Micah Parsons‘ much-anticipated return to Dallas to face his former Cowboys teammates ended with a 40-40 tie and the rare walk-off game-tying field goal.
The Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey and Green Bay‘s Brandon McManus traded short field goals in overtime Sunday night, and Parsons’ only sack played a role in keeping Dallas out of the end zone in the extra period. It was the second time the Cowboys played into overtime this season, with both coming after 37-37 ties in regulation.
The first ended on a field goal by Aubrey in the final second of the 10-minute extra period that gave Dallas a 40-37 win over the New York Giants. This one ended when McManus hit a field goal with no time remaining for the NFL‘s first tie since 2022 and Dallas’ first in an overtime game.
Ties could be more prevalent this season thanks to a tweak in the NFL’s overtime rule that didn’t play a role Sunday night but could in the future.
What is the overtime rule for this season?
The league approved a proposal to make regular-season overtime more like the postseason, with both teams getting a chance at a possession, even if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown.
The NFL instituted regular-season overtime in 1974, adding a 15-minute sudden-death period that ended on any score. In 2010, the rule was tweaked to a modified sudden death that required an opening possession touchdown to immediately end the game instead of only a field goal. That was in effect in both the regular season and the playoffs.
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Overtime was then shortened for the regular season to only 10 minutes in 2017. A rule change in 2022 for the playoffs gave both teams the chance to score even with a touchdown on the opening possession.
Now that’s the case in the regular season, after the improved field position on kickoffs made winning in overtime on an opening possession touchdown easier.
How did the previous rule work out?
According to Sportradar, six of the 16 overtime games last season ended on an opening-drive touchdown for the most overtime games ended on the first drive since the rule change went into effect in 2010.
In all, teams that won the overtime toss won 75% of the time last season, according to Sportradar, and had a .606 winning percentage in overtime since it was cut to 10 minutes.
The league kept the 10-minute overtime period instead of expanding it back to 15 minutes like was originally proposed by Philadelphia, which could lead to teams opting to go for 2 and a win if they match an opening-drive touchdown with one of their own since there might not be time for another possession.
How rare was Sunday night’s OT?
The game Sunday marked just the fifth time since the overtime rule was changed in 2010 that a game ended in a tie after both teams kicked a field goal.
It first happened in Week 13 of the 2013 season when Green Bay’s Mason Crosby and Minnesota‘s Blair Walsh traded overtime field goals in a 26-26 game.
It happened again the following season when Graham Gano matched Mike Nugent‘s kick to give Carolina a 37-37 tie against Cincinnati. Arizona and Seattle traded overtime field goals in a 6-6 tie in Week 7 of the 2016 season and Detroit and Arizona did it in Kyler Murray‘s first career start in 2019.
According to the website Quirky Research, McManus’ kick was the first walk-off field goal in a game that finished tied in the NFL since Pete Gogolak did it on the final play of regulation for the Giants against Philadelphia in Week 2 of the 1973 season in the last NFL game played at the old Yankee Stadium.
Overtime was added to the NFL the following season, and it took more than a half-century for another walk-off tie.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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