NFL fans are calling for college football-style overtime after the Giants and Commanders tied 27-27 on Sunday.. and I’m sorry, but those two teams might be the WORST possible advertisement for changing the rules.
The Giants had the ball in field goal range, then Cam Skattebo fumbled. Washington got it back, drove to the Giants’ 24-yard line, and somehow managed to run out the clock WITHOUT EVEN ATTEMPTING A FIELD GOAL! Both teams had the win sitting right in front of them and neither could figure out how to take it.
Now, there actually IS a problem with the NFL’s overtime rules. The league says both teams get an opportunity to possess the ball, but there’s a 10-minute limit in the regular season. If that clock expires before the second team gets its possession, too bad. How does that make any sense?
I’d absolutely entertain changing that. But do we really need to adopt the entire college football format?
College overtime isn’t going to teach Jayden Daniels to spike the damn ball. You could start Washington at the 25-yard line with a gift-wrapped field goal opportunity and apparently we’d still need to check whether anybody knows how much time is left.
The NFL might need to fix overtime.. but Sunday’s tie was a pretty convincing argument that some teams need to fix their CLOCK MANAGEMENT first.
