Nebraska sticking to its process in hopes of playing complementary football

Taking the ball away, being the more physical team and showing a culture of execution are the requirements every week — and yet on Friday, the Nebraska defense only succeeded at forcing two turnovers.

As the Huskers seek to learn from their loss to Illinois, they are avoiding any finger-pointing and looking toward playing complementary football instead.

“When you don’t do two of those things, it’s gonna be hard to play good defensive football, especially with what the guys are doing on offense,” White said of his message to the defense. “We’ve got a freshman QB balling his ass off. He scored 24 points? Then you need to help his ass.”

While White may have felt NU’s offensive output was enough to power a win, the Huskers still have plenty to improve on that side of the ball.

And for a Nebraska defense that dominated several games last fall only for an anemic offense to undo its hard work, their frustrations have been directed internally. After Rhule deemed Illinois the “more physical team” in the recent matchup, the Huskers responded in the only way they could — a fired-up Tuesday practice.

“They went out there today and wanted to compete,” White said, adding that his players “practiced their tails off” on Tuesday morning.

Part of the learning process for Nebraska is making sure that its offense and defense are on the same page. During a second half where the Illini began to rack up first downs, holding onto the ball for long periods of time as they tired out the Husker defense, Nebraska could’ve used a long, ground-based drive of its own.

Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said he was proud of the way sophomore Dante Dowdell ran the ball but wishes he could’ve furthered Nebraska’s efforts on the ground.

“The style of runs and the amount of runs that we were getting, I’ve got to give more of them,” Satterfield said. “We’ve got to create different angles, especially versus defenses like Illinois and the team we’re getting ready to play (Purdue) because they’re always going to have extra hats in the box.”

Satterfield said that he also felt quarterback Dylan Raiola played well in the loss and attributed the freshman’s interception to a stellar defensive play where the ball was ripped out of Isaiah Neyor’s hands.

However, a notable teaching moment came on a failed third-down pass where Raiola was unable to connect with tight end Luke Lindenmeyer.

“Next time we’ll hit it,” Satterfield said of the play.

In order to truly put the loss to Illinois behind it, Nebraska must flush the bad from its system and keep the lessons that need to be heeded.

How the team’s players spent their days between Friday’s loss and Tuesday’s practice differed greatly. Raiola said that because Nebraska wasn’t playing on a Saturday like normal, he had the entire weekend to dwell on the recent loss.

“(We) kinda drifted from what we really stand for in our program (against Illinois), and it kind of nipped us in the bud,” Raiola said. “… Once we got in yesterday and today, we got back to the basics.”

As for defensive back Isaac Gifford, the senior said he “got away from football” on Saturday. While Gifford did spend part of his day watching film from the Illinois game, he found it helpful to spend time with friends and family to get his mind off Nebraska’s recent loss.

“I’m the kind of guy (where) I get so invested during the week that I’ve got to take that day where I can be free in my mind and stressless,” Gifford said. “That day was big for me.”

No matter how they coped with a Saturday away from the football field, only one thing truly matters for Nebraska’s players moving forward — how they respond to the adversity.

Looking back on the loss, Gifford said that Illinois “punched us in the mouth” and that Nebraska didn’t react well enough at the time.

As for how the Huskers should have responded? Linebacker MJ Sherman has his own ideas.

“What are you supposed to do when you get punched in the mouth sometimes? Put your hands up next time; learn from it,” Sherman said.