The Green Bay Packers are out of the playoffs, and Clay Matthews didn’t like the manner in which it happened. The Packers fell to Arizona in overtime on Saturday night, 26-20, marking the second year in a row that Green Bay was bounced from the postseason in an overtime game.
In both games, the Packers lost because their opponent won the coin toss heading into overtime, got the ball, and scored a touchdown in the extra frame’s only drive. This is where Matthews’ beef lies – he thinks it’s an indictment of the league’s overtime format that one team didn’t even get the chance to score.
“Let’s go college rules. Just put us on the 25 or whatever it is and let us go at it,” Packers linebacker Clay Matthews said when asked if the rule should be reexamined. “But I don’t know. I’m sure it’ll be talked about. It sucks that we don’t have an opportunity.
You can very easily argue that the league’s overtime rules are fine and that, if anything, all this means is that the Packer defense needs to bear down and not let opponents score a touchdown when they get the ball. But it is kind of weird that the NFL would let an entire game hinge on the flip of a coin heading into overtime, so Matthews does have a point.
This is a debate that comes up all the time, and to the league’s credit, it did change its regular season overtime rules a few years ago so that the team that loses the coin toss can get the ball back if its opponent makes a field goal on the first possession of overtime. Still, considering that the current overtime format isn’t all that popular, maybe it could be time for the NFL to look to the college game for inspiration.
(via USA Today)
