Nebraska football 'punched in the mouth' and looking to bounce back: MJ Sherman

There are very few people in the state that are remotely happy about Nebraska football’s loss to Illinois last Friday. None are more unhappy than the players, who understand their effort was simply not good enough.

One player after another spoke to the media this week and had very similar messages. Marques Buford told the media Illinois didn’t fool them. They did what the Huskers thought they would. NU simply didn’t do enough to stop it.

MJ Sherman had similar things to say about the Nebraska football team. Only he used different words.

“What are you supposed to do when you get punched in the mouth sometimes?” said the senior Jack linebacker. “Put your hands up next time. Learn from it. ... We’ve just got to own up to the tape, take advantage of it.”

Nebraska football looking to bounce back from punch in the mouth

Sherman added that he thought the Huskers were a little too full of themselves. Their start to the season led to a little complacency.

“We won three games in a row. There’s a tendency to kind of stray away from the process a little bit,” Sherman said. “Everybody’s guilty of it. Everybody stops worrying about the little details that really got us there, and it shows.”

While some Nebraska Cornhuskers fans might not be thrilled by that talk, it’s worth pointing out that the Nebraska football team simply hasn’t been in this kind of situation since 2016. Part of learning how to win is learning how to deal with success as well as adversity. The hope now is that they really have learned.