If there’s one game a football team would prefer not to lose it would have to be Homecoming.

With the stands packed with students, alumni and former players, there’s no bigger home game than Homecoming. Add on to that the Huskies simply don’t lose in DeKalb — winning 28-straight home games — and a Homecoming loss probably would be the most depressing loss a team or fan base can fathom.

But I look at the reality of the loss, on the team’s side and on the fans’ side. It was a good loss — a loss to help put things in perspective.

For the Huskies, this loss has to be somewhat of a wake-up call. They more or less breezed through the MAC the past few seasons, playing in four-straight MAC Championship games. They are by no means out of contention to stretch their streak to five-consecutive appearances with six conference games still to go.

Dan Enos, Central Michigan head coach, put it best Saturday, saying win or lose “you got no time to feel sorry for yourself or be happy with yourself because you got to get prepared for the next game… .”

Head coach Rod Carey always says the Huskies have 24 hours to enjoy a win or reflect on a loss before they put the game to bed. Hopefully, they used every second of those 24 hours.

In regard to the fans, the reality of a loss at Huskie Stadium has to be devastating. But maybe, just maybe, fans will realize this team is not an invincible giant that’ll blow out the opposition by 20-plus points each week.

Who’d want to see those blowouts week after week anyway? It’d have to get pretty boring. Maintaining a streak is the hard part; starting and growing a streak is the fun part.

So, although a Homecoming loss is less than ideal, the loss showed this team is far from those led by Chandler Harnish and Jordan Lynch. This team is going to be in some close ball games, which should make for some exciting football for the fans — if you’re not doing anything Saturdays.