Bears assistant not happy with OT rule

The NFL’s new overtime rule hasn’t been used yet, and Chicago Bears special-teams coach Dave Toub isn’t exactly eager for his team to be the first test case in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers (2 p.m. ET on FOX).

Fact is, Toub also doesn’t like the change in how sudden death is implemented in OT, period.

“No, only because of the kicker that we have,” Toub said Thursday of Robbie Gould, the NFL’s highest-paid player at his position and a guy the Bears would have previously counted on to end a game on the first possession in the extra period.

That won’t happen anymore.

Under the new sudden-death OT rule, the team that takes the opening possession cannot win the game if the drive ends in a field goal. It can win only if the drive ends in a touchdown. Anything short of that gives the opposing team a chance to score. If the second drive ends in a touchdown, the game is over. If there is a matching field goal, play continues until the next score.

For the Bears, Gould is gold when it comes to finishing games. He is among the NFL’s most accurate kickers this season, having gone 25 for 30 on field-goal attempts (a long of 54 yards) and 35 for 35 on PATs.

Toub and the Bears coaches have been consumed with factoring in every scenario in which the OT rule might come into play.

"I think when you've got a guy like Robbie Gould who can just end the game right there, that's a big plus,” Toub said before the Bears hit their outdoor practice field for an afternoon session. “(With the new rules) you kick a field goal (on the first OT possession) and then you have to kick off.

“That's another special-teams play where you are sweating it out. First impression, no I didn't like (the new rule). But it's the way it is, we have to accept it."

Among the scenarios that could arise: an onside kick; deciding whether to defer because of wind and weather; whether the other team wins the OT coin toss. Everything is in play if the Bears and Packers head into a bonus period with the score tied after regulation.

"We talk about it a lot. Lovie (Smith) and I . . . all of the different scenarios that can possibly come up," Toub said. "I'm not going to give away our plan, but I think special teams, if it does go into overtime, is going to become more of a factor.

"A lot of the decisions that you have to make are all going to be special-teams related. I am excited about the opportunity if it does go into overtime. It means we're competing. That will be exciting. I just wish we would have seen it already in one of these games before, but it just didn't come up."