On NFL Network tonight, following the Chicago Bears’ overtime win over New Orleans, Steve Mariucci said the NFL should change its overtime rules.
He said “fairness is key” when questioned over whether or not the NFL should change its overtime rules to match those of the college game.
The NFL’s Sudden Death rules have come under a lot of scrutiny lately with high profile overtime games between the Bears and Saints tonight and the tie between Philadelphia and Cincinnati a few weeks ago.
And maybe Mariucci is right – maybe the rules do need to be changed. After a questionable pass interference call tonight gave the Bears the field position needed to kick a field goal on their first possession to win the game, it does feel a bit as though the Saints got screwed tonight.
But the college overtime rules are not the way to go. Giving each team the ball at the 25 yard line regardless of a kick return is ridiculous. It takes one-third of the game of football – almost the entire special teams game – out of the game.
Furthermore, with 50-plus-yard field goals nothing more than a yawner of an occurrence anymore, starting at the 25 yard line basically means everyone starts inside of field goal range.
NFL overtime could be fixed with one minor tweak. Give the team that loses the coin toss one guaranteed drive to match anything that the team receiving the first drive does. It would eliminate teams getting to the 25 yard line and playing for a field goal on the first drive instead of trying to score a touchdown. And it would guarantee that whatever percentage of games ended with one team not having the opportunity to touch the ball in overtime no longer was an issue.
The subject of overtime is likely to receive extended discussion in the offseason due to Donovan McNabb’s admission that he had no clue games could even end in a tie. And a large percentage – sorry, I’m too tired to look it up tonight, but I will in the future – of games do end without one team having the opportunity to touch the ball.
But please – PLEASE – do not adopt the college rules that result in ridiculously inflated, artificial scores and almost automatic field goal attempts that will make a further joke out of overtime.
Sometimes the answer to a problem is a minor tweak. In the case of NFL overtime, I believe that is the case.
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Use the college overtime rules, but disallow the field goal and the kicked PAT. There’s a real game, stuffing it in the end zone.
Not some pussyfoot special teams showcase where it’s all about getting to the 35 and kicking.
No, don’t use the college overtime.
The college overtime is ridiculous. It is ridiculous to say “Okay, here’s the ball at the 25 or the 10 or the 50, see what you can do, and we’ll alternate possessions until we’re done.”
For one thing, when you give teams the ball at the 25 yard line, even in college, it’s hardly a challenge for teams to score. It’s just bizarre to see games where regulation ends tied at 17-17 or 21-21 end with scores like 64-61 or 58-55. It’s not football.
Second, football starts with a kickoff. Special teams is one-third of the game. Teams employ special teams coaches and they have special teams players on their rosters. You should settle football games by, how weird is this, playing football. The only thing that needs to change to make the current overtime system perfectly fair is to ensure that each team will get the ball at least one time.
Doing so would eliminate teams driving down on their first overtime possession, getting to the 35 yard line and going for a field goal because they would know the other team was going to see the ball as well with an opportunity to match or beat their field goal.
Once each team has had the ball once, if neither has scored, the rules would revert to the current sudden death structure.
And as for those who say games shouldn’t be able to end in ties, I think that’s hooey as well. It’s happened once in seven years. I don’t think once in seven years – or even twice or three or four times in seven years if it happens that often – is enough of a scourge to bother changing the rules.
Teams employ cheerleaders, cheerleader coaches, and mascots too. And they all belong on the same bus with the special teams players.