Matt Ryan
Atlanta Falcons News

Saving the Playoffs: Overtime ‘Fix’ Submitted to Rules Committee

The Indianapolis Colts have submitted a common sense proposal to the NFL Rules committee that would see both teams get the ball in overtime.

The Colts have submitted a proposal to guarantee each team an OT possession, according to a league source,” reported July Battista on Twitter. “If approved, the rule change would apply to regular AND post-season. Again, unclear how much support there is for such a change.”

The inequities of the overtime rule came to head again in the playoffs as America watched one of the NFL’s bright young stars, in one of the best games in recent memory, sit on the bench in overtime without touching the ball.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills played an instant classic in the AFC Divisional round. Young star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen put on a show to finish the game as three touchdowns and a field goal were scored in the final 7:01 of regulation.

The way each team was marching up and down the field at the close of regulation, it certainly appeared that whoever won the coin toss would win the game.

The Chiefs did… and they did.

The Bills didn’t lose the game because of the coin toss. They lost the game because they allowed the Chiefs to go 44 yards in 13 seconds to kick the field goal to tie the game in regulation.

Still, as fans of the game we couldn’t help but feel cheated as we watched Bills quarterback Josh Allen watch helplessly from the sidelines without a chance to answer Mahomes’ brilliance.

Allen was 27 of 34 passing with four touchdowns against the Chiefs. He was the teams’ leading rusher by more than double with 68 yards.

The only thing that stopped Allen that day was the coin toss.

That doesn’t seem right.

Atlanta Falcons fans take this one to heart from a painful overtime loss of their own. There isn’t a Falcons fan on earth that believes the coin toss cost them the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, but every Falcons fan knew the Patriots winning the coin toss was the final nail in the coffin of one of sports’ biggest choke jobs.

The overtime rules have changed in recent years. It used to be first score win, but with kickers routinely hitting 55+ yards field goals, they made it a little tougher on the coin toss winner by making them score a touchdown to end the game immediately.

There’s no guarantee the Colt’s proposal will get the 24 votes it needs to make a change, but hopefully the Falcons will be on board.

I’m pretty sure they’ve got Buffalo’s vote.

Scott Kennedy
Scott Kennedy is an Atlanta native and 20 year media veteran including time as Director of Scouting at Scout.com, Managing Editor at 247Sports, VP Content Operations at Sports Illustrated and more. Scott has appeared as a recruiting and NFL Draft analyst on dozens of media including ESPN, NFL Network, USA Today, NY Times, and more.
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