You've had that argument with ObsiWan already. You seem to be inferring that his mistake was the cause of the loss.
What I'm reading from you is "I'm not saying his mistake was the reason we lost, but if he hadn't made the mistake, the tempo of the game wouldn't have been established*, and we would've won.".
* = I'm correcting "altering the momentum" to "setting the tone" because while a nuance, it's two different things; continue with the impression that the mistake on the PR was a game changer, but it wasn't, it was too early in the game for the momentum of the game to have been set
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I'm saying the same thing I've been saying over the past few days/week. Yes, JacJo screwed up, but he is being unfairly scapegoated for that loss. Did his play cause detriment to our goal, yes. Was it what ultimately led to our loss? No, it most certainly was not, and that is why he doesn't deserve the all the blame for that loss. Many mistakes were made that day and they all contributed to the loss. And no one mistake that was made, which may have altered the outcome of the game, is any worse than the other.
So a guy shanks a field goal and a team loses the game because of it...I mean, we could rationalize that the offense should have scored a TD instead of relying on the kicker to win the game.
The problem to me, is that people want to say the game of football is so intricate and complex that no single play is responsible for the outcome. Yes, there are many plays in a game that are important. However, there CAN be a key play that provides a win or loss potential.
Jacoby's bad decision, and its outcome, was the key play of that game that determined the outcome. Without that play, the whole makeup of the game changes. We might end up winning the thing going away, actually. Instead, it gave them the ball at the 2. LOL. THE TWO. If that's not a key play, then I don't know what is.
It doesn't matter if the key play comes at the end or at the beginning or somewhere in the middle. If it's something that helps the opponent while also hurting our team at the same time...that's not just a "good play" by one team, such as the Ravens making a long pass completion to move the chains on 3rd and long...no, it's a swing in both directions.
When turnovers create instant points...folks, THAT is a key play that can determine games. I watched the highlights of the 2011 Maryland-Miami game that Davin Meggett played in, and the Terps won it 32-24. Miami had TWO turnovers that led to instant points for the Terps. Without those two turnovers that caused instant points, Maryland ends up losing the game and not winning it.
Fact: That day, the Maryland offense wasn't going to win the game...but the Maryland TEAM was handed the win by two disastrous turnovers by Miami that the Terps turned into 14 instant points.
Jacoby impacted the game by not only turning the ball over, but by also giving the Ravens an easy TD opportunity from the 2-yard-line that affected the entire makeup of the game from that play onward. If he turns that ball over near mid-field instead of near the end zone, our defense has a chance to limit them to a FG at the worst. Instead, Jacoby lost himself in the moment and tried to do more than what he should do in that position with the magnitude of the game we were in.
It has shades of Rosencopter, yet the Rosencopter play was not nearly as bad, IMO, because it was the end of the game and Sage was trying to get the first down and seal the win with that first down play. Jacoby botched the punt at the beginning of the game when he had no earthly reason to risk something like that at THAT point in the game.