James Burns: Agony of defeat -- Is a blowout or a last-second loss more devastating to a team's morale?

Grab a pencil and your thinking caps, boys and girls.

Time for a pop quiz.

Question: If Football Team A loses on a desperation heave in the final seconds of the game, and Football Team B flat-lines before kickoff and is blown out, which loss is easier to shake off?

Is it A?

Or B?

Because we've seen both types of losses in the last few weeks, and both results seemed highly unlikely before kickoff. And based on the ghostly white expressions and hung-jawed fans, both remained just as stunning afterwards.

First, there was Team A. In this case, Merced, which appeared to have its heavyweight showdown with Atwater in the bag two weeks ago when...

Atwater quarterback Nathan Sanchez summoned his inner John Elway, driving his team the length of the field for the game-winning score.

He won the game with a play that may have begun on a napkin at lunchtime.

Then there's the other option, Team B, Atwater. Yes, the same Atwater bunch that gave most of Merced County an arrhythmia with its upset of Merced -- just a week older, a little less prepared and so far behind the eight-ball that 41 points must have seemed like 41,000 miles.

Los Banos worked over the boys in blue, beating them in every phase of the game in a 41-0 victory on Friday.

So, with another round of meaningful games ahead of us, a conference title to decide and final places still up in the air, I ask you again: Which loss is easier to bounce back from?

Because the answer could be instrumental to the short- and long-term football forecast.

Merced rebounded with a runaway victory last week that proved only that Merced was better than winless Turlock.

We already knew that, so for the sake of this experiment, that doesn't count.

Its bounce-back test will be this Friday at home against Pitman, a team as dangerous as it is unpredictable.

Both clubs are playing for their playoff lives. Pitman needs a 'W' to reach the six-win marker, while Merced, only 4-5 to this point, can clinch its fourth straight Central California Conference title.

The question becomes: If the game is tight down the stretch, will Merced remember the horrors of that loss to Atwater and freeze, or will it rise above it?

Speaking of Atwater...

Coach Bob Valladao's boys close the regular season with Turlock, so, again, we have no way of definitively measuring its bounce-back ability.

We may have to wait until the Division II playoffs begin.

Until then, we're left to explore the psychology of each loss and pontificate.

Here, have a seat on my couch.

It's glass half-full or half-empty time.

If you lose by one point, you could conclude that:

you were in the game until the end, and may have had a chance to win the darn thing. (Definitely, a boost to the ego.)

the loss will motivate you, push you in a way that says, "You're getting closer and closer." The pessimist, however, would counter that you aren't getting closer, but actually further away.

the game wasn't won, but lost. And if you hadn't missed that tackle or dropped that ball, optimistically, maybe you would have won. The pessimist disagrees, of course, contending that's just who you are, error-prone and clumsy. (We hate that guy.)

Now if you lost by 41 points, and didn't sniff the end zone just one week after spinning out the pole-setter, you could conclude that:

it just wasn't your day. A letdown was to be expected; that it's too hard keep the intensity levels in the red, week in and week out, especially against good teams. Pessimist: Excuses, excuses.

the game was so lopsided, over so early, it was nothing more than a fluke. A one-time butt whooping. Pessimist: Yeah, riiight.

your team has identity issues. You look like world-beaters one week and roll-overs the next. A loss like this could make you question the validity of your win the previous week.

So which type of loss is easier to shake off, easier to pick yourself up and dust it off -- A or B?

Um...

Option C: All of the above.

I hope.

James Burns is sports editor of the Sun-Star. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.