After 60 minutes of a Week 15 game last Dec. 19 in Tampa, the Bucs and Lions were tied, 20-20. The Lions won the overtime coin flip and, naturally, chose to receive.
In a little over five minutes, quarterback Drew Stanton guided the Lions 63 yards in eight plays before Dave Rayner trotted on to the field and kicked a 34-yard field goal.
Game over. Thanks for attending, Bucs fans. Drive home safely.
If you don’t think that outcome was significant, consider this. Had the Bucs won the game, they would have finished the season with an 11-5 record. That would have been good enough to beat out the Packers -- the eventual Super Bowl champions -- for a playoff berth.
But the Bucs never had a chance. Their offense stood helplessly on the sideline, unable to get another opportunity.
We’ve watched this scenario too many times since the NFL approved overtime in 1974. Two teams battle to a tie in regulation. Then the team that wins the overtime coin toss receives the kickoff, drives down the field and kicks a game-winning field goal without the other team getting a chance to respond.
It’s not fair. And it deflates overtime of a lot of suspense -- not to mention the fun factor.
That’s why the NFL needs to use the new overtime rule it adopted for playoff games in regular-season games, too.
As Broncos general manager Brian Xanders said, “It’s important to have consistency throughout all games.”
In March 2010, the NFL owners proposed a major change in the overtime rule for the postseason. If the team winning the coin toss kicked a field goal on its first series, the other team would get a possession and a chance to tie with a field goal, win with a touchdown or lose if it failed to score.
The rule change passed by a 28-4 vote. Only the Bills, Vikings, Ravens and Bengals voted against the proposal. Interestingly, the Vikings cast a dissenting vote despite the fact they had lost in the NFC Championship Game a few weeks earlier when the Saints won the coin toss and kicked a field goal on its first possession.
Driving the league’s competition committee to recommend the rule change was the increased accuracy of kickers since 1994, when kickoffs were moved from the 35-yard line to the 30, creating better field position for teams that won the coin toss and received.
According to the statistics examined by the committee, teams that won the coin toss at the start of overtime games won 59.8 percent of the time since ’94. Further, the team that won the coin toss won 34.4 percent of the time on its first possession.
The numbers weren’t as compelling last season. Of the 17 games that went into overtime, only two were won by a field goal on the first possession by the team that won the toss. Coincidentally, the Lions were involved in both games. On Nov. 7, they lost, 23-20, to the Jets after New York won the toss and Mark Sanchez quickly drove the Jets into position for Nick Folk’s game-winning field goal.
Like Xanders, Lions coach Jim Schwartz thinks the playoff overtime rule should apply to the regular season.
“I think if the rule’s good for overtime (in the playoffs), it’s good for the regular season also,” Schwartz told Booth Newspapers when the rule was passed. “The only thing that concerns me about the playoffs is that the first time this system may be used, it might be in the Super Bowl. There might not be overtime in the playoffs, and the very first time it’s used is the Super Bowl. That’s your biggest stage and your biggest game. To me, to have something untouched that’s broken out then might be a little interesting.”
As it now stands, the NFL is taking a risk. It’s not going to practice a fire drill until there’s a real fire.
Instead, it should add fun to regular season overtime and make it more of a cliff-hanger by applying the same rule as in the postseason. As Wilford Brimley would say, It’s the right thing to do.