The NFL is changing the way its overtimes operate in the postseason. Call it the Josh Allen Rule.
The league’s owners reportedly passed new legislation that will ensure that both teams get at least one possession in overtime of playoff games. That rule change, brought forth in different forms at the NFL’s Annual League Meeting by the Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts, and Tennessee Titans, eliminates the possibility of a team losing a postseason game without giving their offense a chance to even the score.
It’s a timely addition — fewer than three months earlier, the Buffalo Bills saw their playoff run snuffed out in overtime after the Kansas City Chiefs won the coin toss, scored a touchdown, and left Allen, who’d thrown for 329 yards and four touchdowns at that point, to watch helplessly from the bench.
“I was, unfortunately like a lot of other teams, watching that Buffalo-Kansas City game as a fan, and saw the ending and felt like maybe our fans would have wanted to see Josh Allen have an opportunity,” Titans head coach Mike Vrabel told the media in Palm Beach. “I felt like … if you wanted to win the football game, you had to validate it with a two-point conversion and if you didn’t, and you kicked the extra point, the other team would have the opportunity to have the football.”
Though the Titans’ proposed caveat that a touchdown followed by a two-point conversion could end a game in overtime without each team getting the ball didn’t pass, the removal of a first-possession sudden death ending marks the latest change to the league’s rules. The proposal passed by virtue of a 29-3 vote, per NFL.com.
McVay on OT proposals: “I don’t think that anybody would disagree that Josh Allen probably deserved a possession.”
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) March 29, 2022
If a team scores a touchdown on the first possession of overtime, it no longer means an automatic victory. The side that lost the coin toss will have a chance at rebuttal. If they tie the game, overtime continues in a sudden death format; first team to score (again) by any method — touchdown, field goal, or safety — wins. If they take the lead (via two-point conversion or kicking an extra point following a failed conversion on the other side) the game ends there. A defensive touchdown also ends the game.
This new rule will take effect only in the postseason. Regular season games can still end with a first-possession touchdown.
This latest rule change is further evidence the NFL is willing to change the game in order to address the competitive balance, albeit slowly. In 2010, the league modified its rules to give both teams the opportunity to possess the ball at least once in overtime barring a touchdown by the team who received the opening OT kickoff. While that rule was originally exclusive to the postseason, it became standard for all games in 2012. In 2017, the league shortened the length of the extra period from 15 minutes to 10 in an effort to improve player safety.
This is a promising development that should address an inequality in the league. Super Bowl 51 ended with the New England Patriots scoring a game-winning touchdown that didn’t give the Atlanta Falcons a shot at redemption in overtime. The same thing happened in the 2018 AFC title game against the Chiefs, who served that injustice right back to the Bills in January.
Now, teams won’t see their Super Bowl hopes hinge on a gassed defense and coin toss in the postseason. It’s cold comfort for the Bills this offseason, but at least it ensures players like Allen will get a fair shot to even the score in overtime.
