The Narrative vs Reality

Eric Meyer

Everyone loves a good story. Sports journalism is entirely built on them. Nobody would read Thomas Boswell’s articles in The Washington Post if he just posted a bunch of advanced statistics to explain why the Redskins are perpetually terrible. We want some juicy details about our favorite teams, players and coaches.

The narrative adds to the entertainment of sports, and football is on top partially because of the ability to manipulate storylines to add intrigue to each matchup, especially in the postseason.

There’s just one problem. Analysis tends to be driven by the narrative and not by reality, which leads to some of the most respected NFL analysts reciting false facts that you could hear from any fan on the street.

Oh, it’s not just the NFL. It exists in nearly every sport. One of the biggest stories in baseball was the collapse of the Oakland Athletics.

The narrative: “Oakland’s trade of Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester caused the A’s to collapse, lose the division, and fall in the wildcard game against the Royals.”

The reality: “The A’s offense was already collapsing prior to the trade, and the presence of Jon Lester at the top of the rotation buoyed the sinking A’s just enough to reach the wildcard game. In short, without the Lester trade, the A’ do not make the playoffs.”

But I digress. This is an NFL blog, so I’ll get to the examples that matter for the playoffs. Let’s look at North Texas.

The game: Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys, NFC Wildcard Round

The situation: Detroit led 20-17 with 8:25 left in the game. The Lions had the ball on the Dallas 46, lining up for a 3rd & 1. Stafford targeted tight end Brandon Pettigrew on a wheel route up the left sideline, but the pass was defensed by linebacker Anthony Hitchens and fell incomplete.

The back judge threw a flag for pass interference against Hitchens, which would’ve set the Lions up with a first down at around the Dallas 25 yard line. The officials huddled and, after deliberating, picked up the flag. This set up a 4th & 1, and the Lions opted to punt, ending what looked like a promising drive to ice the game. Dallas proceeded to score a touchdown on their ensuing drive and held the lead to win 24-20.

The narrative: Pete Morelli and the officiating crew’s decision to overturn the pass interference call cost the Lions the football game.

The reality: The Lions shot themselves in the foot too many times to count, benefiting from their share of questionable calls in the first half, and had more than enough opportunities to make up for one they missed due to the pass interference call.

Look, I’m not going to argue that the officials made the right decision. In real time it looked like the refs got it right. Face guarding is not a penalty in the NFL, and it was tough to see significant contact to warrant pass interference. On replay, it looked a bit more dubious, but the officials also missed an obvious face mask penalty on Brandon Pettigrew, which would have at the very least offset the pass interference call and the Lions would have replayed the down.

All in all, it was at worst a missed pass interference call. Those happen probably five or six times a game. Had there been no flag thrown at all, we wouldn’t be discussing this. Some Lions fans would grumble about it, but the play wouldn’t have created such a firestorm had the refs not taken center stage by throwing a flag and then picking it up. This was an everyday missed call that the Lions benefited from multiple times in the first half when they built their 17-7 lead.

In order to further the point, let’s look at what happened next. Jim Caldwell opts to punt and trying (and failing) to draw the Cowboys offsides. The Lions took a harmless delay of game penalty and lined up to punt. Sam Martin had literally the worst punt I have ever seen in my life, a shank job that went out of bounds just 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. The decision to punt netted the Lions five yards of field position. The Cowboys proceeded to score the go-ahead touchdown on their ensuing drive on a 3rd & 8 pass from Tony Romo to Terrence Williams.

The Lions got the ball back with 2:39 remaining and needing a touchdown. Stafford lost a fumble on the second play of the drive, but the Cowboys coughed it back up on the same play, giving the Lions a redo with a free first down. Stafford led his team down to the Dallas 42, but fumbled again on 4th &3. This time the Lions weren’t so lucky, and the Cowboys took a couple knees and won the game.

It’s pretty clear that the Lions were the reason the Lions lost the game, and not the officials. When you get outscored 17-3 in the second half, shank 10 yard punts, lose two fumbles on consecutive drives and have Jim Caldwell as your coach, you’re going to lose.

It’s a shame that a simple non-call has been the focus of what was otherwise a phenomenal football game. Dallas earned the win by hanging tough and taking advantage of Detroit’s mistakes. That’s what playoff football is about, and that should be the story.

But I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless won’t be talking about much more than “the flag” on First Take.