Under the NFL’s old overtime rules, it was almost automatic that if you won the coin toss, you chose to receive the overtime kickoff: In sudden death overtime, getting the ball first was a huge advantage.
But now that the NFL has changed its regular-season overtime rules to guarantee both teams a possession, coaches appear to be evenly split on whether it’s better to kick or to receive.
There have been five overtime games in the NFL so far this season, the first year that regular-season overtime has guaranteed both teams a possession. Three times, the winner of the coin toss has chosen to kick. Twice, the winner of the toss has chosen to receive. Thanks to the referee botching the coin toss at the start of the Falcons-Colts overtime, we also know that the Colts would have chosen to receive if they had won the toss.
So of six coaches who have made a coin toss decision at the start of overtime this season, three have chosen to kick and three have chosen to receive.
The only other time the NFL had an overtime in which both teams were guaranteed a possession was in Super Bowl LVIII, after the NFL changed the postseason overtime rules. In that game, the coaches were also split: 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan won the toss and chose to receive, but Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game that if his team had won the toss, he would have chosen to kick.
After choosing to receive prior to his team’s overtime win last week, Jaguars coach Liam Coen said he thinks it’s better to get the ball first to run time off the clock. Regular-season overtime is limited to 10 minutes, and a team that gets the ball first and scores at the end of a long possession can force its opponent to go into hurry-up mode on the subsequent possession. It’s even possible for the team that receives the overtime kickoff to run the full 10 minutes off the clock and deprive the other team of an overtime possession altogether.
The major advantage to kicking off at the start of overtime is that the team with the second possession knows what it has to do: If your defense forces a stop, you know you only need to settle for a field goal on offense to win the game. If your defense gives up a field goal, you know you need a touchdown to win or a field goal of your own to extend overtime. If your defense gives up a touchdown and extra point, you know you can win the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion. Knowing exactly what you need helps in your play-calling and fourth down decision-making.
The overtime rules are new, and five overtime games isn’t a large enough sample to draw any definitive conclusions about which strategy is superior. NFL coaches certainly haven’t drawn any definitive conclusions. They’re split 50-50.
The fans in Germany were treated to a highly entertaining early game on Sunday, with the Colts coming out on top 28-25 in overtime.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor was the star of the show, carrying 32 times for 244 yards and three touchdowns, including the overtime game-winner.
It was a wild, back-and-forth battle that saw the teams trade touchdowns and the Falcons take a late fourth-quarter lead, only to have Colts kicker Michael Badgley hit a field goal with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter to tie the game 25-25 and send it into overtime.
After the referee initially botched the overtime coin toss, the Falcons eventually won the re-flip and elected to receive, but their offense couldn’t move the ball and punted after the opening possession. From there the Colts marched the ball down the field, with Taylor doing the bulk of the work and reaching the end zone to win it.
Falcons wide receiver Drake London had 104 receiving yards in defeat, and running backs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier both played well. But Michael Penix struggled with his accuracy and couldn’t move the Falcons’ offense consistently enough.
The Colts improve to 8-2 and remain very much in contention to earn home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Falcons fall to 3-6 and are falling out of the NFC South race.
Referee Clete Blakeman is having a bad game today in Germany.
Blakeman botched the Falcons-Colts overtime coin toss, declaring Indianapolis the visiting team and allowing the Colts to choose heads or tails. The Colts won the toss and elected to receive.
One problem: The Colts are not the visiting team. The Colts are designated as the home team in Berlin. The Falcons are the visiting team.
While NFL Network was on a commercial, the league fixed the mistake, re-did the coin toss, and this time the Falcons won the toss and received. Viewers at home didn’t see the coin toss that actually counted.
Blakeman had already screwed up at the end of the fourth quarter, with regulation ending on a Falcons intentional grounding penalty. Blakeman announced that there was a 10-second runoff that would end the game (actually there were 11 seconds left), he announced that the Falcons had no timeouts so they couldn’t avoid the runoff (actually the Falcons did have two timeouts left), and he announced that the game was over (actually the fourth quarter was over but the game was still on). That mistake didn’t matter much because the Falcons chose not to use their timeout and let the fourth quarter lapse, but it was still an error an NFL referee shouldn’t make.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor just turned the game around in Germany.
With the Colts trailing in the fourth quarter and deep in their own territory, Taylor took a handoff, shifted behind the line of scrimmage and found an opening to the left, then raced down the sideline for an 83-yard touchdown. It was the longest run in the NFL this season and tied for the longest run of Taylor’s career. It also gave Taylor the Colts franchise record for most touchdown runs.
Taylor now has 210 yards today.
Taylor got some tremendous downfield blocking from wide receiver Alec Pierce and tight end Tyler Warren, who escorted him to the end zone.
The Colts failed on the two-point conversion and now have a 22-17 lead with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
In their helmets and pads, they look like gladiators. Invincible. Invulnerable.
Within each NFL uniform is a human, no different from the rest of us. They have issues, stress, problems. Their chosen profession can exacerbate the situation, since most players live under the constant cloud of learning that the “best interests of the team” have resulted in the team moving on from the player.
Throw in the scourge of social media and add a dash of disgruntled gamblers, and the stew can quickly turn toxic for the men who play the game we love.
The passing of Marshawn Kneeland in an apparent suicide has resulted in a stream of necessary and appropriate expressions of sympathy and concern for the player and his family. The more difficult issue arises from the desire to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.
And while most can only sympathize with the Marshawn Kneeland situation, Colts right tackle Braden Smith (at the far left in the attached photo) can fully empathize. Last year, a struggle with OCD derailed his season. Earlier this year, Smith went public with his condition.
“I was physically present, but I was nowhere to be found,” Smith told the Indianapolis Star. “I did not care about playing football. I didn’t care about hanging out with my family, with my wife, with my newborn son.”
Smith said he believed he was a month away from ending it all.
Now, Smith is leading the charge for change. Smith’s agent, Michael Perrett, outlined in a Sunday morning phone call the things Smith is doing to help other NFL players.
Perrett said the biggest challenge comes from having effective resources immediately available to players. And while it’s important for all teams to have a full-time mental-health clinician, Perrett said there’s a very real trust issue that arises from players opening up to team employees about their problems. Players worry that the information will make its way back to the people who shape the roster, and who decide which players should stay — and which players should go.
Years ago, before the advent of Uber, the NFL made drivers available for players who had had too much to drink. Most players feared using the service, because they believed the fact that they’d done so would get back to the team.
To address that dynamic, Perrett said Smith is working with the NFL Players Association to make a mental-health clinician available to players in every NFL city. Currently, the NFLPA maintains a network of workers compensation attorneys for each team’s players. This would be an extension of that effort, with players having a union-affiliated representative who can be contacted at any time, for any reason. Big problems, small problems. Any problem. The clinician would then direct the player to the proper specialist for care, depending on the player’s symptoms and/or concerns.
Smith, as Perrett explained, believes this approach would make players more likely to come forward and seek help when they need it. There would be no footprints back to the team. No complications with any of the player’s current relationships away from work. A player could simply activate the process and talk to someone who is there for two important reasons — to listen, and to help.
Perrett said Smith also is working with the NFL to revise the injured reserve rules to encompass mental-health issues. Currently, a player who cannot perform his job duties due to a mental-health challenge must be placed on the non-football illness list, as Smith was last season. Perrett said Smith hopes that, in time, mental health and physical health will be viewed as equivalent on NFL rosters.
We’ve asked the league and the NFLPA for input and guidance as to any programs that currently are being developed.
This is a very important issue for all NFL players. Tragedies like the death of Marshawn Kneeland can be prevented. The NFL and the NFLPA must work together to give players quick, easy, and trustworthy methods for getting help whenever, wherever, and however they need it.
For players who need a ride home after having too much to drink, it’s now as simple as pressing a button on their phones. That’s the kind of system that needs to be put in place for any player who recognizes that, if he continues to internalize his feelings and concerns, things will only get worse.
NFL players need a simple and easy and safe way to try to make things better. And Smith deserves not only credit for trying, but full and complete cooperation and support in his effort to improve things for all players.
