NFL owners have approved a rule change for the way overtime games are decided, to begin this season. The new rule ensures that both teams possess the ball in overtime. However, it will only apply to postseason games.
The rule states that if the team possessing the ball first in overtime scores a touchdown on the opening series, the opponent will still get a possession to try and match the touchdown. If that team matches its touchdown, the game will turn to traditional sudden death, with the following scorer winning the game.
Previously, if a team scored a touchdown on their first possession of overtime, they would be the winners of the game without the opposing team getting a chance to possess the ball.
Many fans deemed this unfair, but that rule will remain the same in regular-season games.
A coin toss determines who gets possession of the ball first in overtime.
The Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles proposed the rule for mandatory possession for both teams, but their proposal was for the change to take effect for all games, regular season and playoff.
However, Competition Committee chairman and president of the Atlanta Falcons Rich McKay said there was not enough support among owners to pass the rule unless it was for the postseason only. Ultimately, it passed by a vote of 29-3.
Outcries among fans for changing the overtime rules began after the 2017 Super Bowl between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. After the Patriots completed a miraculous comeback from a 28-3 halftime deficit to force overtime, they won the overtime coin toss, marched down the field to score a touchdown, and won the game. The Falcons never had a chance to possess the ball.
In the 2018 season, the Patriots were again the benefactors of the previous rule. In the AFC Championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs, New England won an overtime coin toss with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line. The Patriots scored a touchdown on the first possession to eliminate Kansas City without the Chiefs ever possessing the ball.
This postseason, the same issue arose again, but this time in favor of the Chiefs. In the AFC divisional round, Kansas City won an overtime coin toss and scored a touchdown on their first possession to eliminate the Buffalo Bills without them ever gaining possession of the ball.
After that, the outcries from fans for an overtime rule change further erupted.
“We always listen to fans,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “What brought this decision was the database and the facts. When you see that, this is an issue in the postseason.”
McKay noted that Kansas City’s victory over Buffalo was a factor in changing the rules.
“I think what the stats show is there is a clear issue we can say since the change [in rules] in 2010,” McKay added, “and the problem comes in the postseason.”
The previous overtime rule was created for the playoffs in 2010 and applied to the regular season in 2012. Since then, the team that wins the coin toss in regular-season overtime has won the game 50% of the time (76 of 152 games). However, both teams had at least one possession in 82% of the games (124 of 152).
The problem worsened in postseason games. Under the previous rule, 7 of 12 overtime games have been won on an opening possession touchdown, and 10 of 12 victories came from the team that won the coin toss.
“That data was compelling to us and to the league,” McKay said. “An amendment was added (to the original proposal by the Colts and Eagles) to not make a change in the regular season, but in the postseason, where our problem principally lies.”
McKay admitted that a total of 12 games is not a large sample size, but ultimately it was enough to prompt a change.
“It’s the only postseason overtime games we’ve had,” he said. “It’s 12 years, 12 games. Those 12 games are as important to those franchises as any they are ever going to play in their history. So to us, yes, it’s not a sample size of 25 or 30 games, but it’s the only sample size we have, and each one ends somebody’s season. So for us, this was something we thought we needed to change.”
