on Nebraska," giving praise to the unit that stumbled a bit a couple weeks ago against Northwestern, but responded resoundingly against Nebraska in Indiana's 56-7 win.
Indiana had 75 total tackles, seven tackles for loss and two sacks to go along with the already mentioned five turnovers, showing just how impressive this defense is all around.
Safety Shawn Asbury II said postgame that the Indiana defense " has a lot of good athletes across the board, D-lineman, linebackers, defensive backs," letting everyone know that this defense may be talented, but it is deep as well.
The defense certainly showed how deep it was in the win against Nebraska, as several impact players made several impact plays throughout the game.
Aiden Fisher, although not one of the guys that forced a turnover, may have been the focal point of the defense all game. The de-facto defensive captain led the team with 11 tackles and seemingly was in the right spot every single play.
Asbury said that "we never want to miss tackles" and Fisher certainly embodied that mantra, swarming the Nebraska ball carrier whenever possible and making it know that he was a force to be reckoned with as a leader of this Indiana defense.
Linebacker Jailin Walker, though, was one of the players who forced a turnover, as he forced a critical fumble in the first half, as Nebraska was deep in IU territory, that prevented a score and set up the Hoosier defense for success the rest of the game.
He said postgame that his fumble, and plays like it "set the tone for the defense and offense" mentioning that he attributes the plays made on both sides of the ball to how important that fumble was.
On Nebraska's ensuing drive, the Huskers scored a touchdown, their only touchdown of the game and the only points of the game. Despite this, Indiana's defense bounced back tremendously, forcing two straight three and outs to end the half.
Asbury says that those drives were a result of his group's mentality and says "every time we go out there we're trying to force a three and out."
This mentality may have also led to Asbury himself making an incredibly impactful play early in the second half, as the safety intercepted a Dylan Raiola pass and returned it 78 yards to the Nebraska 19 yard line.
Cignetti said postgame that "Shawn Asbury's play was probably the big play in the game. There was a lot of big plays in that game, but that was a real momentum-turning play."
This is extremely high praise from Asbury's head coach, but well deserved, as it prevented Nebraska from getting back within two scores and set up the IU offense to score, resulting in a four touchdown lead for the Hoosiers.
Jailin Walker touched on this chain reaction by saying "we like to bounce off each other so with turnovers they get the ball and they get the score and then we right back on defense."
This "bouncing off" one another between the offense and defense really seemed like the case, as after all but one of the turnovers, the offense scored on its next drive.
Mikail Kamara was another player to have a huge play on defense, forcing a fumble on a fourth down deep in IU territory, similar to Walker's forced fumble, although this one was a strip sack.
This went along with his sack and tackle for loss, making this yet another great performance for the Hoosier defensive lineman.
This was right immediatly after the Indiana coaching staff subbed in the first unit in for the second unit, trying to prevent a Nebraska TD.
D'Angelo Ponds commented on this by saying that they "didn't want them to score and we don't we don't never want a team to score freely, so we put the ones in."
This was certainly a huge play, as were all of the turnovers, Jailin Walker saying that "every game turnovers are an emphasis because it give offense and the defense high intensity."
Intensity may have been the cause to this great performance, but whatever the cause, this was an all-time performance by the IU defense in a game that Hoosier fans will remember for a long time.
To top it all off, Indiana forced two more turnovers in the second half, both interceptions, one by Jamier Johnson and one by Rolijah Hardy, resulting in the turnover count being five.
Shawn Asbury said that "we got a lot of guys that love ball and know how to play ball" and this performance definitely showed that, as the Hoosier defense had a game to remember in Indiana's 56-7 win over Nebraska, one that moves the Hoosiers perfect record to 7-0.
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