As the final seconds ticked off in Columbus, my first thought about the Huskers 36-31 loss to Ohio State was that it was a “moral victory”.
But the more I thought about it, I’m not sure that’s quite accurate. There’s a natural aversion to claiming any sort of “moral victory”. Even when you’ve lost 13 of the last 15 games against division 1-A competition. It’s scoreboard: a loss is still a loss.
But as I thought about it more, I realized that it wasn’t a moral victory, it was simply yet more progress. It’s still a loss, but you can feel a little better about a one touchdown loss in Columbus when the tire tracks from woodshed beatings in Minneapolis and a suburb of Coralville are still healing.