That was a momentum-changing play!  It’s all about momentum!  You gotta ride big ‘mo!  There are ebbs and flows in the course of a sporting event, but I’d like to attempt stem the tide of the runaway assumption that one play changes a game in an NFL football contest.  I would suggest that EVERY play changes the game in the NFL, we just tend to focus on the big plays and attach to that a simplified notion that the big plays (or controversial plays) changed the “momentum” of the game.   

            Of recent note, in the last two Ravens games (both defeats for
Baltimore) many observers have attached to specific plays in each game that have been deemed “momentum changers.”  In the loss at
Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football, it’s been stated that the unnecessary roughness call on Jarrett Johnson was the pivotal point of the game.  What followed was
Pittsburgh scoring 14 points in 15 seconds, but what doesn’t follow logically is the cause-and-effect attached to the Johnson penalty.  The infraction moved
Pittsburgh 15 yards closer to the end zone, but it was a missed tackle by Chris McAlister that allowed Santonio Holmes to score on a 38 yard pass play.  What did Johnson’s penalty have to do with the Ravens lack of tackle skills?  For that matter, how did Johnson’s penalty lead to the Steelers executing a scoring pass?  Where’s the connection?  Where’s the momentum?  The next score occurred when Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco fumbled the ball, and the Steelers’ Lamar Woodley scooped it up and ran it into the end zone.  Now THAT’S a big play, yet I’m not sure what it had to do with the Johnson penalty since the Ravens offense wasn’t even on the field when that infraction happened.  Cause and effect?  One led to the other?  Momentum carried the Steelers to make plays unrelated to the Johnson penalty?  Help me out here; I’m not following the logic. 

            In the Ravens loss at home to
Tennessee, another controversial “momentum changer”:  Terrell Suggs is flagged for a questionable personal foul on 3rd and 10 with the Titans at their own 20 yard line.  The play should never have gotten to the point of the Suggs’ infraction because an illegal motion violation was whistled on
Tennessee, but in the continuation of the play- Suggs’ earned the personal foul.  So, instead of third and 15 at their own 15 yard line, the Titans get first and 10 at their 35.  And if you listen to the “momentum mob”- the turn of events allowed the Titans to ride a wave unabated to the Ravens end zone 65 yards away.  Really?  So, momentum exists in perpetuity and is complete and fatal?  Hmmm.  Who knew?  I guess it was the so-called
Tennessee momentum (handed to them by the referee’s questionable call) that fueled the Titans next nine plays that led to a go-ahead touchdown.  Last time I checked, the Ravens had the number-one ranked defense in the NFL, yet I guess I’m supposed to believe that they were thoroughly disabled by something called “momentum.”   

            My point is this:  so-called “momentum” exists for a moment, and its ethereal existence is malleable depending on the next action or play.  To wit, the Pittsburgh Steelers trailed the Jacksonville Jaguars in the fourth quarter of their game played the same night Tennessee rode that “momentum” wave to victory in
Baltimore.  The Jags had a one-point lead and the ball at their own 17 yard line, facing third and 17.  The Jags complete a five-yard pass, well short of a first down, but before the punt team trots onto the field- the officials have assessed a roughing the passer call on Pittsburgh.  Talk about momentum!  The Jags get to keep the ball with the chance to run out more clock and the Steelers are most certainly deflated by this unfortunate swing in “momentum.”   Well, not quite- because momentum is momentary:  two plays later, the Steelers sack Jags quarterback David Garrard for a 12-yard loss.  Hey, how is it that
Jacksonville’s didn’t continue to ride it’s wave of so-called momentum?  Because it doesn’t exist but for a moment, that’s why!  The Steelers forced a punt and gained possession, driving 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.  Momentum indeed! 

            See how silly it is to point to a single play as THE play in a game in which the ball is snapped about 120 times?  EVERY play counts, every play effects the outcome and there’s no such thing as unabated, unchecked, runaway “momentum” in a stop-and-start sport like NFL football.  (Unless, of course, it makes it easier for you to comprehend the outcome by assigning over simplistic and illogical cause-and-effect to more random outcomes in a competitive setting).               

Posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 9:23 pm.
Categories: Opinion.
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