Sports

In 2025, the NFL adopted regular-season overtime rules that guarantee both teams a possession. The new rule has been used twice this season, most recently at AT&T Stadium for the Packers-Cowboys game on Sunday night.

But there's a significant asterisk.

If the team that gets the ball first consumes the full 10 minutes of overtime to score a field goal or a touchdown, the game ends with that team winning. It doesn't matter if the team that kicked off to start overtime doesn't get an otherwise guaranteed possession.

More than a few PFT readers and PFT Live viewers have asked for clarification of the issue. We asked the league, just to be sure.

And the NFL has confirmed that, in theory, the team that receives possession of the opening kickoff in overtime can indeed use the full 10 minutes, score a touchdown or a field goal with no time on the clock, and exit with a win.

It's not crazy to think that a team could do it. Last Monday night, the Lions had an 18-play, 10 minute and 48 second drive against the Ravens. If the team that gets the ball first in overtime deliberately milks the play clock when the game clock is otherwise running, the 10 minutes can evaporate, quickly.

Beyond the possibility of leaving the other team with no time, there's an incentive to leave the other team with limited time to match or beat the first-drive score. It's another factor to evaluate when deciding whether to choose to receive or to kick upon winning the toss in overtime.

In the postseason, the best decision usually will be to kick. In the regular-season, it's far less clear.

And it's another reason for the NFL to revert to a 15-minute overtime for the regular season.

The Texans shut out the Titans 26-0 on Sunday. The Titans are bad, but the Texans defense was improved.

Texans coach DeMeco Ryans acknowledged this week that he relinquished play-calling duties to defensive coordinator Matt Burke before the game. It marked the first time for Burke to call the plays in a regular-season game since the Texans hired him in 2023.

Ryans, who wants to focus on the entire operation and delegate more responsibilities, said he remained involved in the game planning.

“For me, Burke has called plays before [in the preseason],” Ryans said, via Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle. “We all collectively put the gameplan together. It worked well, and he did a good job of calling it on Sunday.”

The Texans limited the Titans to 175, with No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward completing only 10 of 26 passes for 108 yards and an interception.

Ryans said he remained in communication with Burke during the game.

“We worked well in tandem doing that,” Ryans said. “Burke did a really nice job. Everybody, our entire sideline and our operation.”

Burke is expected to continue as the play-caller moving forward.

The Cowboys and Packers played to a 40-40 tie in an entertaining back-and-forth game.

The Sunday Night Football game averaged 26.9 million viewers, NBC Sports announced Tuesday.

The game ranked as the third-most-watched NFL game this season.

The Super Bowl rematch between the Chiefs and Eagles on Fox averaged 33.8 million viewers, and the league's kickoff game between the Cowboys and Eagles on Sept. 4 drew 28.3 million viewers despite a 65-minute weather delay.

The Packers-Cowboys game was also the most-watched overtime game in 19 such games in NBC’s SNF history.

Micah Parsons' return to AT&T Stadium was a juicy-enough storyline that NBC Sports sent its Football Night in America pregame show to Arlington to broadcast on-site. NBC's pregame delivered its most-watched show since Oct. 3, 2021, averaging 11.4 million viewers.

Sunday Night Football is averaging 25.5 million viewers, up 6 percent from a year ago, and off to the best four-week start in its 20-season history on NBC.