New Overtime Rules

While in Palm Beach for the Annual League Meetings, NFL owners approved a proposal to change the overtime rules for postseason games. Under these new rules, both teams now will be guaranteed a possession in overtime before the game becomes sudden death.

The rules:

-Both teams will have the opportunity to possess the ball in overtime in the postseason.

-If the score is tied after each team has possessed the ball, the next score wins.

-If the team kicking off to start the overtime period scores a safety on the receiving team’s initial possession, the team that kicked off is the winner. 

I don’t mind the rule change. I was annoyed by the argument that triggered it. The Kansas City Chiefs-Buffalo Bills playoff game. By the end of that game, each team’s quarterback and each team’s offense was on a roll. Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen were hot, hot, hot. The winner of the game was going to come down to the team that had the ball last. It did. The Chiefs had the ball first and last in overtime. Game over. A hot Bills offense never stepped on the field. So, what if they did? They score a touchdown. Then what? A hot Chiefs offense gets the ball a second time. Mahomes marches his team down the field and scores. Game over. Is the overtime problem now that Allen and the Bills offense didn’t get the ball a second time? The overtime rules are probably always going to be a problem for the team that loses. If a team wants to better their chances in overtime, how about they play some defense. Get a stop. Better yet, avoid overtime altogether. Win the game in regulation. The Bills had a great chance to do that in that exciting playoff game. 

I believe that I’d like to see an overtime with a 15 minute time component to it. Unless a team can possess the ball for the entire 15 minutes and end the possession with a score, each offense gets the ball. The only real difference between this rule and the newly adopted rule is that there’s no sudden death component to it. With the way that the Chiefs and Bills offenses were zipping down the field, each offense probably would’ve had the ball at least four more times in 15 minutes. The game still would’ve come down to which team had it last. And it probably would’ve been one possession than the other team. 

I still think that the best answer to the problems with overtime is to introduce some defense to it. Just play some defense. Even just a little.