By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Proponents of updating the NFL’s overtime rule for playoff games can present the Saints-Vikings OT in the NFC Championship and rest their case.
Details of the ragged, penalty-aided drive that led to Garrett Hartley’s game-winning 40-yard field goal and the non-participation of Brett Favre are evidence aplenty.
Even if the rules change is approved later this month by two-thirds of the league teams, the NFL will still be light years behind the colleges because only playoff games will be affected.
Concerned about lengthening the game and getting crossways with the networks, the NFL doesn’t dare tamper with the archaic rule for the regular season. During those 17 weeks, the victory still goes to the first team to score in overtime.
Why decide a winner on a coin flip and a field goal? What about the team that puts together a furious drive for a tying score and never has an opportunity to win? Why not just call it a tie and move on?
With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line in New Orleans in late January, the less-than scintillating details of the Saints’ winning possession included runs of 3, 1, 2 and minus 5, three incomplete passes, two completions for 21 yards and penalties against the Vikings that resulted in two first downs.
After Hartley’s kick, the wife of a long-suffering Saints’ fan asked, “That’s it?”
Yep, said her ecstatic husband.
Although happy for him, she said, “That doesn’t seem quite fair.”
True. Favre never had an opportunity to complete his 29th pass of the game.
The NFL is considering an overtime system in which both teams would get the ball at least once unless the first team with the ball scores a touchdown. That is an improvement only in that it encourages teams to actually try and score a TD instead of positioning for a field goal.
There were a dozen overtime games during the regular season and 11 of them were decided by three points. The exception was Dallas 26, Kansas City 20 when Miles Austin broke at least one tackle on a pass that was probably designed to lead to a field goal.
If the rules are changed and both teams kick a field goal on their first possession, play would continue until there is a winner.
The NFL should admit the college overtime rule is better and adopt it.
Ask any Arkansas fan to name their favorite games of the past dozen years or so and they are likely to start with 21-20 over LSU in 2002 or 28-24 over Tennessee in 1999 or the Cotton Bowl vs. Texas. The first was so out-of-the-blue, the second was perfect payback and the third was, well, against the Longhorns.
After that, though, the choice is likely to be an OT game of some flavor. Maybe the seven overtimes against Ole Miss in 2001, or the same extended play vs. Kentucky two years later, or three overtimes at LSU in 2007.
According to Advanced NFL Stats, 60 percent of the NFL’s overtime games are won by the team that correctly calls heads or tails.
In the college overtime, the team that guesses the coin flip chooses offense or defense, usually the latter, knowing it will eventually get a chance with the ball. If the game goes into a third OT, teams must attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown, pretty much eliminating the chance that the OTs will continue ad infinitum.
The result is a tense and draining competition. The NFL proposal is only a baby step in that direction.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
