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flauntpage · 5 years

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Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules

I never should have opened up Twitter after last night’s AFC Championship Game, but I did it anyway. Then I wasted at least 30 minutes arguing with various people about the NFL’s overtime rules.

I personally hate the OT rules because, as currently constructed, you’re allowing for a scenario where the game ends before both teams receive an offensive possession. The Patriots won the ball, which was determined by a coin flip, marched down the field and scored a walk-off touchdown. Patrick Mahomes was glued to the bench and didn’t even get to participate.

Tell me how that’s fair…

It’s not.

The main counter-argument I get from people goes something like this:

“Yeah, well, the defense should get a stop!”

Yes, that’s true. Kansas City should have been able to get off the field on one of those third and long situations. They really blew it.

But that’s not the point. It’s not about the defense making a play. It’s about competitive balance.

See, it’s much more reasonable to give each team at least one possession to match what the opposing offense was able to do on their possession. If each squad has an offensive unit and defensive unit, those units should face each other at least once in overtime. We watched an overtime period last night where 50% of the players at Arrowhead Stadium didn’t even see the field.

The best way to illustrate what I’m talking about is to take the ridiculous NFL overtime rules and apply them to other sports.

Take tennis, for instance. Imagine Roger Federer wins a coin toss and elects to serve. Rafael Nadal doesn’t get to serve, Federer hits four aces, and the game is over.

Are you going to sit here and tell me that Nadal should have broken his serve? No, because breaking serve is measurably harder than holding serve. That’s why players alternate service in a tiebreaker. It’s the same thing in volleyball and ping pong. Are you gonna tell me that the serving team should be given a walk-off scenario? I hope not.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to baseball:

Imagine the Phillies are playing at home and the game goes into extra innings tied at three. Yasiel Puig hits a home run and the game is over. He walks it off in the top of the tenth. Are you going to blame Seranthony Dominguez? Sure, but you’re also going to lament how absurd it is that the Phillies were denied the bottom half of the inning. How can one team bat but the other cannot?

Apply the NFL overtime rules to basketball:

You flip a coin. The Sixers win possession. If they hit a three-pointer, they win the game, but if they hit a two-pointer, the Nets get a chance to have the ball.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to soccer:

One team gets to take all of their penalty kicks first. If they convert all five, the game is over, and the other team doesn’t get a chance to line up and match them.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to gymnastics:

Mary Lou Retton gets to do her floor routine first. If she scores a 10, she wins. If she scores a 9, then her opponent gets to do her floor routine.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to mixed martial arts:

Daniel Cormier starts with side control over Derrick Lewis. If Lewis gets up off the mat, he then gets a chance to start in side control. But if he doesn’t, he loses.

See? See how dumb it is?

I could sit here and give you a million examples, but you get the point. If a coin flip is going to determine an offensive possession or service, then the fairest way to write the rules is to allow the opposing team an opportunity to match. Instead we’re rolling out tired defenses against elite quarterbacks in a sport where the offense is typically on the front foot, especially in the modern day NFL, where recent rule changes have proven advantageous to offensive units.

I really like the way college football handles overtime. Start each offense on the 25 yard line. Score a touchdown, kick a field goal, or do neither. Then the other team comes out and gets a shot to match or outdo what the opponent just did. If teams match each other into the third overtime, scoring a touchdown comes with a mandated two-point conversion attempt. There are no scenarios where Dwayne Haskins or Trevor Lawrence are forced to sit on the bench.

And regardless of whether or not the rule is fair, the NFL is just shooting itself in the foot from a marketing and entertainment standpoint. Everybody watching on TV wanted to see Mahomes get the ball in overtime. Likewise, if Mahomes had gone down the field and scored, we would have been robbed of another potentially spectacular Tom Brady comeback effort.

The NFL overtime rules are indisputably lame. Even the dude from 98 Degrees understands this:

If college football can get overtime right, why can’t the @NFL ? A whole season comes down to OT and your MVP QB doesn’t even touch the ball? Ridiculous. Should it really be determined by a coin flip? It’s not that hard guys! #AFCChampionshipGame

— Nick Lachey (@NickLachey) January 21, 2019

The post Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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sportsloungeblog · 7 years

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Donald Trump and the Patriots, the Comeback Kings, For Better or Worse

The connection between Donald Trump and the New England Patriots is obvious. Trump has a relationship with Tom Brady, as well as head coach Bill Belichick. All are easily hateable characters, ridden with scandal and controversy, but in the end, winners. It was quite remarkable how similar Trump’s surprising comeback on election night was compared to the Patriots unprecedented Super Bowl comeback. Maybe even more similar than you think.

12:15 left in the 1st Quarter. Devonta Freeman 5-yard TD run. Falcons lead 7-0

Trump vs. John McCain

A scoreless first quarter and the high scoring game in the 30′s that most expected may not be happening. Four punts in the first quarter and plenty of early sacks. The Patriots fumble just as they were approaching field goal range. Could this be a defensive battle? Trump said in July of 2015 that Arizona Sen. John McCain wasn't a war hero because he was taken prisoner of war in Vietnam. Not the greatest way to start a campaign.

8:48 left in the 2nd Quarter. Matt Ryan 19-yard TD pass to Austin Hooper Falcons lead 14-0 Trump vs. Megyn Kelly Well, Atlanta did have the best offense in football and can score points in bunches. The six previous Belichick and Brady Super Bowls have been decided by three or four points. They’ll score eventually and make it close, although the largest comeback in a Super Bowl is 10 points, so maybe Atlanta is just that good. When the Fox News anchor asked Trump about his many anti-women comments over the years, Trump said: “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.” 2:21 left in the 2nd Quarter. Robert Alford 82-yard interception return TD Falcons lead 21-0 Trump vs. Khan New England looks to be in good shape to make this a seven point game going into halftime. However, a terrible pass by Brady results in a pick-six and this Super Bowl is starting too look very similar to the NFC Championship two weeks ago.

After Khizr Khan—the father of a U.S. Army captain who was killed in Iraq and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart—gave a speech at the Democratic convention condemning Trump for his comments about Muslims and pulled out a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution to ask if Trump knew about the right to equal protection, Trump struck back. Trump said Khan had “viciously attacked” him and erroneously claimed that Khan’s wife, Ghazala, was not allowed to speak because she was Muslim. “She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say,” Trump said. Feuding with a Gold Star family? And this guy is running for President? And the front runner on the Republican side?

Halftime. Stephen Gostkowski hits a 41-yard field goal Falcons lead 21-3 Trump wins the Republican Nomination New England answers the 10-14 point turnaround off the Brady turnover with three points before the half. It’s something. The bad news is the Falcons get the ball to start the second half. The Patriots defense has to get some stops. It seems inevitable that Atlanta will score at least 35 points. That’s going to be hard for Brady and Co. to match in a half. Somehow the Republicans scrape the bottom of the barrel and this is what they come up with. This is their nominee for President. He’s gotten this far, but it’s hard to imagine how he even comes close to making this a race in the general election.

8:31 left in the 3rd Quarter. Matt Ryan 6-yard TD pass to Tevin Coleman Falcons lead 28-3 Trump Hollywood Access video This was the Patriots “Grab them by the pussy,” moment. At this point the game and election was over. Not only would New England have to score four times over the last quarter-and-a-half, they would have to stop Atlanta, which didn’t seem possible. At this point in the campaign, one month out, this was the death blow. How the hell could America elect a man that was describing how he sexually assaulted women? Regardless of what you thought of Trump’s promises, this was another level of disgust. Ultimately, not enough people cared. 2:06 left in the 3rd Quarter. Tom Brady 5-yard TD pass to James White Falcons lead 28-9 Polls close in Ohio. Trump wins. A long Patriots drive ends with their first touchdown. It wouldn’t really matter. It took over six minutes, they missed the extra point. They were still down 19 points and wouldn’t get the ball back until the start of the 4th quarter. Ohio is always a swing state. The polls were strongly leaning Trump and no Republican has ever won the White House without the state. So what if Trump won Ohio. He still had to win Florida and even that wouldn’t be enough. 9:44 left in the 4th Quarter. Stephen Gostkowski 33-yard field goal Falcons lead 28-12 Trump wins Florida. Another long drive from New England that takes over five minutes and only results in three points. They are still down 16 points, only two possessions, assuming they can convert a pair of two point conversions. If Atlanta can just put up a field goal, it would give them their first Super Bowl. The polls are always close in Florida. A nice win for Trump. The two biggest electoral college victories that he needed. He still has to win North Carolina and the Rust Belt states. Good look taking Pennsylvania, which has voted blue in every Presidential election since 1992. 5:56 left in the 4th Quarter. Tom Brady 6-yard TD to Danny Amendola Falcons lead 28-20 Trump wins North Carolina Well, we have a one score game. If New England gets another stop and has enough time, could they actually force overtime? There’s never been a Super Bowl that has gone into overtime. And they have a few timeouts. And Tom Brady. What? How? Trump was down anywhere from three to six points in the last polls in North Carolina and he ends up winning it? This is going to be closer than anyone would have imagined. He still doesn’t have enough to win. Polls are close in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Could he possible win one or more of those states? If so, he might win this thing. 0:57 left in the 4th Quarter. James White 1-yard TD run Game Tied at 28 Trumps wins Pennsylvania There wasn’t much doubt when Brady got the ball back with 3:30 left, 91 yards to go and two timeouts that he would lead New England down the field for a touchdown. It all comes down to the two point conversion and it was another brilliant call at the goal line. The Patriots needed stops on defense. Even an Atlanta field goal would have been enough. The Falcons were at the NE 22-yard line, up eight, with four minutes left. Take a knee three times and set things up for a 40-yard field goal to put the game away. He did it. He actually did it. There really isn’t any way Trump can lose now. Wisconsin and Michigan are still out there, but it’s looking very likely that he will win those too and get over 300 electoral college votes. He needed to run the table and he did. Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. James White 2-yard run. New England wins the Super Bowl 34-28 in OT Trump wins Wisconsin and Michigan. The Patriots won the coin toss. Nobody was surprised that they marched down the field, scoring in just under four minutes to end the game with 31 unanswered points. Since 2001, teams down between 26 and 23 points with 6-9 min left in the 3rd quarter were 0-190, now 1-191, about .5% win rate. No playoff team EVER had comeback from down 19 or more points at the start of the 4th quarter. The New England comeback was unprecedented and we may never see anything like it again. At this point, Trump can win without Wisconsin or Michigan, but add them to his tally anyway. Once he got Pennsylvania, it was done.

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flauntpage · 5 years

Text

Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules

I never should have opened up Twitter after last night’s AFC Championship Game, but I did it anyway. Then I wasted at least 30 minutes arguing with various people about the NFL’s overtime rules.

Tell me how that’s fair…

It’s not.

The main counter-argument I get from people goes something like this:

“Yeah, well, the defense should get a stop!”

Yes, that’s true. Kansas City should have been able to get off the field on one of those third and long situations. They really blew it.

But that’s not the point. It’s not about the defense making a play. It’s about competitive balance.

The best way to illustrate what I’m talking about is to take the ridiculous NFL overtime rules and apply them to other sports.

Take tennis, for instance. Imagine Roger Federer wins a coin toss and elects to serve. Rafael Nadal doesn’t get to serve, Federer hits four aces, and the game is over.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to baseball:

Imagine the Phillies are playing at home and the game goes into extra innings tied at three. Yasiel Puig hits a home run and the game is over. He walks it off in the top of the tenth. Are you going to blame the Seranthony Dominguez? Sure, but you’re also going to lament how absurd it is that the Phillies were denied the bottom half of the inning. How can one team bat but the other cannot?

Apply the NFL overtime rules to basketball:

You flip a coin. The Sixers win possession. If they hit a three-pointer, they win the game, but if they hit a two-pointer, the Nets get a chance to have the ball.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to soccer:

One team gets to take all of their penalty kicks first. If they convert all five, the game is over, and the other team doesn’t get a chance to line up and match them.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to gymnastics:

Mary Lou Retton gets to do her floor routine first. If she scores a 10, she wins. If she scores a 9, then her opponent gets to do her floor routine.

Apply the NFL overtime rules to mixed martial arts:

Daniel Cormier starts with side control over Derrick Lewis. If Lewis gets up off the mat, he then gets a chance to start in side control. But if he doesn’t, he loses.

See? See how dumb it is?

The NFL overtime rules are indisputably lame. Even the dude from 98 Degrees understands this:

— Nick Lachey (@NickLachey) January 21, 2019

The post Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules appeared first on Crossing Broad.

Dear God, Please Change the NFL Overtime Rules published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

0 notes