Indianapolis Colts head coach Shane Steichen electing to kick off after winning the overtime coin toss of Sunday night’s game at the Kansas City Chiefs became a controversial decision after his club suffered a 33-30 overtime loss.
It turns out Steichen seemingly didn’t do a good enough job of telling team captain Camryn Bynum about the rules for overtime.
How Patrick Mahomes tried to trick Colts for the start of overtime
Per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk, Bynum initially said he wanted to “defer” after the overtime coin toss. Mahomes attempted to take advantage and ensure that the Chiefs would kick off and get the ball second in overtime, but referee Craig Wrolstad later asked Bynum to clarify whether the Colts wanted the ball or wanted to play defense.
Deferring is not an option for an overtime period in the NFL.
Eventually, Bynum executed Steichen’s plan of the Colts starting overtime on defense. The Chiefs and Colts subsequently traded a pair of field goals before Kansas City’s Harrison Butker made a 40-yard walk-off field goal as time expired.
Patrick Mahomes confirms he was trying to take advantage of the Colts’ confusion
After the Chiefs improved to 2-0, Mahomes confirmed that team statistical analysis coordinator Mike Frazier made sure that the signal-caller and other Kansas City players adequately understood the club’s options for the overtime coin toss.
“You’re supposed to say kick off,” Mahomes explained during his postgame comments. “You can’t defer in overtime. If you defer, then it’s my decision. So I was like, ‘Then I want to kick off.’ You’re supposed to say kick off, he said defer, so I said, ‘Well, I’ll kick off then.’ That’s the rules, I guess, but it didn’t work.”
While Mahomes and Co. ultimately didn’t need an advantage related to the coin toss to earn a victory over the Colts, Sunday’s events serve as yet another reminder to teams around the league regarding how important it is that players know rules for occurrences that don’t happen each game.
As for the Chiefs, they next play at the 0-2 Miami Dolphins on Sept. 27.
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