New Overtime Rule for Playoffs

[Jim Beankie]

Woohoo! Gonna buy extra popcorn just in case.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

something will happen under this format that will upset people. Eventually theyll just be playing another game whenever its tied at the end of regulation

 

[denverpatsfan]

"Josh Allen Rule"
Another reason to hate that franchise.

 

[Deus Irae]

something will happen under this format that will upset people. Eventually theyll just be playing another game whenever its tied at the end of regulation

They *****ed about sudden death during the regular season. That got changed. Now they ***** about the new regular season OT rules. It's just the circle of stupidity.

 

[PatsWSB47]

With every change the losing team will gripe about something that wasn't fair and sure as ****t the NFL will cave at some point and change it.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

They *****ed about sudden death during the regular season. That got changed. Now they ***** about the new regular season OT rules. It's just the circle of stupidity.

I dunno about you but Im looking forward to double headers!

 

[Deus Irae]

With every change the losing team will gripe about something that wasn't fair and sure as ****t the NFL will cave at some point and change it.

The just changed the rule because one young QB being pimped didn't get the ball in overtime. Meanwhile, in the 4th quarter of that game:


Final drive - Chiefs get the ball on their own 25, with 13 seconds left in the game. The Chiefs then proceed to go from their own 25 to the Bills 31 and kick a field goal, on a drive that was 2 plays long.

But, somehow, it's not fair that Allen didn't get the ball in overtime, and that was the problem.

 

[PatsWSB47]

The just changed the rule because one young QB being pimped didn't get the ball in overtime. Meanwhile, in the 4th quarter of that game:


Final drive - Chiefs get the ball on their own 25, with 13 seconds left in the game. The Chiefs then proceed to go from their own 25 to the Bills 31 and kick a field goal, on a drive that was 2 plays long.

But, somehow, it's not fair that Allen didn't get the ball in overtime, and that was the problem.

Right. Ironically it was the Chiefs that wined the most when Mahomes didn't get the ball when Brady marched down the field and beat them.

 

[Ring 6]

I don't really care. It's probably slightly better for competition keeping in mind that it's absolutely not the same difficulty to make a stop on defense vs score on offense. It's probably worse for player safety because games will be longer if they make it to OT.

It all cancels out to me.

Number of offenses that scored on more than half their possessions last year. 0
Number of defenses that allowed a score on more than half the possessions last year. 0

 

[captain stone]

I'm ok with games in the regular season just ending in ties. There's no point to OT in the regular season.

I'm fine with it as well, but I think a non negligible portion of fans and NFL decision makers would be against it because of some vague complaint about participation trophies, soccer, Europe, etc.

If that portion of fans includes older dudes like me, then I don't believe that thought is valid... I remember the league not having any regular-season OT games at all, for years & years in fact...Teams might have one or two ties each during the season, but nowadays there are more regular-season games (17 vs 14) so ties don't matter as much... I'm fine with no regular-season OT.

 

[Chevy]

Don't kick off to start OT. The current drive continues. Take away the first team scores a TD to end the game so each team has a possession. IF, after each has had their possession, the score is still tied, next score wins.

 

[Nehalem]

That hasn't occurred since Saints beat Minnesota like 12 years ago. After that is when changes occurred.

It hasn't happened since then because they changed the rules, so it doesn't result in a win.

The "problem" is now several times have won when they scored a TD on the opening drive.

The inevitable result is eventually they will just play out the whole OT period.

 

[Nehalem]

If that portion of fans includes older dudes like me, then I don't believe that thought is valid... I remember the league not having any regular-season OT games at all, for years & years in fact...Teams might have one or two ties each during the season, but nowadays there are more regular-season games (17 vs 14) so ties don't matter as much... I'm fine with no regular-season OT.

I looked it up before I think there was something like 19 or maybe 20 OT games on average in a season, over a period of decades.

So yeah an average team would have 1 tie.

And the number of ties might go down as teams might decide to take additional risks to win in regulation. Like going for 2 instead of 1 on a "tying" TD.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Pretty soon the coin flip will be 2 out of 3.

 

[captain stone]

I looked it up before I think there was something like 19 or maybe 20 OT games on average in a season, over a period of decades.

So yeah an average team would have 1 tie.

And the number of ties might go down as teams might decide to take additional risks to win in regulation. Like going for 2 instead of 1 on a "tying" TD.

Yep, I think the fear some might have about too many regular-season games ending in ties is way over-blown.

The most ties the NEP ever had in one season, and these happened during seasons without any OT, is Two... Now granted these also happened during 14-game seasons, so the impact of a tie was greater then than they will be during 17-game seasons...

Do away with regular-season OTs completely, and have every-team-gets-one-possession OTs in the POs... As rock 'n roll detective Ford Fairlaine would say: Case cuh-losed. Oh!

 

[TBR]

Seems like the only disadvantage in not getting the ball first is that if you match the opposing team's score, you kick the ball back to them and they only need a FG to win. Otherwise, the team going second basically has 4 downs at all times to get a TD (if that's what they need to match) or into FG range, whereas the team going first will basically have 3 (aside from the occasional ballsy decision to go for it 4th & short).

Depending on how things play out, I could see the argument shifting to "equal possessions!!!!" since if both teams score, the first team gets the ball back and can end the game, with no chance for the other team to respond since they were given less chances (2 to 1).

 

[denverpatsfan]

I think the team with the ball first has won 4x by TD in the playoffs. Two of those were by the Pats. Wonder why they made this change?!

 

[sb1]

I like one idea mentioned on XM NFL radio this morning.

Don’t have an OT coin toss at all. The opening coin toss is the only one that matters. Whoever wins that wins the choice in OT.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

How about both teams get the ball 5 times each. One drive starts from their own 20, then their own 30 , then 40, etc. whoever scores the most over 5 posessions wins.

I call my proposal “Catch the Semen”

 

[Sicilian]

I like one idea mentioned on XM NFL radio this morning.

Don’t have an OT coin toss at all. The opening coin toss is the only one that matters. Whoever wins that wins the choice in OT.

I'd be fine with this, because then teams would be able to factor that into their 4th quarter strategy. If you know you're defending to start OT, and it's actual old-school sudden death, you'll play more aggressively for the lead rather than a tie.

I also like the idea of just having OT be essentially a 5th quarter that continues wherever the 4th leaves off. So if you have the ball at your own 40 at the end of a regulation tie, you start the 5th quarter there. Again, having the start of OT be a known factor means teams can strategize for it and it's no one's fault but they're own if they're in a bad position.

That said, I'm in agreement with those who say that OT doesn't need to be "fair". At some point if you haven't taken control of a game after 60 minutes, you're leaving it up to chance and that's not an inherently bad thing. In a sport as physically demanding as football, at some point you just need to declare a winner.