There are few phrases in sports as great as "overtime football", but are you up to date on all of the new NFL playoff overtime rules? If two teams are still deadlocked after 60 minutes of intense play, they have to get back out there and finish what they started if they want to win a championship. It's free football, for crying out loud! The NFL's rulebook is constantly undergoing changes and evolves over time. There are some key differences between regular season and playoffs overtime rules. When the Bills and Chiefs squared off in the 2022 playoffs, a game that we ranked as the best NFL game of all time, Josh Allen never got a chance to answer the Chiefs touchdown on their first possession of overtime. The rules were changed so that both teams must possess the ball in playoff overtimes because even if you have one of the best defenses in NFL history, there's just something patently unfair about having a coin toss decide your fate. Here is everything you need to know about the NFL overtime rules in the playoffs.
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NFL Playoff Overtime Rules: What's the Difference?
Buffalo Bills vs. Kansas City Chiefs 2022 AFC Divisional Playoffs
There are some games so iconic and controversial that they cause the NFL to change their policies, and that exact thing happened in 2022. It was the AFC divisional round of the playoffs and two of the NFL's top teams, the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs, faced off in a win-or-go-home playoff game.
With 1:54 left in the fourth quarter, Gabe Davis caught a 27-yard pass from Josh Allen to give the Bills a 29-26 lead. Just 50 seconds later Tyreek Hill caught a 64-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to swing the lead back to the Chiefs 33-29. Roughly a minute later Allen found Davis again for a touchdown, giving the Bills a 36-33 lead with just 13 seconds remaining.
What happened next will live in infamy.
With only 13 seconds left, Mahomes threw a perfect dot to Travis Kelce to set up a 49-yard game-tying field goal attempt, which Harrison Butker would go on to split the uprights, extending the game to overtime.
An incredible end to the fourth quarter like that can only mean the greatest overtime ever right? Wrong! The Chiefs won the coin toss and quickly worked the way down the field, scoring a touchdown and winning the game, all while the Bills never even got the opportunity to touch the ball.
New Overtime Playoff Policy
The Buffalo Bills and most fans were rightfully upset with the ending of that AFC divisional game. Why should one team get a significant advantage in the overtime period solely because they won a coin-toss? It was decided that it's unfair to allow overtime games to end with only one team touching the ball.
After that 2022 AFC divisional game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said via nfl.com "We're always looking to improve and I think what really drove the decision was the database, ultimately, and looking at the facts and what's happened. Where we saw that most having an influence, I think, was 12 games in the postseason that have been in overtime, seven of which were won on the first possession. When you see that, that's the type of thing that I think our coaches and everyone looked at -- this is an issue in the postseason we should deal with."
It is now NFL policy that if a playoff game goes into overtime, there will be a 15-minute period of overtime, and both teams will get an opportunity possess the ball. If the score is still tied at the end of the first period of overtime, another 15 minute period will follow. This will continue until one team is winning at the end of a period. Check out the official rules on the NFL website for a full breakdown of the rules.
If it's any consolation to the Bills QB, some even call it the "Josh Allen" rule.
This means that the game won't end after the first drive even if a touchdown is scored, leading to more intense and back-and-back forth overtime periods. No games went into overtime in the 2023 post-season, meaning we still don't know exactly how the new rule will impact the game, but who knows, maybe the 2024 post-season will be the first to try the new rule on for size.
NFL Regular Season Overtime
As far as we know, the new NFL playoff overtime rules are only extending to the playoffs, and not the regular season. Some fans believe that the new policy will make its way to the regular season one day.
In a statement Goodell gave regarding overtime rules in the regular season he said, "I don't necessarily believe that just because we're doing it in the postseason that'll lead to the regular season. There may be a different solution, you know, the overtime rule has been through a lot of changes. I think it was '10, '12 and '22, so I think we will continue to look at that and sharpen those rules as we do with every rule. One of the things I'm really proud of in this league is we always look every year at our rules and try to make an evaluation on what's best for the game, what's best for the safety of the game, what's best for our players, and most of all what's best for our fans. I think that's paid dividends by the quality of our game."
Only time will tell if the new overtime rules extend to the regular season one day.
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