Nebraska Football has to bounce back vs. Fordham

The wind was officially taken out of Husker Nation’s sails last week as Nebraska football suffered a gut-wrenching loss to the Fighting Illini. What seemed to aggravate Husker fans the most was not only the loss itself but the way it all played out.

As Coach Scott Frost said after the game, “It looked like the same movie”.

You’re dang right it did Coach.

After all the preseason hype, hearing about the changes that had been made, and players to be excited for, fans were in a familiar setting of holding their breath in anxiety at every play.  Turnovers, missed extra points, and completely avoidable mistakes are what led to a far more talented Husker team falling to Illinois.

Now, I will give Illinois credit — They stuck to their game plan, continued to pound the rock, and played smart football. When you gift wrap a team 11 points (two missed PATs, scoop and score, and a punt return resulting in a safety) it’s hard to believe that wasn’t a game Nebraska football should have won. Not only should have, but NEEDED to win.

Call me crazy but I still see a possible six or seven-win team in the Huskers if they can just get it together and come through on what they’ve been advertising to the fanbase. To do this they will need to pick up a win against Michigan or Iowa most likely. That is, assuming of course that they win the other games most would say they are superior talent-wise (Insert Prayer here).

But before anyone starts thinking about that… it all starts with dominating this weekend vs Fordham.

Fordham played three games in their 2021 spring season going 2-1 with wins over Colgate and Bucknell, and a 10-point loss to Holy Cross.

As pessimistic as fans might be, this is probably the perfect game to kickstart the Huskers after a loss.

The Huskers are huge favorites and honestly, probably need to win by even more to get fans back on the excitement train. There is no reason this game should be close. Get a big win this weekend and follow it up with another solid showing next week against Buffalo and that will give this team desperately needed momentum and rhythm.

This is the type of game Nebraska has not had in a while. It should be similar to that of a Bethune-Cookman game where backups get some game experience and players such as Chris Kolarevic and Omar Manning, who both seemed to be impressing everyone in the offseason, work their way into some more snaps moving forward.

While it may not be the most “important game”, it is very important that Nebraska comes out and proves that they can look like a far superior team against a lower-level school.