The Peyton Manning overtime rule (the one where the opposing team gets the ball if you score a FG on the opening drive of overtime) has been around for several years, but I don't think I've seen a game yet where it was abused so hard to provide a shitty outcome. I knew this would happen eventually due to fundamental flaw with the rule, but I had not ever seen as good of an example of it as today.
The problem with the OT rule is: If the first team scores a FG, then the other team does not play normally on its possession. They know it is four-down territory for the duration, and they make unusual, even bizarre moves. But it is also not a race against the clock, like in most desperate situations at the end of a game.
In this game, the Eagles scored to open OT, then the Titans had the ball with 6 or 7 minutes to go, knowing that every series was four-down football. Three times in a row, they yolo'ed a fourth-down conversion that they never would have gone for under ordinary circumstances. The most egregious one was a 4th-and-15 at their own 30-yard line, with 5 minutes to go. There's no way any team down by three points goes for it in that field position, with that much time on the clock. And of course, another fourth-down conversion came by penalty, just because you aren't allowed to have a game without a penalty at a key moment anymore.
Anyway ... I don't care that Peyton Manning didn't get the ball. Boo-hoo Colts, it's in the distant past. The way they used to do overtime was sometimes a bit lopsided, but that was the danger of sudden death. They have only taken a dumb rule and made it just as dumb, but different. The rule was supposed to be "give both teams a chance," not "give the second team the ball where they have the advantage of knowing exactly where the floor is."
I would be pissed if I was an Eagles fan.