The Overtime Rules Last Night were Confusing...

*still lookin good, Kyle! @ezyderaaf where is the caption capability and why does it not always pop up?

The San Francisco Forty-Niners completely controlled the line of scrimmage and came out hot in last night's Super Bowl, outplaying the Chiefs in the first half. But a few miscues and tactical errors ended up as their downfall... two massive special teams errors in the muffed punt and missed PAT (though two 50+ yard kicks for Moody were massive though, credit to him), and by 7:45 PM local time, everyone from the Mission to North Beach was back in beddybye upset about another year not hoisting the Lombardi for this proud franchise. I'm not here to talk about the game itself, I am here to talk about the overtime confusion.

We are now hearing about how the Chiefs knew and were very familiar with the newly implemented OT rules and the Niners players were not, with leaders on the team saying things like Arik Armstead saying, "I didn't even know about the new playoff overtime rule, so it was a surprise to me... I didn't even really know what was going on in terms of that." And Kyle Juszczyk saying - "You know what? I didn't even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime. I assume you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win... I guess that's not the case. I don't totally know the strategy there. We hadn't talked about it, no." - ESPN

If these guys were confused, the rest of the team was definitely confused - and that effects everything from the calls on D to how they are being executed - it's very difficult to play any game if you do not currently know the rules/stakes. Sucks when there's that little motion of uncertainty/hesitancy one is playing with, and in the National Football League with the best players in the world on the opposing sideline, no room for thinking about it between the lines - action, speed, and execution only. If you watch back that final drive, you can see some hesitancy from the Niners, even on final play, while Chiefs seemed confident and in the driver's seat.

A couple of takeaways to note:

1. If time is no longer a factor, why is there a game clock? It should only be a play clock instead of a now meaningless game clock since if the game clock runs out, it has no effect on the timeout usage, there is no second half time, and I am pretty sure they would not change the side of the field for offense/defense. Tony Romo even had to explain this to fans during the game last night at the first OT period was winding down that the game is not over if that clock runs out. Get rid of it.
2. Say the Chiefs hit a field goal on their first possession, and the Niners score a touchdown on their next - do the Chiefs get another chance to match on the 4th possession of overtime? I believe they would, but there was definitely some ambiguity there and a lack of clear understanding/explanation. Fred Warner should have asked questions with the refs when prompted - would've taken balls of steel to do that, but his boys were clearly confused. Sucks.
3. There very well could have been some players who did not know the Chiefs has won the Super Bowl when they scored that final touchdown - kind of crazy to think about, but was undoubtedly the case.
4. Tough look on the Niners coaching staff - it's now essentially college rules, with the whole field and special teams at play, and a clock that makes things incredibly confusing, so in that instance you defer almost 100% of the time barring some sort of weird weather situation. Niners taking the ball takes the Chiefs potential for punting essentially out of play, and now they know what they need to do to win (kick a FG, TD, etc.) It's just tough that it had to be the Niners as guinea pigs for this new rule in the NFL because in EVERY overtime situation since the beginning of time, the team that wins the coin toss takes the ball no questions asked. Patriots fans know Matt Slater best for two of the great coin flip calls in history in SB 51 and '19 AFC title game - those high stakes affairs appear to have ended.

Hate to see that the talking heads and bloggers/media moguls are talking about OT rules the day after a great game and Super Bowl, but now, at least in theory, the world knows the rules for next time. Here's to hoping the Niners can keep the boys together and get back to winning the NFC again next season. Bang bang indeed, pray for TI. Niner gang for life!