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After Years of Waiting, XFL Finally Sees Games Go to Overtime

April 10, 2023 - XFL (XFL) News Release


There were many things Dean Blandino, the XFL's vice president of officiating and playing rules innovation, was looking forward to watching this season.

There were the fourth-and-15 onside kick alternatives. There was the question of how and when coaches would use the one-time challenge anything rule. And there was the chance to watch an XFL game go beyond 60 minutes.

Entering the 2023 season, no XFL game had ever gone into overtime. That meant the last time around in 2020, no one ever got to watch the new XFL overtime rules happen in real time.

Blandino hoped that wouldn't be the case this year.

"We're excited about overtime," Blandino said before the season. "We hope we get a lot of overtime because that means our games are close and they're going to be exciting."

It took another seven weeks of action, but Blandino and XFL fans finally got their overtime wish - and they got it twice in Week 8.

The St. Louis Battlehawks' victory Saturday over the Vegas Vipers became the first overtime game in XFL history, while the Houston Roughnecks' win Sunday over the San Antonio Brahmas was the second.

"It was a great game," Roughnecks head coach Wade Phillips said. "It shows you what this league is. There's so many things that can come up and then the overtime is really exciting."

In overtime, each team has three attempts to score a two-point conversion from the 5-yard line. The team that scores the most out of those three attempts wins the game. If it is tied after three attempts, teams continue until a round concludes with one team ahead.

Offensive penalties result in a failed conversion. Defensive penalties result in a retry with the offense going to the 2 1/2-yard line or the 1-yard line, depending on the penalty.

The rules were almost the same in 2020. The only difference was it was originally five attempts before being shortened to three this year.

"As a coach, I love it," San Antonio head coach Hines Ward said. "Why not just rapid fire and give both teams equal opportunities to execute from the 5-yard line. I'm all for it."

The Battlehawks won by converting both of their two-point attempts while the Vipers failed to score on both of theirs.

St. Louis has been on the cutting edge with some of the XFL rules this season - most notably, it converted a three-point conversion and a fourth-and-15 onside alternative conversion to come back from 15 points down over the last few minutes in a Week 1 win over San Antonio.

"Every little wrinkle in the XFL, we've kind of started the trend with the three-point and we got to do overtime," head coach Anthony Becht said. "Finally we saw an overtime game and we were prepared for it."

The Battlehawks' first attempt was a pass play. Backup quarterback Nick Tiano - starting in place of MVP contender A.J. McCarron - found Hakeem Butler across the middle for two points.

The second attempt was done from the 2 1/2-yard line after a Vegas penalty. It was a simple halfback dive out of the pistol set that Brian Hill ran in for the winning score as St. Louis won 21-17.

"We got a lot of five-yard plays in our in our offense," Becht said. "It's a lot of pressure for Nick and anybody to really get down there. You saw two great stops by our defense. The drama of that stuff. The pressure. Guys racing up in those situations. That shows you a little something about your team."

While the first overtime game finished after four total attempts, the second overtime game went the full three rounds.

Houston and San Antonio both missed their first two conversions. The Roughnecks came the closest to scoring when a pass interference call gave them the ball at the 1-yard line. But the Brahmas stopped Cole McDonald on a quarterback sneak.

McDonald converted on the third two-point attempt with a slant pass to Deontay Burnett. Jack Coan's lob towards the back of the end zone was incomplete on the next play as Houston escaped with a 17-15 victory.

Ward said the team practices two-point attempts in a competitive drill session each Thursday. This past week was the first time the offense won, which gave him confidence the team would be able to convert.

While they weren't able to pull out the victory, Ward reiterated he loves the rule and it is one of multiple ones the NFL should consider instituting for its games.

"It was great to be a part of it," Ward said. "You got three chances and each play counts. It came all the way down to the last conversions. They did and we didn't."

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