The overtime result of the NFC Championship Game has stirred up the usual complaints about the 'unfairness' of the overtime rules.
With that in mind, I decided to look through pro-football-reference.com's database to see how many playoff games went to overtime since 1970 (the year the NFL and AFL merged). Here's what I found (winning teams are listed in bold):
| Date | Visitor | Home | Note | |||
| 25 | Dec 1971 | Dolphins | 27, | Chiefs | 24 | Longest NFL game played to date |
| 24 | Dec 1977 | Raiders | 37, | Colts | 31 | Ghost to the Post |
| 9 | Jan 1982 | Chargers | 41, | Dolphins | 38 | The Epic in Miami |
| 3 | Jan 1987 | Jets | 20, | Browns | 23 | |
| 11 | Jan 1987 | Broncos | 23, | Browns | 20 | The Drive |
| 3 | Jan 1988 | Seahawks | 20, | Oilers | 23 | |
| 31 | Dec 1989 | Steelers | 26, | Oilers | 23 | |
| 7 | Jan 1990 | Rams | 19, | Giants | 13 | |
| 3 | Jan 1993 | Oilers | 38, | Bills | 41 | The Comeback |
| 8 | Jan 1994 | Steelers | 24, | Chiefs | 27 | |
| 17 | Jan 1999 | Falcons | 30, | Vikings | 27 | Gary Anderson's first miss of the season |
| 30 | Dec 2000 | Colts | 17, | Dolphins | 23 | |
| 19 | Jan 2002 | Raiders | 13, | Patriots | 16 | The 'tuck rule' game |
| 11 | Jan 2003 | Steelers | 31, | Titans | 34 | |
| 4 | Jan 2004 | Seahawks | 27, | Packers | 33 | |
| 10 | Jan 2004 | Panthers | 29, | Rams | 23 | |
| 11 | Jan 2004 | Packers | 17, | Eagles | 20 | 4th and 26 |
| 8 | Jan 2005 | Jets | 20, | Chargers | 17 | |
| 15 | Jan 2005 | Jets | 17, | Steelers | 20 | |
| 14 | Jan 2007 | Seahawks | 24, | Bears | 27 | |
| 20 | Jan 2008 | Giants | 23, | Packers | 20 | |
| 3 | Jan 2009 | Colts | 17, | Chargers | 23 | |
| 10 | Jan 2010 | Packers | 45, | Cardinals | 51 | |
| 24 | Jan 2010 | Vikings | 28, | Saints | 31 | |
Comments:
Of the 24 games listed, 17 (70.8%) were won on a field goal.
Notice that from 1993-2010, 12 of 16 games (75%) were won by the home team. Which suggests that playing at home is a much more important advantage than winning the coin toss.
From 1970 to 1998, 10 of the 269 playoff games (3.7%) went to overtime. From 1999-2009, 14 of the 98 playoff games (14.3%) went to overtime. Clearly, overtime games have become much more common; this issue isn't likely to go away.
This suggests it would be interesting to look at the rate of overtime games in the regular season during this era. However, I gathered part of this data "by hand"; there are way too many regular season games to look at unless the process is fully automated. I will eventually get to it, but not before the off season.
- The result of the first overtime drive for games from the 2001 season to present are detailed here.
