To continue the analogy, if the US lost a rook, everyone would take notice "damn that was a big blow".

I think it's more like losing a pawn. Except now others have taken 3 unanswered pawns and everyone said "eh we've still got our queen" but now the queens are looking shaky and you're staring down a 3 pawn short endgame and no one believes you can turn it around.

Praying your opponent makes a mistake great analogy.