2 weeks, 2 ties. Can this continue? Is this the fabled “parity” the NFL has sought for so long?
I would expect any teams with kicking woes to take a hard look at Jonathan Brown, currently on the Bengals practice squad. Dude is legit, especially from long range.
Fitzmagic may be the best thing to happen in the NFL all season. It’s about time the Bucs had something positive happening to them, and I’ve always liked Ryan Fitzpatrick, so it’s great that he’s having such a good run on what is probably the tail end of his career.
The Ringer has a good breakdown of why the ties are happening
Loser: NFL Overtime
Just over 6 percent of NFL games this year have ended in a tie. Week 1’s Browns-Steelers was a tie, a beautiful amalgam of failure that ended with both teams missing game-winning field goals and being disappointed. On Sunday, Vikings-Packers ended in a tie, again with both teams missing game-winning field goals and being disappointed. Well, disappointed or surprised:
I asked #Vikings RB Dalvin Cook about the tie Sunday and he wasn’t too familiar with ties. "I actually didn’t even know what was going until I saw Coach Zimmer walk to the middle of the field, and then they said it was a tie.‘’
It’s the first time there has been a tie in both of the first two weeks of the NFL season since 1971. But a lot has changed since 1971, and the NFL instituted overtime in the regular season primarily to avoid ties. It worked: In between the formal introduction of OT in 1974 and 2012, there were just 18 tied games, roughly one every two seasons.
But something weird has happened: In the past few years, the league has instituted a series of rules to make ties more likely. In 2012, the league instituted the “modified sudden death” rules that require two full minutes of explanation from officials at the beginning of every OT. This way, a field goal at the start of overtime would not end a game, giving the opponent an opportunity to retie the game. There were four ties between 2013 and 2016—one a year.
And last year, the league shortened overtime from 15 minutes to 10. There were no ties in 2017, but now, we’ve got two in two weeks. We don’t know whether an extra five minutes of football would have untied things, but there’s no way to argue less time doesn’t lead to more ties.
The uptick in ties is not a weird quirk. It is a direct effect of the NFL’s odd choice to institute rules that make ties more likely. There’s an easy solution here—the college overtime rules, which eliminate punts, ties, and lead to quick, exciting finishes. The league probably will never adopt those rules, though, because it likes to feel superior to the amateur product. Each tie is a product of that snobby stubbornness.
The NFL had basically invented a tie vaccine. But just like how jerk parents who think they’re smarter than scientists are trying their best to ensure measles make a comeback, the league has decided to bring back a bad thing we thought was gone.
Agreed. I think he pretty much defines “successful journeyman quarterback”. He’s a smart guy too, so I can pretty much guaranty he’s put all the money he’s made playing for all those different teams to good use and will retire well. He’s also a really nice guy off the field. It would be cool to see him go on a good run this season with the Bucs.
You, sir, are a monster. That was almost as bad as hockey shootouts. Play the actual game or don’t.
I like the current NFL OT rules fine. Yes, ties suck, but at least in the Vikings-Packers game there was such a litany of dipshit failure to get to the tie that it’s hard for me to blame the rules.
Also, Packer fans whining about a soft-ass RTP call on Zombie Clay Matthews is the most gloriously hypocritical bullshit I ever did see. As one of my Vikings bloggers put it, “Live by the whiny-ass QB, die by the whiny-ass QB.” Man, the new RTP rules are awwwwful.
It was a bad call. But it was consistent with the other bad call earlier in the game of RTP on Cousins. Obviously taking back an interception at the end of a game hurts quite a bit more.
McCarthy’s clock management was again a glaring issue, as was Minnesota’s kicker curse.
But I vastly prefer the ties to the old format. When you play 16 games a year, and all you need to do to win a tie game is win a coin toss and get enough yards for a 40 yard field goal (which SHOULD be easy) is a bit lame.
God I hate icing the kicker though. For every one of the kicks that are made the first time and miss the second, there are kickers that miss the first one and hit the second too.
I mean, GB did the same thing during OT, and it worked as well, though they didn’t call it seconds before the snap
Freakanomics did a fun study of the stats
There is basically not enough to overcome a margin of error. It is pointless and extends games to be longer than they need to be.
I think each team deserves one posession. The one limit I’d have is if the first team scores a TD and kicks the other point, the other team has to go for 2.
Regarding the new OT rules, I’m in agreement. I hate games determined by field goals. I’m so against them, I truly wish that field goals were even more sidelined in some way. There is nothing more sigh inducing as a fan than being 4th and goal and your team pulling in the kicker. Or being 2 minutes from regulation and your team pulling in the kicker, or just pulling in the damned kicker. Team sport, but one position controls the game that much, I can’t stand it.
That Reddit feels like a Slate article…I agree on drafting a kicker, poor use of a rare asset. But statistically insignificant? Whatevs. Having said that this “data based” approach really doesn’t help your Brownies out, does it?
Ties are part of life in soccer and I really don’t mind them there or in football. Sometimes you have to give your sister a peck on the cheek, ya know?
That said, the rules should be like college. Play til you have a winner. Start on the 30 for each possession. NFL games that ended that way would be legendary, especially in the Super Bowl.
