LINCOLN, Neb. -- It's a word any self-respecting football player dreads hearing. But Bo Pelini went there Tuesday.
The coach called Nebraska's defense "soft."
The 22nd-ranked Cornhuskers beat Florida Atlantic 49-3 on Saturday, but Pelini made it clear the performance he saw won't be good enough when the big games arrive.
"Overall, man to man, I thought we played soft at times," Pelini. "We've got to get that fixed."
As Pelini gave his defense a verbal flogging in front of reporters, 300-pound nose tackle Ndamukong Suh stood with his sister, Ngum, in the back of the room.
Suh had seven tackles against FAU, closing in from 5 to 10 yards behind the play to make a couple stops, yet Pelini called the performance of Suh and fellow tackle Jared Crick "average at best."
When it was Suh's turn to speak, he said only Pelini and maybe his sister are allowed to say such things about him.
"I definitely take it personally, but I know exactly what he means, so I don't take it too hard," Suh said. "We weren't as physical as he hoped. Basically, we want to start a new line of scrimmage. There is the main line of scrimmage where the ball is set, but we want to move their linemen into the backfield and start a new line of scrimmage. I don't think we did."
Pelini has often said that he's more interested in the final score than the numbers on the statistics sheet. He couldn't remember how many yards the Huskers allowed to the Owls.
Told it was 358 -- the most by an opening opponent since Louisiana Tech rolled up 569 in 1998 -- Pelini said, "Whatever it was, it was way too much for my liking."
Nebraska never sacked Owls quarterback Rusty Smith.
And though Pelini said he was pleased the Huskers had three takeaways, he pointed out they could have had more. Safety Larry Asante dropped a sure interception, and there were a couple FAU fumbles Nebraska could have recovered.
The Huskers, who host Arkansas State this week, came into the season with a goal of improving their No. 107 national ranking in turnover margin.
"We have to take advantage of our opportunities," Pelini said. "They don't come all the time. We let some slip through our fingers. You can't drop balls that are in your hands on defense. The ball is on the ground, you have to get it."
Pelini said his defenders didn't take on blockers, and the linemen didn't stay low enough.
Suh said he and his linemates often played patty cake with FAU's offensive line.
"We need to be underneath their chins and pushing them back in the backfield," Suh said, "and the only way you do that is getting under their helmets and get your pad level down."
The offense didn't escape Pelini's tongue-lashing, even though the Huskers put up 490 yards and seven touchdowns against the Owls. He said the offense didn't get up to the line of scrimmage quickly enough, though he saw improvement in the second half.
"We were wallowing around," Pelini said, "and it showed in our play. To come out of the huddle with an attitude and you're getting up and down on the ball, it's going to show when the ball is snapped."
Pelini said Nebraska's problems weren't because of a lack of effort.
"The want-to is there," he said, "but the how-to wasn't taken care of."