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.