Read your real starting situation, choose a call, set the tempo and try to finish with more points than the opponent. You control both your offense and your defensive response.
How do you play your first drive?
- Choose a mode. Open Play. Use Daily for the shared challenge, Practice for another situation, or Archive to choose a historical opening.
- Read the scoreboard. Your team is marked YOU. Check the score, remaining time, down and distance before choosing a call.
- Choose a play and tempo. Start with a short pass or run, read the pre-snap defensive look, then select Hurry, Normal or Milk for your next snap.
- Press Call the Play. Watch the animation and read the result. The blue line is scrimmage; the gold line is the distance needed for a first down.
- React to the next situation. Keep calling offense, choose defense after a possession change, and review the final score and coaching notes when the game ends.
What should you read before the snap?
Check the score, clock, down, yards to gain, field position and timeouts. The scenario tells you which team you coach and whether the objective is a comeback, a broken tie or protecting a lead.
How do you call a play?
Choose among 10 pass, eight run, four RPO and five trick calls. Four personnel packages adjust the run/pass sampling model. For passing calls you can pick a target and a route. Sideline preference raises the chance of stopping the clock but does not guarantee it. Choose a defensive response when the opponent takes over.
How does the game clock work?
With a running clock, hurry costs eight seconds before the next snap, normal costs 22 and milk costs 38, plus the play time. A timeout stops future runoff and never refunds used seconds. Incompletions and boundary finishes stop the clock. The two-minute warning stops the clock between snaps, or after a play that crosses it.
How do downs and scoring work?
Reach the line to gain within four downs to reset to first down. A touchdown scores six and is followed by a one-point kick or two-point try. A field goal scores three; a safety gives the opponent two. Punts, interceptions, lost fumbles and turnover on downs can change possession. After scoring, the game can continue through a kickoff and the opponent's drive.
What happens in overtime?
This game uses a simplified rule: both teams receive an opening possession, then sudden death. A 10-minute clock and two timeouts are used. This is a game model, not the full overtime rulebook for a specific NFL season.
How are Daily results ranked?
The UTC date selects the same opening and random seed for all players. The server replays the first submitted completed attempt for a browser identity. Wins rank before losses, then larger score margin, then fewer plays, with submission time breaking ties. Practice and archives are unranked.
How can you improve your decisions?
Review the drive log, historical samples and post-call Monte Carlo estimates. A strong estimate can still produce a bad outcome. Try the same situation in Practice to explore a different trade-off. Read the clock guide.
Rules background: NFL Football Operations. Historical field definitions: nflverse data dictionary. Our model and limitations.