The Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions are in a potentially unique situation next Sunday night where it would be mutually beneficial for the game to end in a tie.
If the Washington Redskins beat the New York Giants early next Sunday, the loser of the Packers-Lions game will be eliminated from playoff contention. A tie would actually lead to both teams making the postseason with the Packers winning the NFC North and earning a home playoff game while the Lions would be the sixth and final entrant into the NFC playoffs.
Of course it isn’t likely for a tie game to occur in the final week of the season that would carry playoff ramifications. How unlikely? Through research on Pro Football Reference’s database, there has never been a tie on the final week of a season that caused any changes to the playoff picture since the merger in 1970. In fact, there hasn’t even been a single tie on the final week of the season since the merger.
The last comparable scenario was in 1965 when the Packers tied the San Francisco 49ers 24-24 on the final week of the regular season. With a Baltimore Colts victory over the Los Angeles Rams, both the Packers and Colts ended up tied at 10-3-1 for the season. It led to an additional playoff game to be played between the Packers and Colts as a tiebreaker to earn a trip to the NFL Championship game against the Cleveland Browns.
The Packers beat the Colts for a third time and followed it up with a win over the Browns a week later to claim the title.
So what’s the point? With all the playoff scenarios that exist for teams to make the playoffs or improve their seeding in the season’s final week, if a given scenario required a tie to happen you shouldn’t hold you breath.
