Introduction the score is tied the final seconds of the fourth quarter are ticking away and both teams have exhausted their timeouts What happens now? what happens now aside from getting to watch some free football Victory is still in the cards for both teams however the rules for this extra play differ slightly depending on whether the game occurs during the 18-week regular season or in the postseason what are OT OT Rules During the Regular Season rules during the regular season if a Coin Toss and Possession regular season game reaches the end of regulation with a nodded score the captains for both teams and a referee will conduct a coin toss the visiting team captain calls heads or tails and the winner of the toss States if his team would like possession of the ball first or which side of the field they wish to defend given the structure of First Possession Advantage overtime in the NFL choosing to be on offense first is usually advantageous an Overtime Period and Scoring intermission of No More Than 3 minutes follows and then a 10-minute period begins in which each team must have the opportunity to play offense the one exception to this arises when the first team to get the ball scores a touchdown on its opening overtime possession in that case the game ends immediately and the other team doesn't get a chance to play offense if the first team to play offense doesn't score a touchdown instead kicks a field goal punts or turns the ball over the opposing team would have a chance to possess the ball Sudden Death and Safety if the score remains tied after each team has possessed the ball overtime continues in sudden death play until one team scores by any method touchdown field goal or safety and the game ends there is one other instance in which the game ends on the first possession and no touchdown is scored if the team kicking off to start the overtime period scores a safety on the receiving team's initial possession the team that kicked off is the winner each team gets two timeouts Timeouts and Reviews during this period of extra play if a team ends regulation with unused timeouts those are scrapped once the fourth quarter ends coaches do not have instant replay challenges during OT all reviews are initiated by the replay official if the score is still equal at Tied Games the end of the 10-minute overtime period the game will be recorded as a tie in each team's records the 2023 season was the first since 2017 with no tied games what are OT Rules During the Postseason OT rules during the postseason postseason overtime rules are not identical to the regular season rules because games at this stage of the Season cannot end in a tie the overtime Postseason Overtime Period period is 15 minutes long during the postseason and requires both teams have a chance to possess the ball at least once the exception to this occurs if the team that kicked the ball away to begin overtime scores a safety on its opponent's initial possession in that case the game ends immediately with a win for the team that kicked off after Scoring and Winning each team has played on offense the side with the most points wins if the score is still tied the next team to score by any method wins if the score remains Multiple OT Periods even at the end of the 15 minutes or if the second team has not not completed its initial offensive drive by this point the teams play another overtime period play continues until a winner is determined if more than one overtime period is necessary there is a two-minute intermission between each overtime period at the beginning of the third overtime period the captain who lost the initial overtime coin toss gets to choose to play offense or pick which end zone his team will defend unless the team that won the coin toss deferred that choice if the game remains tied at the end of a fourth overtime there will be another coin toss and the teams will keep playing until one team has outscored its opponent each team gets Timeouts in Postseason OT three timeouts during a half which is two overtime periods as opposed to two timeouts during overtime in the regular season