They can in a BAD way. You get a rod bearing loose and it spins. Now it's galled up the rod or the crank, or both, and the galling has balled things up in there so it doesn't knock. BAD. Damage. Carnage. "Stuff."
Maybe something got in the combustion chamber. When a piece of my head gasket got blown into a cylinder, or maybe sucked in, whatever, it really started to pound. It destroyed the block.