Rewind: Preseason goals fading, how will Huskers respond after another crushing defeat? | Football

A week ago, coming off a loss to Oklahoma, everything Nebraska wanted to accomplish was still on the table at 2-2 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten play. Now with two league losses, that’s no longer true. In what looks like a wide-open West Division, NU is already behind the 8-ball.

Nothing’s impossible, of course, particularly with nobody in the division besides Iowa off to a great start. But the Huskers and Illinois are also the only two teams in the division that already have two league losses and one of NU’s is head-to-head against the Illini. The division is likely to be decided by other teams. The path to six wins and bowl eligibility shrunk again and the Huskers have three more games that shape up much like this one did before the first of two bye weeks arrives later in October.

Johnson on Saturday night said, “We’ve just got to flush it and come back next week and get it done. That’s all we can do. We’ve got to come back next week and get the ‘W.’”

The flushing process is aided by time itself. Saturday night bled into Sunday morning by the time Nebraska’s charter touched back down in Lincoln after the game. Soon enough, Monday morning meetings and film will roll around, the Huskers will get back on the practice field and a Saturday night game at home against Northwestern will become the next target.

It’s the beauty and the curse of the college football season. No matter what happens one Saturday, the next one comes up quickly. When the ball starts rolling downhill, it can be difficult to stop, whether the gathering momentum is good or bad.