Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini didn’t mince words as he analyzed his team’s first-game performance against Florida Atlantic University.

The scoreboard indicated that the Cornhuskers had a dominating performance in a 49-3 triumph over the Owls. But Pelini was angry about his team’s defensive effort, calling it “soft.”

Nebraska allowed 358 total yards to the Owls, the most by a Huskers opponent in a season-opening game since Louisiana Tech produced 569 yards in 1998. The Owls had five series where it held the football for at least eight plays and five series where they produced at least 42 yards of offense.

“We did not play tough, physical, hard-nosed, disciplined defense,” Pelini said. “We just didn’t get it done. Whatever it was (yardage) was way too many for my liking.”

After critical examination of the game film, Pelini wasn’t happy. And his stinging words caught the attention of the Cornhuskers players.

“I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I don’t think we were as physical as he might have wanted,” Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh told the Omaha World-Herald.

The Cornhuskers did produce three turnovers, which was more than they generated in all but one game last season.

But still, Pelini didn’t like the yardage his team allowed and said that its intensity wasn’t there.

“Overall, man-to-man, 11 guys playing it, I thought we played soft at times,” Pelini said. “We've got to get that fixed."

Those defensive struggles have been the Cornhuskers' major points of emphasis after the first game.

“I have a certain vision of what I believe this defense is going to be and I want it to be, and it was not there. And believe me, our guys on defense know exactly where I'm coming from," Pelini said. "I'm not going to paint a picture that we went out there, we held them to three points and we played great. We did not. We did not play real good defense.''

The Cornhuskers will be challenged Saturday by Arkansas State, which arrives after a 61-0 victory over Mississippi Valley State in its opener.

The Red Wolves rank among the top seven FBS teams nationally in seven different statistical categories, including scoring defense (first), sacks allowed (tied for first), total defense (second), pass defense (third), scoring offense (fourth), rushing offense and pass efficiency defense (sixth) and rushing defense (seventh).

Despite his first-game complaints about the defense, Pelini is seeing improvement in his team, particularly compared to when he took it over.

“We’re ahead of where we were last year,” Pelini said. “We had light years to go then. Instead of two galaxies we just have one. We might be in the same solar system now.”