The Two Minute Drill Game: How to Play

You are the offensive coordinator with the clock against you. In the two-minute drill game you take over a real NFL late-game situation — score, clock, timeouts, field position — and call the plays until the drive ends. Every decision is graded on win probability, not on whether the ball bounced your way. This page is the reference: the call sheet, the grading thresholds, an annotated drive and the three modes. When you are ready, play today's 2 Minute Drill.

What you are actually doing

Each spot opens with the real state of a 2022–2026 NFL game and hands you one team. The dataset has three categories: 911 two-minute-drill situations, 641 protect-the-lead situations and 323 tied-or-end-of-half situations. The category sets the problem; the score, clock and timeouts set how narrow the solution is. It is the same puzzle as the real NFL two-minute drill.

You call one of the 19 plays, or a special if the situation offers one. The game samples an outcome, updates the clock and score, and hands you the next decision. On defense you choose the look instead of the play. At the end, every call gets a grade. The 41.4% scoring rate on two-minute-drill spots is the backdrop, not a promise: it describes the sample, not your drive.

The call sheet: 19 calls in four families

Nineteen calls, split by what they ask of the defense: seven runs, seven passes, two run-pass options and three tricks.

The 19 play calls in 2 Minute Drill, by family

Family	Calls	Count	When it tends to make sense
Run	Outside left, outside right, off tackle left, off tackle right, inside left, inside right, up the middle	7	Short yardage, light boxes, clock-burning with a lead
Pass	Quick left, quick middle, quick right, deep left, deep middle, deep right, screen	7	Sideline throws stop the clock; deep shots punish crowded zones
RPO	Left side, right side	2	Loaded box: hand it off or throw behind the linebackers
Trick	End-around, direct snap, flea-flicker	3	Change-up when the defense is settled; high variance

Field goal, punt, spike, kneel, timeout, two-point try and onside kick are specials: offered by situation, not counted in the 19. A timeout is not a play, but it can be the most important call. Tricks are callable, but not the safe baseline.

How a call earns its grade

Before the snap, the game estimates win probability for every available option and plays the rest of the game forward many times. The best option becomes the benchmark; your call is scored on the gap to it.

The sampled play is reported separately: it tells you what happened, while the color tells you whether the decision was sound. A perfect call can be intercepted; a red call can be bailed out by a lucky catch. The grade does not move after the snap.

Grading thresholds. A win-probability point is one percentage point of win probability.

Grade	What it means (cost versus the best call)	Glyph
Green	The best call, or within 0.5 win-probability points of it	✓
Yellow	Within 2 win-probability points	≈
Orange	Within 5 win-probability points	!
Red	More than 5 win-probability points below the best call	✗

The top band is tight: half a win-probability point is inside the model's noise, so a call tied with the best still earns green.

One drive, start to finish

The spot: fourth and 6 at the opponent's 38, 1:52 left, trailing 20–17, one timeout. Five decisions follow: situation, call, outcome, grade.

1. Fourth and 6, opponent 38 — 1:52. Call: quick pass right. It is the best option on the sheet, and the completion picks up 9 yards. First down at the 29, clock running at 1:43. Grade: green.
2. First and 10, opponent 29 — 1:43. Call: quick pass middle. Seven yards to the 22, tackled in bounds, 1:31. A sideline throw would have stopped the clock and graded slightly higher; this is within two points. Grade: yellow.
3. Second and 3, opponent 22 — 1:31. Call: inside run left. Two yards and the clock runs to 1:04. The pass was better; the run traded 27 seconds for a third-down conversion and landed in the orange band. Grade: orange.
4. Third and 1, opponent 20 — 1:04. Call: quick pass right. Six yards, out of bounds, first down at the 14 with 0:58 left. The clock stopped and the timeout is still available. Grade: green.
5. First and 10, opponent 14 — 0:58. Call: quick pass left. The receiver reaches the pylon for a touchdown with 0:44 left. The extra point makes it 24–20, and the defense has 44 seconds to hold. Grade: green.

Five calls: three green, one yellow, one orange. The drive scored, but decision three is the one to study. The result was good; the process was not the best available.

Daily, Survivor and Practice

All three modes use the same 19 calls and the same four grades. They differ in what you are playing for.

The three modes in 2 Minute Drill

Mode	What it is	What is graded	Resets
Daily	One shared spot a day	Your calls, compared with simulated NFL play-callers	Daily
Survivor	Real fourth-quarter spots chained together	Every decision; first loss ends the run	On a loss
Practice	Any late-game spot, any time	Each decision; daily score untouched	Anytime

Start with Daily: one drive, the same for everyone, so the score means something. Survivor is a streak; Practice is for the calls you keep missing.

Two Minute Drill game FAQ

Six questions that come up before the first snap. For the rules and clock in plain language, see the quick-answer FAQ.

The limits of the grades

Grades are estimates. The model knows the real situation and 144,206 classified plays, but not the weather, the injury report, the protection call or what the quarterback saw. It samples one outcome per snap rather than every branch. Treat a grade as a disciplined second opinion, not a verdict. The data and how we use it are documented in the methodology section.