Weird NFL rule ends 48-year hiatus, plus college football history is nigh

Last night’s 34-27 Chargers win over the Broncos featured two ingredients for a great football game: 

1. Playoff implications: L.A. now ties Denver at 9-6 in the standings and assures itself of the tiebreaker. This will almost certainly be a wild-card team. We should give Jim Harbaugh plenty of flowers for taking a five-win team and turning it into this.

2. An obscure rule cameo: In this one-score game, one of the Chargers’ scores came via a fair-catch free kick, a version of a field goal that a team can attempt after any fair catch. It’s quite rare, as a.) teams prefer to drive for touchdowns, and b.) fair catches usually happen far beyond field-goal range.

So last night, another wrinkle came into play: If no time remains after a fair-catch interference penalty, an offense can attempt an untimed free kick.

Here’s Cameron Dicker, lining up from 57 yards with no time left in the first half and drilling the historic kick:

Cameron Dicker nails the first free kick since 1976 from 57 yards out 🔥

🎥 @chargerspic.twitter.com/q0PLMs7QLP

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 20, 2024

That’s the NFL’s first successful fair-catch free kick since 1976 — and its longest ever. After the game, a delighted Harbaugh called it his “favorite rule” and said it changed the crucial night’s momentum. Let’s keep going:

It’s Here: We finally arrive at the future

It is not hyperbole to say that we college football fans stand on the precipice of history. The 12-team College Football Playoff begins tonight with the first-ever FBS tournament game on a campus stadium, and it is the main harbinger of an entirely new era of college football.

There have been plenty of valid criticisms of this new era. This weekend is our first look at the payoff promised to us by the scions of this sport. Let’s hope it lives up.

Your first-round Pulse Playoff Preview, with some Good Bets sprinkled in (odds via BetMGM, and we’re using seeds, not rankings):

No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame
Reader, I love this one. These teams occupy the same state but have played only once since 1958. This is easily the best story of the bracket so far. And to have it in South Bend? Glorious.

• On the field: The Hoosiers have been electric this season, but wilted in their only big-time game (though they were closer against Ohio State than the score indicated). The Fighting Irish have been a buzzsaw since losing to Northern Illinois. If Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke is 100 percent, this should be close. Oh, and it might snow.
• Funniest possible outcome: Any Indiana win. Imagine the Notre Dame angst and the national schadenfreude. Our model gives the Hoosiers a 35 percent chance.
• Good Bet: Notre Dame (-7). I think this is a great game for three-plus quarters, but the Irish pull away late.

No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State
A banger to begin Saturday. This feels like a proper reintroduction of the Mustangs to the sport’s upper echelon after almost 40 years in the wilderness. A game in Happy Valley is your prize. (Also, don’t forget this game and the next are on TNT for business reasons.)

• On the field: I have no idea what to expect. SMU looked rough for 98 percent of its ACC title loss to Clemson, and Penn State has been mostly great this year. I don’t know who I trust.
• Funniest possible outcome: Penn State wins on a missed field goal as time expires. James Franklin finally wins a big game, but everybody is mad at him anyway.
• Good Bet: SMU (+8.5). I think Penn State wins, but it’s close.

No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas
Somehow, these schools have never met in football. The combined orange in the crowd might be blinding in tomorrow afternoon’s sun.

No. 7 Tennessee at No. 6 Ohio State
What glory. Two vaunted programs on Saturday night at Ohio Stadium in late December. This is what college football’s decision-makers envisioned when creating this entire concept. Can’t wait.

• On the field: The big story here is simply Ohio State. An excellent season went awry against Michigan, and I’m curious to see how the Buckeyes respond. Of course, Tennessee is a good team, too.
• Funniest possible outcome: Vols win a flag-planting blowout. Ohio State coach Ryan Day might actually get fired after a Playoff season, no matter what athletic director Ross Bjork has said.
• Good Bet: Tennessee (+240). Vibes are stinky in Columbus. I’m leaning in.

It is going to be a fantastic weekend of football. See our staff’s full CFP predictions here, with everyone picking chalk in the first round (boo). I also really enjoyed Joe Rexrode’s hater’s guide to the CFP. 

Pulse record overall: 24-33-1

(Top photo: Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images)