The fan base reaction following losses like Nebraska’s 21-17 defeat at No. 4 Ohio State last weekend always seems to have two sides.

Some view it simply as a loss, another reason to be mad and call for a coach’s job. Another loss to an Associated Press Top 25 opponent, which makes it 27 in a row now dating back to 2016. Same story, different chapter. There’s no way to feel good about the team if it doesn't come away with a win.

That's one way to look at it.

But then there’s the other side. This one chooses to see a team that played hard after getting embarrassed by 49 points at Indiana and didn’t back down to the No. 4 team in the country. Everyone thought this thing was going to be a bloodbath, something like another 49-point loss. But yet, Nebraska led 17-14 in the fourth. It was no bloodbath.

What we know: Nebraska’s offense continues to struggle and lacks an identity. It's hard to answer what the unit is good at. The Huskers currently rank 95th in the country in scoring (24.0), 93rd in total yards per game (358.1) and 99th in yards per play (5.37).

Marcus Satterfield’s attack hasn’t scored more than 17 points in a game since Purdue, which was over a month ago. The whole operation just looks off. Little rhythm to it. The offensive line, rotating a redshirt freshman in Gunnar Gottula and a guard in Micah Mazzccua at left tackle, isn’t consistently getting push or climbing to get bodies on linebackers. The running backs aren’t making defenders miss at the second level when there does happen to be a push. The receivers aren't creating separation from defensive backs on their routes and can’t block those same DBs on screen plays, yet they’re consistently being put in those positions over, and over and over.

On top of all that, Dylan Raiola isn’t playing his best football. This is a hard conversation, because the true freshman is just eight games into his college career. Of course he was going to have ups and downs, that's normal and something level-headed fans were expecting heading into the season.

But when you see him making uncharacteristic mistakes, looking hesitant, turning down open receivers and having misses like the ones shown below, there’s not much else to say other than these are throws Raiola needs to — and should — make. He's too good of a passer to be missing these.

On the play below, Ohio State is showing man coverage. Raiola sees it. Isaiah Neyor executes his pick/rub route for Jahmal Banks, who was left wide open on his slot fade/wheel. Raiola overthrows a sure touchdown.

According to head coach Matt Rhule on Monday, Raiola checked out of the originally-called play to this pass.

"He saw three over three man (coverage), he recognized the leverage, he checked to that — that wasn't a call, that's an option he had," Rhule said of the pass. "I think he just sped up and said I got it and let it rip. Just missed the throw.":

Then in the fourth quarter, Raiola had another touchdown there for the taking, Jacory Barney Jr. on a corner route to the back pylon after his defender lost his footing.

Close, but overthrown again:

If you remember back to the Illinois game, Raiola missed a wide open Luke Lindenmeyer in the end zone. That touchdown would've changed the feel of the game in a major way.

Personally, I look at games like last Saturday's and see program growth. Tony White's defense had a great rebound effort and played well enough to win against a Chip Kelly offense, and exposed Ohio State's offensive line along the way. The Buckeyes gained new doubters after Nebraska got done with them.

Also, the field goal unit had its best performance of the season with a 3-for-3 outing from 39, 47 and 54 yards, so shout out to Lincoln native John Hohl, his snapper, Aidan Flege and holder Brian Buschini.

How can I see growth after yet another uninspiring performance on offense? It's because I see plays out there for the taking. There were two touchdowns to grab, but Raiola didn't make the throws. The routes from the receivers were fine, the ball placement wasn't. This isn't me calling Raiola a bad quarterback. He's just so young and learning on the fly. Those throws will start being completed soon enough, not a doubt in my mind.

Yeah, the loss hurts everyone involved in the moment. But Rhule isn't at Nebraska for a moment, he's here to build something that lasts longer than a moment, or a season. I liked the fight the team showed at Ohio State. They stood tall when very few thought they would.

In a way, taking Ohio State well into the fourth quarter will be a motivating factor for this group. That's the way I'm looking at it.

On with the Checkdown and some things that caught my eye from the game:

This was the second game in a row where Nebraska has started with poor field position due to mistakes from young guys.

Two weekends ago at Indiana, the Huskers' starting field position was the 1-yard line after Barney caught the ball while stepping out of bounds. Against Ohio State, it was the 9-yard line after redshirt freshman running back Kwinten Ives muffed the opening kickoff.

That was a bad start, sure. But it got worse.

Raiola looked nervous to start the game, mishandling the snap and botching the game-opening handoff. Three plays went for -4 yards and Raiola took a sack. Then Buschini shanked a 31-yard punt one day after Nebraska football’s X account put him on a pregame graphic.

It appeared the team was a bit overwhelmed with the moment to start before the defense saved everyone's butt with that fourth-down stop on Ohio State's first drive.

When the defense took the field, it was Malcolm Hartzog as the second cornerback with Ceyair Wright, not Buford, who took Hartzog’s field safety position.

Hartzog had started the first seven games at field safety while Buford had been at corner. The change comes one week following Buford allowing five catches for 66 yards and a touchdown at Indiana, according to Pro Football Focus.

Nebraska's defensive front completely exposed Ohio State's offensive line. The Buckeyes didn't look like a national title contender against the Huskers, who held Ryan Day's crew to just 64 rushing yards after it came into the game averaging a little over 200.

You got the feeling that Nebraska's defense wasn't going to have another performance like it did at Indiana when it stuffed running back TreVeyon Henderson in the backfield on fourth-and-short.

On the play below, interior linemen Nash Hutmacher and Elijah Jeudy hold their ground against double teams, which allowed inside linebacker John Bullock to shoot the C gap. Ohio State tight end Bennett Christian (#85) initially blocks Jack linebacker MJ Sherman, but detaches to get a piece of the blitzing Bullock.

Bullock's penetration allowed Sherman to win leverage over tight end Gee Scott Jr. (#88), and Sherman stopped the 208-pound Henderson in his tracks:

Sherman, by the way, may have played his best game as a Husker. He made three tackles, including a sack and two TFLs. His two TFLs were a career best, bettering his 1.5 TFL at Purdue earlier this season.

The below clip is Sherman's sack. It's a four-man rush built of Sherman, James Williams, Ty Robinson and Jimari Butler. Sherman beats the right guard with an outside move, enjoying a one-on-one that was created by Robinson taking on a double.

Rhule wanted a holding penalty on Michalski:

Ohio State's offensive line is obviously the weak link to its chances at a national title. Left tackle Zen Michalski, who was filling in for injured starter Josh Simmons, had a bad day against Nebraska and stood little chance against the Husker pass rushers.

I thought Butler looked the healthiest he's been this season. The Alabama native finished with five tackles, three TFLs and one sack.

The 6-5, 260-pounder rotated between a three- and two-point stance on the edge against the Buckeyes. On the example below, Butler easily beat Michalski (#65) on an inside move to collect his second sack of the season that turned a second-and-2 into a third-and-10, which set up the fourth-down stuff we've already discussed:

The next example below stood out to me for a couple reasons: 1. two Huskers beat their blocker at the same time, and 2; one of them was Cam Lenhardt, who we haven't heard much of this season.

Lenhardt, a second-year sophomore, finished with one tackle at Ohio State and has 12 tackles, 2 TFLs and .5 sacks on the season. Last year, Lenhardt and Jack linebacker Princewill Umanmielen were two true freshmen making big-time impacts in seemingly every game. This year hasn't been quite as consistent for both.

On the example below, White dials up a five-man front, creating five one-on-ones on a third-and-6. Ohio State ultimately gets bailed out by a pass interference penalty on Hartzog, but that doesn't take away from the jobs Robinson and Lenhardt do to beat their man and cause an inaccurate throw from quarterback Will Howard:

A welcomed sight accompanied Nebraska's offense at Ohio State: Raiola the scrambler. That's a part of Raiola's game that's always been there but hasn't been used since the early games this season.

At Ohio State, it looked like Raiola gave a conscious effort to pull the ball down and pick up what he could with his legs, and he converted two first downs because of it. He wound up rushing for a career-high 31 yards and busted loose for a 38-yarder that we'll look at later.

Here's the first example we saw. Calm and under control, even as he used a mini pump fake along the way:

And here's the 38-yard scramble. What I appreciated most about this was Nebraska's protection picking up the five-man rush pretty well. Check out Dowdell coming up big in pass protection, picking up one of the best safeties in the country, Caleb Downs (#2). Then watch Raiola do what you're taught and transfer the ball to his left arm, away from the defense:

On Monday, Rhule said that's been a cool thing to witness with Raiola — how the quarterback wants to add to his game each week. Rhule said he was recently rewatching the Indiana game with Raiola, and the quarterback watched as he took off running and threw across his body. Raiola told Rhule he should've run it instead.

"I think he, every week, is trying to find 1, 2, 3 things to improve upon," Rhule said.

Rhule mentioned Ohio State took its bye week to add more to its game plan against Nebraska. Rhule was expecting an aggressive four-man pass rush, typical for Buckeye D-line coach Larry Johnson. What wound up happening was more man-free pressures from Buckeye defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.

Raiola struggled at times during the game. But he also made adjustments on the fly, too. Part of those adjustments was recognizing there would be opportunities to scramble while Ohio State's defensive backs were covering receivers down the field.

"To me, it's like Dylan's got an algorithm in his brain," Rhule said. "And so every time you add something to it, it's like, hey, I can do this against this. So he added it."

Nebraska's offense had its best day on the ground since Purdue with 121 rushing yards at Ohio State. Take out the negative yardage produced by Buckeye sacks, and that rushing total is bumped to 142.

On Monday, Rhule explained where Nebraska's hand-off run game is at eight games into the season, and why it had a bit of life to it in Columbus.

"When people don't really blitz us and pressure us, we're a good running team," Rhule said. "We struggle when people pressure us. Dylan did a good job of, when they weren't pressuring us, getting to the right run. We ran some wham plays, some trap plays, which are really good plays."

Rhule said the 6-2, 225-pound Dowdell is a big back who wants to "punish" a defender attempting to tackle him, whereas the 5-11, 200-pound Emmett Johnson and the 5-10, 200-pound Rahmir Johnson are smaller backs who have more make-you-miss to them.

Nebraska had five explosive runs of over 10 yards against Ohio State, and three of them came in the second half. This run, shown below, caught my eye because of the run blocking jobs of left guard Justin Evans and center Ben Scott.

Watch Evans help Scott with a double for a moment before detaching to get a piece of the blitzing linebacker, which created a path Dowdell hit for a first down. Downs saves a touchdown:

"We got the ball to the second level — we need, at some point, one of these plays to go for 80," Rhule said.

Two of those wham blocks Rhule mentioned stood out on the rewatch, too.

Watch tight end Thomas Fidone II execute a wham block on the interior defensive lineman aligned in the B gap. Fidone gets just enough of Tyleik Williams (#91), while Evans' trap block on Ty Hamilton (#58) allows Scott to climb to the second level and hunt an inside linebacker.

Dowdell makes the box safety miss and picks up another first down before being downed by :

On the final example below, a fourth-quarter run from Dowdell, Fidone again whams the B gap defender — impressive from Fidone against the 6-3, 327-pound Tyleik Williams (#91) — while Evans again traps the backside A gap defender, allowing Scott to climb to the inside linebacker.

Also, Banks' blocking job on the safety deserves a shoutout and helps Dowdell bust off an explosive. Banks' perimeter blocking hasn't been there this season, but he did get the job done on this rep:

"I thought, in many ways, there was some really good things in there in the plan, and then part of it is, when they do pressure you, you're throwing those fades, you're throwing those go balls, you're trying to take advantage of man coverage hoping to hit them," Rhule said. "We hit some, we got some pass interferences that extended drives on others."

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