What hurts more? Losing by one, or getting blown out?

Losing by one. Because then you have all these woulda, shoulda, couldas. Being blown out the end comes long before the end and you have an easier time accepting it. You were just bad that day.

It depends on the situation. Backwater Tech playing an early season game against Major Conference U., it’s probably harder to just barely lose, because you weren’t expected to be close, and almost won.

Getting blown out in a big game is a lot more embarrassing. You are going head to head for the championship and your team didn’t even show up. It makes for a lousy game and something you cannot be proud of in any way.

Losing by one.

Blown out. If you’re in the game it means you have a chance and you’re on a similar level with your opponent.

Getting blown out. That comes with the feelings of “Crap, we suck. We don’t even deserve to be in this league!”. A narrow loss just means it could have gone either way, and you’ll get ‘em next time.

Interesting. If I lose by one, I feel like I should have won, and I feel so much worse than if I’m not even in the game. There are no next times. Each game is over when it’s done. You can’t go back. You’ve failed.

Getting blown out, because it means you are completely useless and delusional to think you had a chance in the first place.
Losing by one point tells you you were not perfect, but pretty damn good.

Losing by one without a doubt. “So close, yet so far” hurts more than “well we were never really in with a chance anyway”.

You’re right in that losing by one makes you more neurotic about how you played the game, if only, if only, if only…and being blown out means you all sucked that day and it wasn’t necessarily you or another person that lost you the game.

Can you imagine how the Tennessee Titans felt, when they were beaten by a team that had not won a game all year?

Now that is disgusting.

Along the same lines… Psychologists have discovered that bronze medalists tend to be more satisfied with their prize than silver medalists. The bronze medalist realizes what they have, a medal, and compares that to what they almost did not have. They’re one step away from no medal, and that feels good. It fosters a psychology of, well, at least I have a medal. Whereas the silver medalist is one step away from the coveted gold. That fosters a psychology of, oh, if only. If only I’d done this slightly different.

getting blown out. Losing by one means you’re nearly there and have the capability to win next time. Getting blown out means you might not have enough capability for it at all.

I’d say blown out, losing by one you can still hold your head high and say it was a damn good game.

Getting blown out is more painful because it doesn’t have the hope you have for next time that losing by 1 point gives you.

I’d also rather be blown.

Getting blown out means you never had a chance.
Losing by one can easily be dismissed by a bad call, a missed assignment, or poor planning.

I’d rather play in a highly contested game, and lose by one than get blown out. Sports aren’t just about winning and losing. I would rather be competitive than suck. If it’s a close game it would motivate me to try that much harder against that team or person the next time, and I would have a good chance of winning. Getting blown out means you are most likely going to get blown out the next time.

This is so interesting. I can’t even begin to imagine how someone can stand coming close without winning. That is devastating to me. To me, it feels like people are willing to lose. I would never tolerate coming close without winning. I’d love to compete against people who don’t mind losing as long as they are competitive. I know I will always beat them just because I want it more. If you want to beat me, you have to kill me.

So when I am totally skunked, I know I’m dead, and losing doesn’t kill me. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But if I were to lose by one, it would take me forever to get over it. Knowing I could have done one little thing and the outcome would be different means that I am an utter failure. I don’t allow myself to make mistakes of that kind. There’s always something you can do to make up for it. I either make big mistakes, or I don’t make mistakes.

Or I don’t keep score—my preferred method of living. Although even when people don’t keep score, they keep score in some other way.

This is all very strange. Great question!

OK, so taking yesterday’s football games as a good example. Which team do you think felt worse in the locker room after its games? New Orleans (which had the lead with less than a minute left) or Denver (which was never in the game)?

Denver, they should be ashamed for not even showing up. New Orleans can be proud that they played a damn good game, but they lost to a team of destiny. The Saints players knew they’d been in a great game.