Tim Benz: Steelers-Raiders-Chargers drama raises questions about NFL ties, scheduling reform

The Pittsburgh Steelers organization (and its fans) nervously watched “Sunday Night Football” as a 2021 AFC playoff bid almost evaporated thanks to a near-tie.

Two thoughts crossed my mind as the Las Vegas Raiders barely beat the Los Angeles Chargers 35-32, securing the AFC’s fifth seed for themselves and the seventh seed for the Steelers.

1. We are seeing the exact reason why the NFL needs to change its format for the final week of the season.

2. We are also seeing the exact reason why it won’t.

The Chargers and Raiders playing each other in a “win and you’re in the playoffs, lose and you’re out” showdown as a standalone “Sunday Night Football” game was highly interesting television on its own.

Factoring in the bizarre confluence that the Steelers were involved by way of possible elimination from the postseason if the two teams tied resulted in utterly unique sports theatre.

The entire game — especially the fourth quarter and overtime — was extremely compelling for all three fan bases.

And for those cities in the rest of the AFC postseason bracket awaiting next week’s opponents to be determined.

And for an entire nation of gamblers waiting to see who would win on a 3-point spread, in addition to season-win total and playoff qualifying bets.

Somewhere you could almost see the TV ratings points flying through the air and oozing into commissioner Roger Goodell’s pores through osmosis. It was everything the league office wanted in terms of creating drama when it decided to flex the Chargers-Raiders game to Sunday night at the beginning of the week.

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That said, the decision had the potential to be an affront to the integrity of the game and natural competition.

Give full marks to the Chargers and Raiders franchises. They avoided being baited into a tie at the end of the game. Frankly, playing for a tie was probably the smarter and more expeditious thing to do since ending the game at 32-32 would have gotten both of them into the postseason and left the Steelers on the outside looking in.

The Raiders didn’t have to attempt the game-winning field goal with two seconds left. Theoretically, that kick could’ve been blocked and returned for a touchdown. Pragmatically, the easy thing to do would’ve been to run into the line of scrimmage.

But, hey, why not avoid a trip to Kansas City in the playoffs next week? Make the Steelers do that.

Chargers coach Brandon Staley didn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t have) called a timeout with 38 seconds left to (ahem) “make sure he had the right run defense package on the field.”

Luckily for the Steelers, that’s what Staley did, though. Too bad for the Chargers. Happy times for the Raiders and the rest of the NFL.

The league got the best of both worlds. It got a thrilling game and avoided the result of two teams manipulating an ending to an anticlimactic tie.

If there is a next time, maybe the league won’t be so fortunate. Maybe the two teams won’t play it as straight.

Oh, and there will be a next time. Something identical to this scenario — or at least similar to it — will happen again in the future. Especially with 18 weeks in the NFL season now (with the prospect of 19 or 20 on the horizon) and seven teams in each conference playoff.

There is no way the league will adjust its final week schedule next year after Sunday’s impressive television ratings spike. So, for those of us hoping that the NFL may sacrifice that final-week primetime window in the name of competitive balance — be it to avoid a tie or the potential of a team tanking its lineup if its playoff fate is sealed by kickoff, good luck.

That’s what should happen. Not necessarily out of a sense of paranoia over this once-in-a-millennium goofy tie scenario. But more to avoid Team A gaining a decided advantage over Team B because Team B’s playoff fate happened to be determined earlier in the afternoon. Now Team C’s playoff hopes are compromised.

Have all the AFC teams start at 3 p.m. Eastern. Have all the NFC teams start at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The networks can share the games in each window for a week. Flip flop start times every year.

Let’s be real. The NFL may not always be so lucky as to get that kind of simple all-in or all-out situation that they stumbled into with Chargers-Raiders as they did this season.

They often get one. Or something close to that level of drama. But not always.

In terms of avoiding a tie coming into a play-in game like that again, the only way to do so is just eliminate ties like in college football. Up until what I saw Sunday, I’ve never really minded the occasional tie in the NFL after 10 minutes of overtime play. They are extremely rare. But as Steelers defensive back Cameron Sutton suggested Tuesday, why bother allowing them to exist at all?

“I don’t think there should be a tie,” Sutton said. “Who wants to be complacent and just tie? But I don’t get into it beyond that.”

If the NFL ever adopts the NCAA alternating possession overtime model, they’d have to tweak it to make scoring more difficult for offenses and pro kickers. Maybe start as far back as the opposing 40- or 45-yard line. Or at least minimize kickers by disallowing field goals. Touchdowns only.

However they do it, Steelers receiver Ray-Ray McCloud said the league can’t pile on too many extra snaps in overtime in an effort to avoid ties.

“It’s good where it’s at,” McCloud said of the current overtime format. “Another quarter? We’ve got 17, 18 weeks. So another quarter is like a whole game in overtime. It feels like it at least.”

Well, that might be an exaggeration. But the NFLPA will no doubt carp about player safety if overtimes are extended.

If we are talking about carping, though, can you possibly begin to imagine what life would’ve been like around Pittsburgh if that Sunday night game actually did end in a tie?

Yeah, me either.

Thank you, Daniel Carlson. Bless your Silver and Black little heart.

Stone-cold clutch. ❄️@DanielCarlson38 | #LACvsLV | More highlights on https://t.co/wXUK7ZZimE pic.twitter.com/CNEYzJLdw7

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) January 10, 2022