It doesn’t matter how good a fight is put up in the 1st or 2nd quarter all anyone is going to remember is the final score and whether it’s a W or an L.
Moral victories are for losers.
Blowouts are worse and anything 20 pts or more losing by is a blowout.
You say that a blowout loss is “worse.” Doesn’t that mean that losing, but not getting blown out, is necessarily better and therefore some sort of moral victory? You feeling better about a loss is a moral victory, isn’t it?