What Are The NFL Playoff Overtime Rules?

The NFL Playoff overtime rules are simple. Each team gets two possessions. If the score is still tied after both teams have had the ball, then the game ends in a tie.

Introduction

In the NFL playoffs, if a game is tied after regulation, each team gets one possession to score. This is unlike the regular season, where games that end in a tie go into overtime periods of 10 minutes each.

What Are The NFL Playoff Overtime Rules?

The NFL playoff overtime rules are simple. Each team gets one chance to score. If they score a touchdown, they win. If they score a field goal, they tie. If they don’t score, the other team gets a chance to score. If neither team scores, the game ends in a tie.

The Coin Toss

Although sudden death overtime is used during the regular season, the NFL playoffs utilize a different system. The overtime rules for the NFL playoffs are as follows:

– each team gets one possession
– if the team that has the ball first scores a touchdown, they win
– if they score a field goal, the other team gets a chance to possess the ball
– if they don’t score at all, or if both teams score field goals, it goes to sudden death

Sudden Death Format

In the NFL playoffs, if a game is tied at the end of regulation, the teams will play an overtime period to determine a winner. The overtime format used in the NFL playoffs is different from the format used during the regular season.

In the regular season, if the score is tied at the end of regulation, each team gets one possession to score. If both teams score, or if neither team scores, the game continues in sudden death fashion with each team getting one possession until one team scores and the other doesn’t.

In overtime periods in the playoffs, each team gets one possession unless they score a touchdown on their first drive. If a team scores a touchdown on their first drive, they win the game immediately. If they don’t score a touchdown but kick a field goal, they still get an opportunity to defend their lead as the other team gets a chance to possess the ball.

If both teams kick field goals on their first drives of overtime, or if both teams punt on their first drives of overtime, then the game continues in sudden death fashion with each team getting one possession until one team scores (usually by kicking a field goal) and the other doesn’t.

The sudden death format used in NFL playoff games can lead to some interesting strategic decisions by coaches. For example, if you’re leading late in the game and your opponent has just scored to tie it up, do you go for it on 4th down deep in your own territory knowing that if you don’t make it you’ll likely lose in overtime?

On the other hand, if you’re trailing late in the game and you have just scored to tie it up, do you go for two points knowing that if you don’t make it you could still lose in overtime? These are tough decisions that coaches have to make all throughout NFL playoff games!

Each Team Gets One Possession

In the NFL playoffs, if the score is tied at the end of regulation, the game will go into overtime. The overtime period is 10 minutes long, and each team will get one possession to score. If neither team scores, or if both teams score field goals, the game will end in a tie.

If one team scores a touchdown, and the other team only scores a field goal, then the game is over and the team that scored the touchdown wins. However, if both teams score touchdowns, then they will keep playing until one team has more points than the other at the end of overtime.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the NFL playoff overtime rules are pretty simple. Each team gets a chance to possess the ball, and if the score is still tied after both teams have had a possession, then the game goes into sudden death. The first team to score wins the game.