In both NFL games yesterday, the winners were far behind and the losing teams seemed to have collapsed. This is rather uncommon, so why does this happen sometimes, but not others?
I’m less interested in the specifics but generally. Is there any way to tell before hand this might happen?
I’m not sure what caused yesterday’s momentum shifts but it certainly was compounded by some seriously ignorant late penalties by the team being gained upon.
I believe the Brown’s DB’s committed 3 in a row in a late Pittsburg drive that ended in a touch.
The Giants had a moron who comitted 15 yarders on sucessive plays, the second of which garnered him a suspension from the rest of the game, this compounded by the fact it offset penalties against the Niners and seriously aided their overtaking score.
A combination of panic (reacting without thinking) and choking (thinking too much).
Take a look at the final play at the Giants game. The snapper choked (he said he was trying to make a “perfect” snap, not a good one, which indicates he was thinking about the action instead of letting his instincts take over). The kicker panicked (instead of grounding the ball immediately and getting another chance, he let the clock run out). The rest of the Giants panicked, too, with everyone – even those ineligible – running downfield.
How can you tell beforehand? You can’t. You’d need to be a mindreader.
RealityChuck wrote:
Actually Chuck I think you’d need to be a psychic. A mindreader would only be helpful if the ending had been previously scripted. A small difference to be sure, but standing, as we do, in the shadow of Cecil we want to keep things as accurate as possible.
Butch Davis hurt the Browns badly with his misguided play calling. When you’re ahead late in the fourth quarter, and you have the ball…the clock is your friend. Be good to your friend, don’t insult it.
If you keep the ball on the ground, the defense will have to use up their timeouts or let the clock run, both good for you. If you throw incomplete passes, the clock stops. Bad for you. He called about the worst set of plays imaginable. Even if they had completed the passes, and gotten the first down(s) they needed, it still would’ve been unnecessarily risky.
In a worst case scenario, they would have given the ball back to Pittsburgh w/ much less time on the clock and/or the Steelers out of timeouts. Very poor clock management and that’s Davis’ fault.