Can you imagine playing 60 minutes of football without a winner being decided and heading to the locker room with a tie on the books?
What a taste that would leave in your mouth and what a mess it would make of the standings.
Fortunately in college football, a game is decided on the field.
But while the tiebreaker process has been on the books now for years, it’s a rare occurrence when it has to be used.
The Grizzlies had not played in an extra session game since 2003 and have participated in just five such games in the last decade.
Winning in OT on the road in a league game is an incredible high and what a boost it can be for a team’s confidence.
That was the case for the Grizzlies recently in Flagstaff, Ariz.,. when Northern Arizona kicked a last-second field goal to send the game into overtime.
After the Grizzlies scored first, the favorable outcome came in surprising and dramatic fashion with a Grizzly interception by Baker’s Shann Schillinger on a ball tipped by Trumaine Johnson in the end zone on a first and goal call from the 3 yard line.
But it’s not the disputed out-of-bounds call that brought the play about; the timeout called used by NAU before the pass play was called; or even throwing a fade pattern on the final play that surprised me.
It’s just about a difference in style or probably coaching philosophy, but here’s what jumped out at me and what I commented about during the radio broadcast.
When the Lumberjacks answered Montana’s late touchdown to drive into range and kick the tying field goal, NAU displayed loads of character and maturity, refusing to be denied a score.
But when the kick was successful, the Lumberjacks exploded with enthusiasm as if they had just won the game, not forced the game into overtime.
There is little time between the end of regulation and the start of overtime – although the time was extended a bit in this one because officials didn’t have a coin to flip and retreated to their dressing room to acquire one.
The Montana philosophy, either if they had kicked the field goal or given up the tying score, is to scurry to the sidelines, get together with position coaches and fine tune a strategy that is already in place for such occurrences.
Save the celebration for the victory and act like you’ve been there before.
My second observation has to do with what happened after the interception.
Now, while I try to put myself in the opponent’s corner about how disappointed they feel about again losing to the Grizzlies (especially for the 12th straight time and 21st in the last 22 matchups), I want my players in the locker room with their teammates and coaches, not on the field lamenting the loss by themselves, with family, friends or whomever.
Several NAU players seemed to act like the season was over, for several minutes gazing forlorn to the roof of the Skydome, when, in fact, like Montana after an opening league loss to Weber State last year, the Lumberjacks are 0-1 in the Big Sky Conference race with everything still in front of them.
The NAU coaching staff features several of my dearest friends and I wish them the best every Saturday but one. But I think this was a lost teaching moment at least for those few players who didn’t get their butts into the locker room.