How important can a single play be?

[YardRat]

If Stevie catches the pass against the Steelers in OT, they drop to the wildcard and a #6 seed, having to travel to Indy to play Manning instead of getting a bye and eventually homefield for the conference championship.

Even worse? If the refs get the call right on Johnson's TD for the Lions against the Bears in Week #1, they not only lose the division to Green Bay, but get knocked out of the playoffs completely by virtue of losing tie-breakers to the Giants.

[Dr. Lecter]

FWIW - The refs did get that call right, based on the NFL rules.

It is a bad rule, but the call was correct.

[YardRat]

Bah...Two feet down, clear possession...99 times out of 100, that's called a TD.

[jcdavey]

the steelers are one of the teams that HFA doesn't mean as much

remember , one of their superbowls was won exclusively on the road (playoffs after the 2005 season....3 road games in a row, winning at cincy, at indy and at denver)

so.....yeah, jets seem to actually have MORE of an advantage, playing on the road, where they're 4-1 the last 2 playoffs....


but to answer the question, 1 play in a game is never the deciding factor unless it happens late when it could completely determine W from L


there's several instances throughout a game though, where one play can in essence change momentum and allow a team to get on a roll that sometimes cannot be overcome (the tom brady weak int driving on the jets that cost NE 3-7 points, or the crumpler td drop that cost NE 4 points, or the chung fake punt fumble that gave the jets 7 points)


so most of the time, the 'one play' thing is speculation at best

[YardRat]

the steelers are one of the teams that HFA doesn't mean as much

remember , one of their superbowls was won exclusively on the road (playoffs after the 2005 season....3 road games in a row, winning at cincy, at indy and at denver)

so.....yeah, jets seem to actually have MORE of an advantage, playing on the road, where they're 4-1 the last 2 playoffs....


but to answer the question, 1 play in a game is never the deciding factor unless it happens late when it could completely determine W from L


there's several instances throughout a game though, where one play can in essence change momentum and allow a team to get on a roll that sometimes cannot be overcome (the tom brady weak int driving on the jets that cost NE 3-7 points, or the crumpler td drop that cost NE 4 points, or the chung fake punt fumble that gave the jets 7 points)


so most of the time, the 'one play' thing is speculation at best

Stevie's drop was in OT, in the end zone. He catches it...game over. Zero speculation.

Cal's 'incompletion' was 4th qtr, 25 seconds left on the clock. Could Chicago have pulled a miracle and run back the KO or taken one or two plays to get into FG range to win anyway? Possibly, but highly unlikely, and outside of the obviousness of the ramification of Stevie's opportunity, that's about as close as you're going to get.

[Oldbillsfan]

Those two plays may also mean the Bills getting the opportunity to draft the right players. It would be nice if that horrible drop meant 4-5 impact players helping them make the playoffs.