By Ryan Young
Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs benefited from the NFL’s overtime rules on Sunday night.
He still thinks the rules should be adjusted.
The Chiefs beat the Buffalo Bills in a thrilling overtime battle on Sunday night, one that will likely go down as one of the best games ever played in the history of the NFL. Kansas City, though, ended the divisional round playoff game in overtime after winning the coin toss and scoring right away — something that many have deemed unfair.
“I had a chance to talk with [Bills coach Sean McDermott] afterward, and that I’m sure is something they’re going to look at again too,” Reid said Monday, via The Associated Press. “And I wouldn’t be opposed to it, it’s a hard thing. It was great for us last night, but is it great for the game which is probably the most important thing we should all be looking out for?
“To make things equal, it probably needs to be able to hit both offenses, both defenses.”
Chiefs beat Bills after a coin toss
The Bills surged ahead to take the lead at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night with 13 seconds left, all but giving them the win. Somehow, though, that was too much time for Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs marched down the field and tied the game up to force overtime with a field goal. In total, there were 25 points scored in the final two minutes of regulation.
The game was, by all accounts, incredible.
But that was it. The Chiefs won the coin toss in overtime and received the ball first. Mahomes quickly put Kansas City in scoring position and then found tight end Travis Kelce to win the game 42-36. Josh Allen and the Bills didn’t get a shot in the extra period as, per the NFL’s overtime rules, a touchdown or a safety on the first possession of overtime wins the game.
Naturally, this has drawn plenty of criticism.
The game basically went down to a coin flip — like it almost always does in that situation. Of the 11 playoff games under the current overtime rules, the game was decided by a walkoff touchdown seven times. The team that received the ball first won 10 of those 11 games, too.
“We should never let a football game be determined from a coin,” Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said, via The Associated Press. “Like I think that’s the most craziest rule in sports. Like, you can fight your entire fight the whole game, and then the game comes down to a 50-50 chance of a coin toss. Like, this ain’t Vegas. Like, we’re not at the casino table. Like, this ain’t no 50-50 bet and there ain’t even no 50-50 bet. And it’s just crazy that that was the outcome.”
But will anything actually change? That remains to be seen. There’s a pretty good argument to be made that the Bills should have used a squib kick and then stop the Chiefs in regulation, too — which would have ended the game without the use of a coin.
Either way, though, the game is over, and the Chiefs are headed back to the AFC championship game. Nothing can be done about that.
But when both teams — not just the losing one — think that the rules aren’t quite fair, that’s a pretty telling sign that the NFL should at least be taking a look.