A few years ago, in a playoff game Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes turned what appeared to be a home game loss to the Buffalo Bills into another win for Andy Reid’s squad. With just seconds left on the clock, Buffalo Quarterback Josh Allen completed a touchdown drive to give the visiting Bills a three-point lead.
Then, as seemingly only Mahomes can do, the Chiefs signal caller turned the final seconds on the game clock into a makeable field goal that knotted the score. The Chiefs won the coin toss and Mahomes drove the Chiefs to a winning touchdown.
Something is not right here the NFL management council decided that March. The last play Allen ran for the Bills that season was an apparent winning touchdown, and he never got to run another play, and his team lost. “Perhaps our overtime rules need to be reconsidered,” the management council posed.
They did make a change, to an extent.
They decided in playoff games even if the team that won the coin toss and opened the overtime period with a touchdown their opponent would have an opportunity to counter with the time left in the overtime period.
Last week, in a game just as important as a playoff game, the Atlanta Falcons had an opportunity to keep their postseason plans in play with a win over the Washington Commanders and a victory this coming Sunday over the Carolina Panthers. The game went to overtime, the Commanders won the toss and Jayden Daniels led Washington to a winning touchdown. The result both secured a postseason berth for the Commanders and put the Falcons chances for a postseason berth on thin ice … they need to win this week and have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lose at home to the New Orleans Saints.
Was the game last Sunday night as important as a playoff game?
It was to the Falcons, Commanders and Buccaneers. But the overtime rules the league had already decided were unfair were only corrected for the postseason. If it's unfair there, isn’t it unfair in the regular season too?
I have a suggestion. In the old days ties in football were an accepted result. No one ever complained about the result, except if you remember a college game in 1966 when Notre Dame decided to ground the game to a halt that resulted in a 10 to 10 tie against Michigan State. They did that because they knew a tie was good enough to assure them the national championship against Bubba Smith and company.
But, other than that college game, where national champions were still in those days decided by a vote instead of a game, ties were accepted as a viable part of the season schedule. If a team lost a title because their opponent had a win in the standings while they had a tie, no one cried foul.
That puts two things on my list for the NFL to improve their product. Bring back ties and give us full time competent officials.
Now for this week.
The Falcons are now a longshot to earn a postseason berth based not on their play this Sunday but that of the team they are currently trailing by one game in the won and lost column, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs are double-digit home favorites to down the Panthers and win the NFC South Division race.
Tampa Bay will in all likelihood win, but that doesn’t mean the Falcons won’t also do their part to keep the door open for their postseason participation if, against all odds, the Saints upset the Buccaneers in Florida.
Qoxhi Picks: Atlanta Falcons (-8) over Carolina Panthers