Football possessions vs basketball (vs baseball...)

[Mike G]

After Playoff Embarrassment, the Steelers Must Ponder Significant Changes
Pittsburgh was outcoached, outplayed and outclassed in its loss to the Ravens, a columnist for The Athletic writes.

NY Times article headline today. ^^
An NFL game typically has 10 to 12 possessions per team.
It's about as many as in half of one quarter of an NBA game.

Does anyone call for the head of an NBA coach, or suggest a massive roster turnover, when a playoff series starts out with a 14-7 score midway thru the 1st quarter?
Sure, multiply that by 8 and you've got a historic 112-56 blowout. But that has never happened in playoffs. We get 400 to 600+ possessions to know who played better.

Is there a distinction, obvious or not, between the significance of 10-12 possessions in football vs in basketball?

Baseball would seem to be the sport that has a set number -- 9, sometimes extras, sometimes 8 -- of possessions. Even a best-of-7 playoff series is decided by 35 to maybe 70 possessions. Less than one NBA game.

[Crow]

Game structure probably affects win%s distribution, frequency of upsets, comebacks. Strategies of better and worse teams.

[DSMok1]

Michael Lopez did a thorough review on this topic a few years ago. Suffice it to say, there is way less variance in the NBA playoffs than any of the other major sports. It's actually a clear outlier from the others.

https://statsbylopez.netlify.app/post/p ... of-series/

[Mike G]

So less departure from expected and fewer upsets in NBA playoffs?
The very best baseball teams approach and rarely exceed 70% wins. The worst team in MLB always has a decent chance of beating the best team, in a given game.
In NFL playoffs, upsets are common.

So my question is: why is it so prevalent for major hand wringing over 10 possessions? It's like every other NFL headline is just promoting panic for a team that has lost a game.
I also wonder if there isn't some unspoken referee bias toward the 'better' team. A 'when in doubt' situation.
Most fans do want to see the better teams make it to later rounds.