End of game

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

You may not agree with that philosophy but that is the reality of the situation.

If, by this, you mean, the reality is this is how most people perceive it, I certainly won't argue that.

However, let's look at your camp example. Would it be a fair evaluation to say that you wilted with your late-game kick? Could you have simply had a brain fart, too, or is it right to jump all the way to pressure crack? It sounds to me like the evaluator could also be too caught up in the emotion of the situation. It's true that people are going to be a lot more emotional regarding a last-minute or last-second kick, but I submit the only way to be accurate is to take emotion out of the equation.

Look at it this way. Let's say you had a play-by-play print-out of a one-point game, complete with a list of calls that were confirmed to be kicked. If those kicks affect the score at any time, they can certainly affect the outcome. Just because they're not fresh in someone's mind, doesn't mean it never happened. Others may "feel good" that they can overcome your mistake, but when you take the emotion out, your error still played a role.

This is where I make my point that officials affecting the outcome of a close game is inevitable. That's not to be flippant. On the contrary, everything we do matters out there, so it may be better not to get caught up in the late-game hype.

Tell me this, who's [sic] interception was more detrimental to his team's chances of winning, Manning's pick-6 against the Saints or Big Ben's pick-6 against the Packers?

Great question. Most might say Porter's return, because it came with roughly three minutes left, but when you take an overhead look, the Steelers only lost by six points, so even though Collins took it back in the first, you can argue that pick-six loomed even larger. There's no easy answer on that one.