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Update: The Colts and the Texans have ended their game in a tie. The Steelers hit a field goal as OT expired to avoid history.
Week 1 of the NFL season is already bringing some exciting action. Among all of the close games in Sunday’s slate, two games went into overtime. The Indianapolis Colts took the Houston Texans to OT, while the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers also needed extra time to decide their game. While the games came down to the wire, it begs the question of when was the last NFL tie and have there ever been two ties?
In case you're curious...
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 16, 2018
The last time there were 2 games that ended in a tie during the first 2 weeks of a season was in 1973, the year before the NFL instituted the overtime rule.
For those unfamiliar with overtime rules, a coin toss decides which team gets to start with possession. There is a 10-minute overtime period. If the team that receives the kickoff scores a touchdown, it is over. If they make a field goal or don’t score, the other team gets a possession to try and win it and then it becomes sudden death. If neither team is able to score in the 10-minute period, the game will end in a tie.
The last tie game before the 2022 regular season came on November 14, 2001. The Detroit Lions were playing, you guessed it, the Pittsburgh Steelers! The last time there were two games that ended in a tie in the first two weeks of the season was in 1973, per the tweet above, and that was before the NFL even instituted the overtime rule. There have never been two ties in the same week of the NFL season.