NFL Week 5 went to overtime three times, and one game still ended level

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alison b

The Giants and the Commanders played for seventy minutes on Sunday and nobody won. It finished 27-27, a tie (a drawn game), after a full overtime period that settled nothing (Giants.com). New York had clawed back from fourteen points down just to get there (SI), and they missed three field goals along the way, any one of which would have won it.

Three of Week 5’s fifteen games went to overtime, and that one is the one to slow down on, because it ends somewhere plenty of newcomers do not realise the NFL allows. The full slate is below.

Week 5 results
2026 season · 15 games · kickoff times US Eastern
Thursday 8 October
TBBuccaneers at Cowboys 24-16
Sunday 11 October
JAXEagles at Jaguars 19-17
CINBengals at Dolphins 31-24
NYJBrowns at Jets 17-12
HOUTexans at Titans 26-3
PITColts at Steelers 34-22
NERaiders at Patriots 45-17
MINVikings at Saints 23-13
TIEGiants at Commanders 27-27OT
DENBroncos at Chargers 23-17
DETLions at Cardinals 45-21
GBBears at Packers 31-7
SF49ers at Seahawks 32-29
Sunday night
BALRavens at Falcons 30-23OT
Monday night
BUFBills at Rams 37-34OT
On a bye: Chiefs, Panthers

On a bye: Chiefs, Panthers. Full scores via ESPN.

An NFL game really can end in a draw

A regular-season game that is level after 60 minutes gets one shot at a winner, and only one. The rulebook is blunt about it. Rule 16 says that after regulation, “an extra period of 10 minutes shall commence,” and then sets the limit that decided the Giants game:

“There shall be a maximum of one 10-minute period, even if the second team has not had an opportunity to possess the ball or if its initial possession has not ended. If the score is tied at the end of the period, the game shall result in a tie.” (NFL rulebook, Rule 16)

So overtime is not played until someone wins. It is one ten-minute period, both teams are guaranteed a possession, and if the score is still level when the clock hits zero, that is the result. The Giants and Commanders each had the ball, neither pulled clear, and the game ended 27-27. Nobody did anything wrong. The rule simply ran out of road.

The playoffs work the other way. A postseason tie is not allowed, so the game keeps adding fifteen-minute periods until someone scores enough to win, which is how you get the marathon January games people still talk about. If you want the fuller version, I go through it on the overtime rules page, and the postseason format sits with how the playoffs work.

Why Atlanta even had the ball when Tua threw the pick

The same possession rule is what put Tua Tagovailoa in position to lose the Falcons game, so stay with it for a second.

Atlanta’s starter, Michael Penix Jr., hurt his ribs late in the fourth quarter and did not come out for overtime, which handed the ball to Tagovailoa (ESPN). Baltimore took the opening overtime drive the length of the field for a touchdown and a 30-23 lead. Under the old sudden-death rule that would have been the game. Under the current rule, both teams must get a possession, so Atlanta got the ball back.

Tagovailoa hit Drake London on the first snap, then threw the next pass to Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, who had read his eyes and jumped the route to end it (Baltimore Ravens). “That was a bad throw,” Shannon Sharpe said afterwards. “You can’t make that kind of mistake” (Yahoo).

That drops Atlanta to 2-3, second in a weak NFC South, with Penix day-to-day on the rib injury. One interception is one interception, not a verdict on a career, and the number that will actually tell the story over the next month is how Atlanta’s quarterbacks protect the ball. That is the kind of thing the 2026 QB stats table is built to track week by week.

The ‘who are you?’ that became the week’s meme

The week’s most-shared moment needed no overtime at all. It came in the 49ers’ 32-29 win at Seattle, and it has nothing to do with the rules.

Mike Evans, in his first season with San Francisco after twelve years in Tampa Bay, leaned in to check the name on the back of Seahawks cornerback Trevon Diggs’ jersey and asked him “who are you?” Diggs shoved him in the face (Yahoo).

The joke only works because of what a cornerback is there to do, which is erase the receiver across from him so completely that he is the one making a name for himself.

Evans spent the afternoon doing the opposite to Diggs, catching a touchdown and a two-point conversion from Brock Purdy (San Francisco Chronicle). If the matchup is new to you, the cornerback’s job is in the defence guide.

Even Richard Sherman, who built a career playing exactly that position, tipped his hat to it.

Everyone else, and next NFL week 6

The Raiders had the ugliest afternoon of anyone, beaten 45-17 at New England, and I go through that one from a fan’s seat in the Raiders Week 5 review. At the other end, the Vikings and the 49ers are the last two unbeaten teams in the league at 5-0, while the Chargers, Dolphins and Titans are all still waiting for a first win (ESPN).

A tie, a backup quarterback’s rough debut and a viral shove make a strange haul for one Sunday, and none of it means as much in October as it feels like today. What stays is the smaller thing: you now know a drawn NFL game is not a glitch, it is the clock winning, exactly as the rulebook allows.

If you want to know what happened, then check out the NFL Week 6 Review.

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