12-01-2025, 01:32 PM -
Always remember, total points scored is number 6 in tie breaker rules. So sportsmanship and taking a knee at the end of games isn’t the way the game should be played. I know it looks like it’s running up the score, but as long as the NFL uses it as a tiebreaker.
NFL playoff tiebreaker rules for regular season standings
Head-to-head record: The team with the better record in games between the tied teams wins the tiebreaker.
Division record: The team with the better record within its own division wins the tiebreaker.
Common games: The team with the better record in games played against common opponents wins the tiebreaker.
Strength of victory: The team that has beaten more playoff-caliber teams wins.
Combined ranking:
The combined ranking of the teams in points scored and points allowed.
Net points: The team with the higher number of total points scored minus total points allowed wins.
Coin toss: If all other tiebreakers fail, a coin toss will be used.
Think it won’t happen ? Many of us right here watch on the last Sunday of the 1999 season.
A well-known scenario at the end of the 1999 NFL season, where the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers were tied in record and competing for a wild-card spot, and the tiebreaker came down to net point differential in conference games.
In the final week of that season (Week 17), both teams played simultaneously and engaged in a widely discussed effort to run up the score in their respective games to gain an advantage in the points-based tiebreaker:
The Packers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49-24.
The Panthers defeated the New Orleans Saints 45-13.
Green Bay ultimately finished with a slightly better net point differential in conference games, temporarily putting them ahead of Carolina in the tiebreaker.
It was scoreboard watching , with each team running up the score.
Sadly the late game knocked both the Panthers & Green Bay out of the last wild Card spot.
That was one great, exciting game to watch.
NFL playoff tiebreaker rules for regular season standings
Head-to-head record: The team with the better record in games between the tied teams wins the tiebreaker.
Division record: The team with the better record within its own division wins the tiebreaker.
Common games: The team with the better record in games played against common opponents wins the tiebreaker.
Strength of victory: The team that has beaten more playoff-caliber teams wins.
Combined ranking:
The combined ranking of the teams in points scored and points allowed.
Net points: The team with the higher number of total points scored minus total points allowed wins.
Coin toss: If all other tiebreakers fail, a coin toss will be used.
Think it won’t happen ? Many of us right here watch on the last Sunday of the 1999 season.
A well-known scenario at the end of the 1999 NFL season, where the Carolina Panthers and Green Bay Packers were tied in record and competing for a wild-card spot, and the tiebreaker came down to net point differential in conference games.
In the final week of that season (Week 17), both teams played simultaneously and engaged in a widely discussed effort to run up the score in their respective games to gain an advantage in the points-based tiebreaker:
The Packers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49-24.
The Panthers defeated the New Orleans Saints 45-13.
Green Bay ultimately finished with a slightly better net point differential in conference games, temporarily putting them ahead of Carolina in the tiebreaker.
It was scoreboard watching , with each team running up the score.
Sadly the late game knocked both the Panthers & Green Bay out of the last wild Card spot.
That was one great, exciting game to watch.