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Steve Brownlee
Duck! Watch out! The Armchair Quarterback is thinking again.
What Mike Greenberg said on ESPN's "Get Up" morning show was how the four teams in the NFC East -- Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington and the New York Giants -- were able to go winless over the weekend even though two of the teams played each other.
The Cowboys lost at home to Tampa Bay last Thursday, while Philly lost in London to Jacksonville on Sunday morning. That set up the Giants vs. Commanders winner to be the only team to win last weekend, meaning they'd pick up a game on everyone else.
That was, until they played to a 27-27 overtime tie in the 1 p.m. Sunday window after a comedy of errors. Actually, all four teams could've been invited to perform at a comedy club the way the zany moves of coaches across the division happened.
I'm not going to get into that, as that could go on all day.
Instead, I'm thinking more about the ties -- plural, since I decided to go back and look at all the ties that have occurred in 107 years of the pro football going back to 1920.
They were a lot more common before sudden-death overtime was introduced in 1974, I'm told, which has now become sudden-death-after-everyone-gets-the-ball-once. The numbers cited are 290 ties from 1920-73, or 54 seasons pre-overtime with an average of just under 5 1/2 deadlocks a year.
There were 17 ties in 1920 alone, and that was with only 14 teams playing I'm sure well less than a 17-game schedule. I get the feeling many of the ties were 0-0, 3-3 or 7-7 in the days before anyone wanted to try a forward pass (as opposed to the backward or lateral pass which probably happened a lot).
Once OT came onboard, there's only been 31 ties counting Sunday's, an average of a bit more than one tie every two seasons.
Strangely enough, two of the last three ties have been between the Giants and Commanders, the other recent one a 20-20 deadlock in New Jersey on Dec. 4, 2022.
The Packers and Lions have each been involved in one of the past five NFL ties, all since 2021. Green Bay tied Dallas at JerryWorld 40-40 on Sept. 28, 2025, while Detroit went to Pittsburgh and knotted up 16-16 on Nov. 14, 2021.
While it may not matter to us NFC North fans this season, ties originally were counted like the game hadn't even been played until 1972, so a 9-1-1 team was the exact same as a 9-1 team for the order of the standings.
Now, though, it counts as a half-win and half-loss. So while the 9-1 team has a winning percentage of .900, a 9-1-1 team is looked at as 9 1/2 wins and 1 1/2 losses, a percentage that dips to .864.
That's not enough to pull that team down behind a two-loss team -- it would actually take a 13-2 record, an extra four victories, for the winning percentage to bump back up above that at .867.
But a tie could easily hurt teams trying to make the playoffs -- or it could possibly help, especially if you're on the wrong side of key tiebreakers.
Say the Packers have a bad divisional win-loss record in the NFC North, at least worse than the Bears. If they're both 10-7 after splitting their games this season, Chicago wins the division, knocking the Pack into a wild card spot or maybe even out of the playoffs.
But if Green Bay had tied a game instead of losing against, say Atlanta, and was 10-6-1, they get the nod every time over the 10-7 Bears.
The latest change to the overtime rule guaranteeing teams possession in most circumstances and OT only lasting 10 minutes is really throwing a monkey wrench into deciding what to do with a winning coin toss.
Do you take the ball first and try to run the clock all the way or almost all the way out? That happened in one game Sunday.
Or do you let the other team have the ball first so you know exactly what you have to do? If both score a touchdown, like the Lions and Saints did in Week 1 this season, Detroit kicked its extra point going first for a seven-point lead, then New Orleans opted for a 2-point conversion to win the game in its subsequent possession.
Risky, sure, especially when the Saints failed and lost 31-30. But if they had kicked for a single extra point, they would've retied it 31-31 and been kicking off to the Lions with about 1:30 left.
What's Detroit going to do? Try to move the ball down the field quickly -- but not too quickly, so that almost all the remaining time runs out -- and because each team has had the ball already, even a field goal at this point not only puts Detroit ahead, it gives the Lions the win as the game automatically ends at that moment.
So enough of probably the most frustrating outcome in the NFL, win, tie or lose in OT. Onto this week, with four teams having a bye, including Detroit and Minnesota:
Today, 8:15 p.m.
• Seattle at Denver -- I so want to pick the Seahawks, as they're coming off a loss and Denver a win -- reverse momentum and all that jazz. But playing on a short week and coming to the mile-high thin air of the Rockies, I have to take the Broncos, 27-23.
Sunday, 9:30 a.m.
• Houston vs. Jacksonville, at London -- Another unique physical location to take into account. Jacksonville is playing two weeks in a row on the other side of the pond, which that plus their playing in England just about every year should be a distinct advantage. Then when adding in that the Texans must be feeling relief after finally winning a game last Sunday following their 0-4 start, I really like the Jaguars, 24-19.
Sunday, 1 p.m.
• Baltimore at Cleveland -- Ah, the old Browns vs. the new Browns. Old Browns/current Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was iffy early in the week, but even with Tyler Huntley, I still like Baltimore better. Ravens, 26-20.
• Carolina at Philadelphia -- I was thinking I can't even remember anything about Carolina's game last week. Then I saw that they'd joined the Chiefs with the first bye week of the season. As much as I remember Philly being a team that "circles the wagons" when adversity really hits, I like the team coming off the bye, even on the road. Panthers, 31-29.
• Chicago at Atlanta -- Both teams have potent offenses, even more for the Bears if they get back regular starting QB Caleb Williams, which is looking likely after Tyler Bagent's last pair of three-interception performances in relief.
The Falcons have sure looked like a different team with Michael Penix Jr. back. But he got hurt late in last week's game vs. Baltimore.
Going with the better likelihood of Chicago having its man, give me the Bears, 34-27.
• New York Jets at New England -- Even though the Jets are looking better, they got a win last Sunday against a suspect team, Cleveland, and in bad weather. If nothing else, New England sure has a much, much higher upside than New York. Patriots, 30-20.
• New Orleans at New York Giants -- Though I don't have a lot of faith in the Giants with Jameis Winston at QB, I really think the Saints are a fraud after the buildup in the offseason and their opener in Detroit that went to OT. Add in they're not at the Superdome, and give me the Giants, 22-19.
• Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay -- If you can't hound Pittsburgh's 42-year-old QB Aaron Rodgers, it'll be a long day. Especially with Tampa still looking like it will have Jalon Daniels at QB, not withstanding the Cowboys' sieve of a defense a week ago making him look like a Pro Bowler. Steelers, 27-21.
• Tennessee at Indianapolis -- I said last week that the Titans have to bottom out at 0-9 or 0-12, and they're only 0-5 so far. Colts, 34-19.
Sunday, 4 p.m.
• Arizona at Los Angeles Rams -- Just what the doctor ordered for a Rams team in desperate need of a win. Rams, 41-23.
• Buffalo at Las Vegas -- Buffalo really did pull victory out of the jaws of defeat, and with only a couple of superficial fang marks, give me the Bills, 38-27.
• Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City -- Maybe the Chargers also have to bottom out at 0-9 or 0-12, but even if they don't need to, KC ain't gonna let up coming off the bye and playing at home. Chiefs, 34-24.
Sunday, 8:20 p.m.
• Dallas at Green Bay -- I would really have my doubts if this was being played at JerryWorld, but in Green Bay, even with Micah Parsons not yet available, give me the Packers, 35-28.
Monday, 8:15 p.m.
• Washington at San Francisco -- What will happen with the Washington coaching staff this week? Forget to change the direction they're going when the switch from the first to second quarter occurs? 49ers, 34-22.
Last week
9-5-1 (I'm not counting my ties as anything), 64 percent. Season -- 49-29, 63 percent.
Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.