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If there's one word to describe the Colts' 29-26 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers on Monday night, "crazy" might be the most fitting. Andrew Luck and the offense looked awful, fell behind 23-6, came back to tie it and send it to overtime, took the lead in overtime, and then allowed two field goals to the Panthers to end the game.
In addition to all of that, there's this great nugget from NFL Network's Rich Eisen: the Colts are the first team under the new overtime rules to score first and still lose.
The Colts became the first team under the new NFL OT rules to score first and lose.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) November 3, 2015
Under the old overtime rules, NFL overtime was truly sudden death, as the first team to score won. The league decided that wasn't fair to teams who saw their opponent get the ball, drive down the field, and kick a field goal to win it (not seeming to care that the team had their defense on the field still), so they changed the rule a few years ago to account for that. Now, if a team kicks a field goal on their first drive, the other team gets a chance to either match it or best it.
So last night, the Colts got the ball to start overtime and Quan Bray gave them a nice boost in the return game. The offense gained the extra yards needed (barely) and Adam Vinatieri nailed a 50-yard field goal to put the Colts up 26-23. But the Panthers still got another chance, and they drove down to match it. Then the game became sudden death, and an Andrew Luck interception basically put Carolina in field goal range already, and after they picked up a few much-needed yards on third down, they kicked the game-winner. That resulted in the oddity of the team that scored first in overtime not winning the game.
You can blame the rules if you want, but the bottom line is that the Colts still need to produce. Andrew Luck had a crucial interception and the Panthers took advantage. Ultimately, it's just an interesting tidbit from the game and one that just adds to the craziness that was last night's Monday Night Football game.