NFL Pro Bowl: Experimental rules results

Change of possession, two timeouts, and two-minute warnings every quarter

An interesting concept that is probably more for spicing up an all-star exhibition than an actual football game, but it is worth exploring whether such a change in the game would be beneficial to the league. Short answer: it is not.

Essentially this rule splits the game into four short games. Each team will have an opportunity to start with the ball for two quarters and play in a game that focuses more on total possessions than time of possession. While it does provide four forced two-minute drills and masterful clock management at the end of every quarter, it is disruptive to the flow of the entire game.

It would be a lie to say that the two-minute drills ran at the end of each quarter were not exciting and injected some life into the Pro Bowl, but I cannot imagine an NFL where there are hockey-like periods in regular games instead of two halves where teams have an ample time to create a rhythm and flow to their respective game plans.

In the four quarters of the Pro Bowl, only one touchdown was scored and one field goal attempted (and missed) within the last two minutes. Teams went from establishing rhythm to attempting to force rhythm in a high tempo offense at the end of the quarter, which resulted in a red-zone interception and a missed field goal.

As stated above, this rule seems like it was installed in order to encourage more offensive possessions and forces no-huddle offense at the end of quarters solely in an exhibition game. Do not expect to see this in a real NFL game anytime soon.