chance to possess the ball at least once unless the first team to possess the ball scores a touchdown and the second team does not score in their possession this change was made to address concerns over the outcome of games being too dependent on the coin toss at the start of overtime the regular season games have a 10-minute overtime period if the team that starts with the ball scores a touchdown they win otherwise the game continues until there is a winner each team has two timeouts and games can end in a tie if there's no score by the end of overtime unlike the regular season playoff games cannot end in a tie overtime periods are 15 minutes and both teams are guaranteed a possession unless the first team scores a touchdown and the second team does not score in their possession after both teams have had their possession if the game is still tied additional overtime periods are played until a winner is determined teams get three time outs for every two overtime periods this rule change came after playoff games ended controversially what