Stop Your Team: Play Edition

[Elky]

You are allowed to change one play by your team.

Common sense says "change" the Tyree catch, but that was a result of bad luck than poor execution. The one play I would change from Super Bowl XLII, however, was Belichick's asinine decision to go for it on 4th and 13 instead of kicking a perfectly doable field goal.

We were up 7-3 midway through the third quarter and the decision came at the Giants 31. If Ghost makes it, we're up 10-3 in a game where our defense was playing lights out and New York would not score their first touchdown until early fourth quarter.

Edited April 8, 2020 by Elky

[Dome]

Diggs.

Sideline.

Touchdown.

[HTTRDynasty]

[SalvadorsDeli]

Easy to think of the Cundiff miss at Foxboro, but that kick would have only sent the game to OT. It's the play before that would have won it and sent us to the Super Bowl - so I'd go with Lee Evans securing the football and not letting Sterling Moore punch it out in the 2011 AFC Championship Game. Maybe we have back-to-back Super Bowls in 2011 and 2012 if he catches that ball, though it's entirely possible the 2012 team would not have gotten as far/would not have had the same drive/motivation had they won it all the year before. One play to win the AFC title though, hard to get much higher stakes than that beyond a play to change a Super Bowl result and we won both of our trips to the Bowl so we don't have any examples of that.

Only other big candidates for me are two one-and-done Ravens teams that both could and should have gone all the way:

Ravens/Colts - 2006 divisional round. Steve McNair stares down Todd Heap in the end zone, waits too long to make the throw and ends up getting picked off. Turns what would have been a 2nd quarter 10-6 lead with our defense playing lights out into an eventual 9-3 deficit. With the way our defense and running game played that night I honestly think we could have held and built off that lead and beaten the Colts, instead we were playing catch-up and McNair just didn't have it that night. Ravens go on to lose 15-6 - Ed Reed picks Peyton off twice and we keep them out of the end zone entirely and yet we still end up losing. I think we were the best team in the league that year and would have beaten a weak (for their standards) New England team and a Rex Grossman-led Chicago Bears team to win the Super Bowl had we beaten the Colts.

Ravens/Titans - 2019 divisional round. Wound is still fresh. It really was one of those games where seemingly everything that could go wrong did go wrong, so it's hard to isolate just one play. Mark Andrews not elevating and tipping a slightly high throw to turn an opening drive TD jaunt into a pick probably set the tone from the start, but i'll focus elsewhere. Down 14-0 in the 2nd quarter, Lamar drops a dime in Seth Roberts' hands, in stride, but Roberts drops what would have otherwise been a 75 yard TD at a time. Momentum is a hard thing to really rely on but I fully believe we come back and win that game if Roberts catches that. Whole team was in a weird, frustrated funk all night and I think all they were begging for the entire game was one guy to make a big play and get everyone to snap out of it but it never came. If we win that, beating the Chiefs and Niners to win the Super Bowl from there would have been tough in its own right so I'm less sure that drop cost us a championship compared to the 2006 loss, but there's no doubting our 2019 team had a special quality to them so that drop is hard one to stomach. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by BaltimoreTerp

[Soko]

2 hours ago, Elky said:

You are allowed to change one play by your team.

Common sense says "change" the Tyree catch, but that was a result of bad luck than poor execution. The one play I would change from Super Bowl XLII, however, was Belichick's asinine decision to go for it on 4th and 13 instead of kicking a perfectly doable field goal.

We were up 7-3 midway through the third quarter and the decision came at the Giants 31. If Ghost makes it, we're up 10-3 in a game where our defense was playing lights out and New York would not score their first touchdown until early fourth quarter.

Nah, Asante Samuel. 1:20 left in the game, Giants have two timeouts, ball on the NE 38. Even on a 3-and-out, there’s probably only 25-30 seconds left and the Giants would have to go the length of the field to score a TD with no clock stoppages.

[RaidersAreOne]

Tuck Rule.

[Elky]

46 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

Nah, Asante Samuel. 1:20 left in the game, Giants have two timeouts, ball on the NE 38. Even on a 3-and-out, there’s probably only 25-30 seconds left and the Giants would have to go the length of the field to score a TD with no clock stoppages.

That was not a gimme interception.

[BroncoSojia]

I wonder what play Seahawk fans are going to pick.......

[notthatbluestuff]

Don't do this...

Edited April 8, 2020 by notthatbluestuff

[August4th]

Mendenhall fumble in SB45

steelers had all the momentum and were ready to take the lead before mendy lost the ball.

[Soko]

16 minutes ago, Elky said:

That was not a gimme interception.

Where did I say it was? 

I mean - it was. But that’s completely irrelevant to the thread. 

3 hours ago, Elky said:

You are allowed to change one play by your team. 

 

[DannyB]

17 minutes ago, notthatbluestuff said:

Don't do this...

That and butt fumble have to be the funniest things I've ever seen in a football game.

[-Hope-]

it's obviously one yard short for the titans. the alternative is actually getting the damn delay of game called vs the ravens in 08, but that's a pretty distant second.

[JAF-N72EX]

My team: 

 

Not my team: The play that will forever live in infamy.