It might be the biggest debate in the sports world today. It’s a debate that transcends individual sports - you can find it in baseball, football, basketball and hockey… even soccer. It’s a debate that polarizes fans of the same team, even.

The question is about how teams deal with officiating mistakes that change games. Already this football season we’ve seen a number of poor calls made that have drastically changed games. In Week 2 in Denver, Ed Hochuli unintentionally blows a play dead, giving the Broncos another chance to win the game. This week, in Baltimore, we saw a phantom roughing the passer call give new life to a beaten Titans team.

[What’s actually a bit ironic, is that in the Titans game this year, official Bill Carollo noted that a false start had been called as well, but officials were unable to stop play before the second penalty. The failure to stop play resulted in the Titans reawakening. Several years ago, in Tennessee on Monday Night Football, the Ravens stopped the Titans on the goalline to end the game. The play before, however, Peter Boulware was flagged for encroachment on a play in which Steve McNair scored. In that instance, the official’s to stop play saved the Ravens.]

Regardless of specifics, however, the debate rages on… how big an impact do bad calls actually have on a game?

Ask the fans of the losing team, and most (not all) will tell you that the play clearly changed the game’s outcome. A change of possession or drive-ending heroics are reversed and a near-dead opponent is given new life.

Ask the fans of the winning team,  and most (not all), will tell you that the bad call didn’t end the game. In Denver three weeks ago, the Chargers could have stopped the Broncos once more. Or even stopped the game-winning two-point conversion moments later. In Baltimore, the Ravens had an entire drive to stop the Titans offense. They even had two more offensive possessions.

It’s not an easy issue to tackle. How can we judge the importance of one call or one play in a game made up of hundreds, if not thousands, of small little battles?

There seem to be two main arguments… the first takes an old-school teacher type of perspective: “I don’t care if the bus didn’t come and the power was out and your mom’s in the hospital, you had all night to do your homework and you didn’t do it.” The second takes the perspective of a man that’s just run across eight lanes of highway traffic: “I just did it once… and now you want me to do it again? Because you weren’t paying attention?!”

Personally, I’ve always been of the mindset that a single call can have huge implications, but I have not been without my doubts. And that seems to be the standard. Most fans are split.

I wish there were a way to statistically review bad calls and game outcomes, but it’s nearly impossible. No one ever remembers the bad call that didn’t change the game. We only remember the calls that did change the game. Had the Ravens stopped the Titans on that drive, moments after the roughing penalty, the penalty would likely be nothing by a liner note in most game stories (if that).

So how can we judge how often teams ‘get over’ the bad call and still win? We can’t. We can only ponder on how often the bad call actually seems to affect the outcome.

As I said, I am personally of the view that one bad call, one bad play, can have enormous effects on a game. And here’s how I see it…

By the law of averages, even the best team in the league cannot score on every drive or every play and even the best defense cannot pitch a shutout every week. Similarly, the worst teams cannot be shut out every game, nor can they give up a touchdown every single drive. Everyone punts or turns the ball over at some point. Every defense breaks or bends too far. In baseball, every pitcher misses gives up a walk or a run. Every hitter gets a hit, eventually. It’s just how things work.

Think about that man running across the highway. The Ravens defense kept the Titans from reaching the endzone on 9 of 10 drives yesterday. Eight in a row to start the game. Like it or not, keeping touchdowns off the board is not an easy feat. They were fighting on every single play, every single down, to avoid that law of averages.

On that dreaded 9th drive, the defense had survived again. 9 drives, no scores. But then, word comes down from above (and I don’t mean the NFL or Roger Goodell, I just mean ‘above’) that they must play again. ‘Run across the highway again,’ the voice said. And the defense obeyed. And this time they lost.

Certainly, there is some argument to be made that the Ravens had their chances. But not only did the penalty call reverse a stop on 3rd down… it gave the Titans 15 yards (moving them 1/5th of the way closer to the endzone), and a first down. It wasn’t just a ‘replay this down’ penalty. It was a ‘restart this drive’ penalty. And yes, the Ravens even had two more 3rd downs against the Titans on that same drive, where they could have ended it all. But the point is that they shouldn’t have had to stop the Titans again. At least not then.

So here’s my view, in short: Doa bad calls end a game? Not usually. But do they change games? Certainly. So don’t sit there and tell anyone that these things are “just part of the game” because they shouldn’t be. It’s the reason the NFL and other leagues have introduced replay reviews.

Every fan has experience the agony of a ‘bad call’ defeat at one point or another, so every fan knows what it’s like to feel like your team has done enough to win, but still can’t walk away with a W.