Falcons-Colts Refs Made Critical Coin-Toss Mistake Before Overtime
In the Week 10 matchup between the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts held in Berlin, Germany, NFL officials committed a significant error before overtime. The Colts, who were returning to form in their 2025 NFL season, pushed the game to overtime thanks to a late game-tying field goal set up by quarterback Daniel Jones and the Colts’ offense.
Coin Toss Confusion at Olympiastadion Berlin
Veteran referee Clete Blakeman conducted the initial coin toss at centerfield, identifying Indianapolis as the visiting team. The Colts won the toss and chose to receive the ball first in overtime. However, the NFL had designated Indianapolis as the home team for this international game.
The NFL designated Indianapolis as the home team when building its international schedule for the 2025 season.
After discovering the mistake, officials replayed the coin toss during a commercial break on NFL Network. This time, Atlanta won and elected to receive the ball to start overtime.
Additional Officiating Error During Regulation
This was not Blakeman's only controversial call. At the end of regulation, he assessed an intentional grounding penalty against Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. Blakeman also ruled that Atlanta could not stop the 10-second runoff because they had no timeouts remaining, though Atlanta still had two timeouts with 11 seconds left in the game.
Summary:
"There was 11 seconds remaining in the game and Atlanta had two timeouts."
The officiating missteps in this international contest drew criticism and may have influenced the outcome in overtime.
Author’s summary: NFL officials made a notable coin toss error and missed a key timeout call, affecting the Falcons-Colts game in Berlin during a critical overtime period.