I've been reflecting on my reaction to the "touchdown wins" rule.
It is very true that the Patriots have now twice used that rule to their advantage in the playoffs (plus once when it was just a field goal needed).
But in the game right before the team that had the ball first in the overtime lost, rather than winning.
It's not the coin flip that determined the winner, but the play of the teams after the coin flip, for all the the coin flip provides an advantage.
It's not a huge advantage. Contrary to the 55% figure usually cited, it's actually a hair below 52% --> 45/87. 42.5% of the time they lose.
But giving both sides a chance at the ball doesn't actually seem to make things even, again! It merely changes the result to be tilted toward the second team to get the ball, based on college stats.
I kind of like one of the proposals from the Quanbeck brothers, roughly equivalent to "I get to cut the cake, but you get first choice of which piece to take." One team would choose the field position to open overtime, while the other team chooses whether to play offense or defense from that spot.
So... of those 87 overtime games, how many were determined on a touchdown on the first sequence, anyway?