Michigan State DL coach Legi Suiaunoa previews Nebraska's offense

Ahead of Michigan State's next game against Nebraska, defensive line coach Legi Suiaunoa gave insight on how the defensive line plans to make a stronger impact after the tough loss to USC in Los Angeles and following a bye week.

The long break the bye week provided gave the Spartans plenty of opportunities to look over film and make adjustments. 

Nebraska quarterback Dylan Raiola has had an impressive year thus far through the air, and Nebraska leads the Big Ten in passing and ranks second nationally at 351.8 passing yards per game. Suiaunoa knows the Spartans can’t give up chunk plays to him on Saturday, and have to do a better job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbcks. To contain those big plays, Suiaunoa had the defensive line focus on a few certain tasks this week. The first thing Suiaunoa discussed was how to best shut down Nebraska's offense in general.

“I think in terms of just getting pressure on the quarterback, I think the first thing we've got to be able to do as a defense is dictate those situations,” Suiaunoa said. “(Against USC), we didn’t stop the run, we didn’t stop the pass, we didn’t stop their offense at all."

In addition to the passing game, Suiaunoa praised the Cornhuskers ability to run the football and to stay out of third-and-long situations.

“One of the things they do is things that we’ve got to get better at,” Suiaunoa added about Nebraska. “We've got to keep them out of those third-and-manageable situations. They run the ball well and got a good balance with their offense, and so I think the quarterback can beat you. So we've got to do a great job playing tight coverage in the secondary, and at the same time for us here (on defensive line), winning a one-on-one (in the pass rush).” 

Using the bye week as time to prepare for the upcoming game, Suiaunoa and the rest of the coaching staff took a deep dive into the last game against USC to figure out where those chunk plays were coming from.