Overtime

Week 8 Byes:

(4-3) Atlanta Falcons

(4-3) Chicago Bears

(7-0) Green Bay Packers

(4-3) New York Jets

(4-3) Oakland Raiders

(4-3) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week 8 Games:

Sunday, October 30

(5-3) NewOrleans Saints 21 at (1-6) StLouis Rams 31

(2-6) Minnesota Vikings 24 at (2-6) Carolina Panthers 21

(0-8) Indianapolis Colts 10 at (4-3) Tennessee Titans 27

(2-6) Arizona Cardinals 27 at (5-2) Baltimore Ravens 30

(2-6) Jacksonville Jaguars 14 at (5-3) Houston Texans 24

(0-7) Miami Dolphins 17 at (5-2) New York Giants 20

(6-2) Detroit Lions 45 at (2-5) Denver Broncos 10

(3-4) Washington Redskins 0 at (5-2) Buffalo Bills 23

(5-2) Cincinnati Bengals 34 at (2-5) Seattle Seahawks 12

(3-4) Cleveland Browns 10 at (6-1) SanFrancisco 49ers 20

(5-2) New England Patriots 17 at (6-2) Pittsburgh Steelers 25

(3-4) Dallas Cowboys 7 at (3-4) Philadelphia Eagles 34

Monday, October 31

(4-3) San Diego Chargers 20 at (4-3) Kansas City Chiefs 23/Overtime

It was a wild week, Week 8 was: Pittsburgh not only beats New England, but they held the Patriots to 1:22 time of possession in the first quarter – the Steelers had the ball for 13:38; Detroit stops their 2-game losing streak and stomps Tim Tebow and the Broncos; Buffalo shuts out Mike Shanahan’s Redskins; Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy have their way with the Cowboys; St. Louis caps a World Series win with the Rams’ first win this season; and Kansas City beats the Chargers in overtime. On top of the football, there was an early snowstorm in the Northeast that left snow on many football fields, and we haven’t gotten to November yet.

Overtime is this week’s topic. People are confused by the rules, because the rules are different between college and the NFL, and between the NFL regular season and the NFL post-season.

College overtime and NFL overtime differ in several ways: college teams each get a chance to score, NFL teams play sudden death, i.e., the first team to score wins; college teams play additional overtime periods as necessary until one team scores and the other doesn’t, NFL teams play one 15-minute overtime period in the regular season – a game can end in a tie (but in the playoffs, no game can end in a tie and additional overtime might be necessary for one team to score and break the tie); college teams scoring a touchdown in the third overtime period must try for a two-point conversion, NFL teams don’t have scoring parameters.

On Saturday, USC lost a heartbreaker at home to Stanford in triple overtime. At the end of regulation, the score was tied at 34. First overtime: both teams scored a touchdown – score tied at 41. Second overtime: both teams again scored a touchdown – score tied at 48. Third overtime: Stanford scored a touchdown, and scored on the two-point conversion; USC did not score a touchdown. Final score: 56-48, Stanford wins.

On Monday night on ESPN, the San Diego Chargers played the Kansas City Chiefs. The game ended regulation in a tie – 20-20. One 15-minute overtime period would be played, each team receiving two timeouts. If neither team scored by the end of the 15-minute overtime, the game would end in a tie, with San Diego’s record going to 4-2-1, and Kansas City going to 3-3-1.

But Kansas City scored a field goal at 5:19, winning the game 23-20. Both teams go to 4-3.

A tie in the NFL regular season is rare. The last one was in November 2008, between Philadelphia and Cincinnati; the previous tie game was in 2002.

Week 9 Byes: Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Minnesota Vikings.

A key game next week: the New York Jets (rested and coming off a bye) at Buffalo Bills (fresh from a win).

Now that we’re in the heart of the regular season, we’re starting to see which teams have what it takes to go the distance.