Opinion: Chiefs-Bills masterpiece decided on a coin flip shows NFL's overtime rule is awful and must be fixed
It was the worst possible ending to the best NFL playoff game ever.
Over the last 20 minutes of regulation, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen played the quarterback equivalent of H-O-R-S-E, trading jaw-dropping throws, dazzling escapes and touchdowns. They combined for 41 points and almost 450 yards in 10 drives, one of them lasting just 13 seconds.
It was mesmerizing and invigorating, a glimpse of what we can look forward to over the next decade and a reminder of why the NFL is the undisputed king of U.S. sports.
And then it just … ended.
When the Kansas City Chiefs won the coin flip, the game was effectively over. Mahomes did what Mahomes does while Allen could only sit on the bench and watch, never even getting the chance to touch the ball in overtime in a game that determined who plays for the AFC Championship.
“Unfortunately, the coin toss went the way it went,” Allen said afterward. “The rules are what they are. I can’t complain about that because if it was the other way around, we’d be celebrating, too. It is what it is at this point.”
Yes, but it shouldn’t be. Certainly not in the playoffs.
Look, there is no great way to break ties in sports. Whether it’s a shootout, penalty kicks or sudden death, someone is always going to feel short-changed in some way. And the NFL’s current OT rules are at least a slight improvement over the previous format, when a field goal on the opening possession of overtime could win the game.
But when so much is at stake, something that has absolutely no relation to athletic ability or physical skills should not determine, or even influence, the winner.
“If you are still arguing, in a game like that, it’s not in the best interest of EVERYONE that Mahomes and Allen get the ball in OT, I don’t know what to tell you,” former NFL tight end Greg Olsen, now an analyst for Fox Sports, said on Twitter. “In a game where neither team could stop the other at the end, a literal coin flip determined the ending.”
As it so often does. Citing NFL Research, the NFL Network’s Andrew Siciliano said Monday that teams that win the coin toss have won more than half of overtime games. Eighty-six out of 163, to be exact, which works out to 52.8 percent.
In the playoffs, however, teams that win the coin toss are 10-1. That isn’t chance, it’s a con. Rather than allowing its biggest games to be determined by its best players, the NFL is leaving it up to the whims of a small piece of metal.
Yes, you can say the Bills' defense was as much a factor in the final outcome, failing to stop Kansas City in overtime or in the 13-second drive that ended with Harrison Butker’s 49-yard field goal to tie the game at the end of regulation. But the Chiefs' defense couldn’t stop Allen or the Bills in the last 20 minutes, either, and it didn’t cost them.
All that mattered was what side was up when a coin landed on the ground. Which really is as dumb as it sounds.
“When you’ve got two teams going back and forth like you’re going, it kind of stinks you don’t get to see the other guy go,” Mahomes said.
He knows that better than anyone.
Three years ago, it was Mahomes who had waged a spectacular duel with Tom Brady in the AFC Championship, only to see the New England Patriots win the coin toss and, less than five minutes later, the game while Mahomes was powerless on the sideline.
Brady and the Patriots would win the coin toss again in the Super Bowl. But given the Atlanta Falcons had already gagged up a 28-3 lead, the odds are pretty good they would have found a way to squander that first possession in OT, too, even if they had won the toss.
“I’ll take the win this time,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, it hurt me last time. All you can do is play the rules the way the rules are explained, and that’s what we did today.”
But if we wanted to watch high-stakes games determined by chance, we’d go stand around the craps tables in Vegas. The NFL can, and must, do better, especially in the playoffs.
WINNERS-LOSERS: Chiefs' coaches were brilliant; overtime rules stink
BEST WEEKEND EVER?: 32 things we learned from 2021 NFL divisional playoff round
'KIND OF STINKS': Chiefs, Bills shrug off controversy over NFL overtime rules
CALL HIM THE GRIM REAPER: How Patrick Mahomes won battle of QB excellence
Give each team a possession and, if it’s still tied, then go to sudden death. Require two-point conversion tries after touchdowns in overtime, similar to what college football does. Kick field goals from increasing distances.
Heck, even rock, paper, scissors would be better. At least there’s some strategy involved in that.
The Chiefs tried to fix this foolishness. After that loss in the AFC Championship, they proposed a rules change to give each team a possession in overtime. But there was so little support for it, the owners didn’t even bother voting on the proposal.
Maybe now that will change. The Bills-Chiefs game will be remembered as one of the greatest ever played. It deserved an equally fitting finish.
Follow Paste BN Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.