Arizona vs Detroit: Tied games are becoming a common occurrence
Week one of the 2019 NFL season saw yet another tied game, making it back-to-back years with a tie in someone’s season opener, and tie games are on the rise as of the past couple of seasons in general.
I think there needs to be a change in the NFL where each team should have an opportunity to posses the ball whether the team scores a touchdown or field goal on their first possession.
The current overtime rules during the regular season are that each team is allowed to posses the ball once unless the first team that receives the ball goes down and scores a touchdown. Also after a 10 minute overtime period if the game is still tied it ends that way.
The other thing I’d change is if a game is tied after one overtime there should be continuous overtime to follow. I believe changing the overtime rules again would be beneficial to the NFL as it would bring a more fair approach to the overtime rules.
The Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals ended in a 27-27 tie on Sunday afternoon for the first tie of the season. This game was in favor of the Detroit Lions as they had a 24-6 lead going into the fourth quarter but Kyler Murray and company had something to say about that. Murray led the Cardinals to erase an 18-point deficient in the fourth quarter, which happened to be Murray’s first NFL start.
In overtime, both teams scored a field goal on each of their first possessions extending the game further but each team failed on their possessions for the rest of the quarter resulting in the game ending in a tie.
NFL fans around the league go to games to see their team win. Nobody at home or at the stadium wants a game to end tied, so the NFL finally needs to address this in the following offseason.
These tie games can have too much impact on the playoff standings where playing sudden death would make a lot more sense. Last year we had two tied games within the first month of the regular season.
One of those games was the week one matchup of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns where it affected Pittsburgh’s chances of making the playoffs that season. That game ended in a 21-21 tie and the Steelers finished 9-6-1 on the season. This ultimately left them outside of the playoffs because the 10-6 Indianapolis Colts took the final wildcard spot.
The other matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers which was during week four of the 2018 season also affected Minnesota’s chances of a wildcard spot as well. That game ended in a 29-29 tie and the Vikings record was 8-7-1. The Philadelphia Eagles ended up sneaking into the last wildcard spot at 9-7 last season.
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From 1990 to 2011 we only had four ties in total and from 2012 to current, we’ve already doubled that total to eight ties in a lot less time. So due to those statistics something needs to change with the rules so tied games don’t keep being a common occurrence in the NFL moving forward.