Saints-Vikings Was Great: Overtime Could Be Better

In today's NFC championship game, the Saints' winning field goal try was exciting and full of its own drama.   But like so many sudden death field goals, it just didn't do the contest that preceded it justice. 

How much better would it have been for the Vikings to have gotten a chance to extend the game?  How can the game be improved?

The answer hit me all at once:  Make the victorious team win by six. 

In overtime, score a touchdown and the game is over.  Kick the field goal and extend the game, but the other team gets a chance to answer.

Here's the problem: like so many football fans I feel that the overtime coin toss in the NFL just gives too much of an advantage to the team that is favored by chance. 

Win the toss, receive the ball, drive just far enough to bang through a field goal, game over with no opportunity for the other team to respond.

Today's match with the Saints and Vikings was one of the greatest playoff games I can remember.  At no point in this game was I disappointed with the intensity and level of play.  The Saints' winning field goal was no gimmee, but I couldn't help but feel let down by an overtime rule that can obviously be improved.

The NCAA system of alternating possessions from the 25 yard line makes a good effort at addressing the worst aspect of the traditional overtime scenario by insuring both teams get the ball.  But placing the ball automatically at the 25 yard line feels too artificial, and the game loses its rhythm and momentum.

If the NFL required the victorious team to win by six in overtime, it would afford a quick result to the game without giving an unfair advantage away to the winner of the coin toss.

An obvious downside to this idea is that in overtime, players are exposed to a much higher chance of injury.  At the end of regulation, players are physically fatigued, and the added strain of extended play can certainly do damage to an athlete.

So maybe the win by six scenario is only appropriate for playoff games, but it seems to me to be an obviously more satisfactory way to determine the outcome of a game played as brilliantly by two teams with as much on the line as the NFC championship game was today.

I hope this idea can make its way to the NFL competition committee for consideration.  Please join the conversation if you have an opinion about tweaking overtime one way or another.