By Justin Worsley
The NFL owners have officially voted to change the overtime rule, but only for the playoffs.
The vote, which was voted 28-4 to change, will change how teams work their offense in overtime games.
The current format is a "sudden-death" overtime where, simply put, the first team to score wins. A common complaint about this current format is that the team who wins the coin flip basically wins the game. Since 1994, 59.8-percent of teams who win the coin toss score on the opening possession.
In the new format, the team who receives the ball first can still win off of the opening possession, but they have to score a touchdown in order to do so. If they are only able to score a field goal, the opposing team has a chance to score a touchdown and win the game. If neither team scores a field goal, or both do, the game reverts to normal sudden-death rules.
Minnesota, who lost to New Orleans in the NFC Title game off of a field goal on the first possession of overtime, was one of four teams who opposed the overtime change, along with Buffalo, Baltimore and Cincinnati.
"We've had this discussion for a number of years. We felt like this year's proposal, which we call 'modified sudden-death,' was really an opportunity for us to make what we think is a pretty good rule, sudden-death, even better," said Rich McKay, the NFL's co-chair on the Competition Committee.
The NFL, however, did not modify the overtime rules for the regular season, which will follow typical sudden-death rules, upsetting several coaches.
"If it's good for the postseason, why not have it the same in the regular season?" asked Lions head coach Jim Schwartz in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
Some teams are also in the playoffs before the regular season is even over. In Week 11 during the 2008 NFL season, New England lost an overtime game to the Jets after New York won the coin toss. New England finished the season 11-5 and out of the playoffs.
The NFL owner's meet annually in Orlando.
No comments:
Post a Comment