No chance against New York Giants in overtime for Atlanta Falcons

Giants K Tynes (right) watches his kick in OT against Atlanta (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

The outcome to the Atlanta Falcons-New York Giants game on Sunday isn't foreign to any NFL fan, but it often leaves players and fans alike wanting a little more. 

Almost every offseason, the league's competition committee looks into the dilemma of the current rule, allowing the winner of the overtime coin toss the possession and the opportunity to win the game. 

Former Atlanta Falcons general manager and current co-chairman of the committee said in 2008 one of the determining factors in continuing to uphold the rule was the concern that coaches would become conservative in late game situations, playing for an overtime in which each team gets a possession.

As it stands now, coaches want to avoid it because possession is determined by the flip of a coin. The winner of the flip scores and it's game over.

That's exactly the scenario that occurred for the Falcons on Sunday. An aggressive Atlanta offense that tied the game late in the fourth quarter after being down as many as 14 points could do nothing else. They'd already scored on four straight possessions and stopped the Giants offense with 28 seconds remaining in the game to force overtime.

But the gravitational pull of a coin determined the Giants got the ball and they scored in eight plays in overtime to take the 34-31 win with the Falcons offense standing on the sidelines, left wondering what could have been.

"I think that if we had a chance to get at them first, we would have gone right down and scored," Atlanta wide receiver Roddy White said. "But we didn’t, they got the toss and they went down and scored."

The odds historically have been in favor of the team that gets the ball first. Since the sudden death system was introduced in 1974 for regular season games, 52% of teams that won the toss won the game, with 44% of the toss-losers winning. The rest of the games ended in a tie, the outcome should neither team score at the conclusion of the additional 15-minute period.

However, since 1994 when the kickoff was moved back from the 35-yard line to the 30, the team winning the coin toss' winning percentage has jumped to 60%. In this season, heading into Sunday's games, the team that won the toss was 4-2 in overtime games. With the way Atlanta's defense was allowing New York to score and the percentages being against them, the Falcons offense couldn't help but feel discouraged following the lost coin toss.

"Statistically, I mean, the team that gets the ball in overtime usually wins," Atlanta's tight end Tony Gonzalez said following the game. "I thought we were on a roll and we were moving the ball up and down the field, especially in the fourth quarter. That’s just how it goes, they were moving the ball, too, and that’s how it happened."

For the Giants, it's a story of contrast. Much like Atlanta's, their offense was moving the ball strongly. With the ball in their hands, they could approach the post-toss period with confidence.

"I knew we had moved the ball very well most of the game, especially in the second half," Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. "We had some drives, we were throwing it well, guys were protecting, we were running pretty well, so I felt good.  I am glad we got the ball first and we had the opportunity to go out there and win the game."

The defenders of the rule will argue that a team's defense must stop the opponent in order to win. However, little consideration seems to be given to the balance that the NFL typically likes to have. Why should the rules of possession change once an overtime period begins? One can argue that in the interest of fairness, how can a team lose a game without an equal opportunity to win?

The Atlanta fans, as would be expected, were disappointed in not only the outcome, but how it occurred.

Eddie Bruce, a Falcons fan from Cartersville, Georgia, had this to say on twitter following the Falcons' loss:

I hate the NFL and there stupid OT rules!!! Win the coin toss, you win the game. Sorry Falcons you don't even get to touch the ball.

 

I always love to hear what you've got to say. Leave a comment or email me for the Weekly Mailbag: jdanielcox@gmail.com. Click "subscribe" to receive emails whenever a new article is posted. Follow me on Twitter.