One of the thesis of Delusional Optimism is that there are no such things as moral losses. In the same vein, there are no such things as moral victories. It’s much the same as Yoda saying “do or do not, there is no try”.
When Alabama is favored by 21 points, that opens the door for a lot of potential moral victories.
“Well, we kept Alabama from covering.”
“At least we kept it close until the fourth quarter.”
“We gave them the best shot they had all season, so there is that.”
Moral victories like that don’t go in a special column in LSU’s record, only the one to the right.