basics Archives - Page 5 of 11 | Football for Normal Girls

5-Minute Football : Audible

Here’s a football term that has crossed into mainstream culture: calling an audible. You might have heard it in any number of contexts, but today we’ll define what it means on a football field.

Calling an audible is what happens when someone, usually the quarterback, changes the play at the line of scrimmage. Why? Usually for one of two reasons: 1. If he doesn’t think the original play called will be successful against the defensive he’s seeing, or 2. If he sees some weakness in the defense he thinks he can exploit with a different play.

Peyton Manning, king of all things offense, does this frequently. Here’s an example:

You’ll notice when an audible is being called because the quarterback will be in make-things-happen mode, waving his arms and yelling and pointing, and players will be switching places to line up for a newly called play.

So, in essence, calling an audible means changing the original play call to a different play that will give your team a better chance to succeed. Like when you audible to pizza for dinner instead of meatloaf as planned to please the masses on a Friday night. (Always a good play call.)

5-Minute Football : Actual Field Goal Distance

Let’s consider this scenario:

Your team has advanced pretty far down the field on offense. They are at the opposing team’s 20-yard line facing 4th down. They decide to kick a field goal instead of trying to go for it on 4th down, and it seems like a good decision since a kick from the 20-yard line is pretty much a chip shot. But when the kicker comes out for the field goal, the announcer says it’s a 37-yard attempt. And you’re thinking…What gives?! Where did those extra 17 yards come from?!

You’re not crazy. That’s a good question!

Here’s a good brain exercise: that field goal in the example above will, in fact, be kicked from the 20-yard line. But it will also be a 37-yard attempt. And while it would seem like this is more of the same football shenanigans we’ve seen before – things like imaginary lines and invisible boxes – it’s actually not.

The line of scrimmage doesn’t change for field goal attempts. But that’s where the offensive linemen are all lined up, not where the holder is. The holder – the guy who takes the snap and holds the ball in place for the kicker – is 7-yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Those are the first 7-yards. The other 10 come from the location of the goal post: at the back of the end zone, which is 10-yards deep. So the 7-yards behind the line of scrimmage where the ball is kicked from plus the 10-yards to the goal post in the back of the end zone account for 17 extra yards that are added onto every field goal attempt. Which makes that “chip shot” from the 20 still makable from the 37, but at nearly double the distance.

So your math equation for every field goal attempt is as follows: current line of scrimmage + 17 yards = actual field goal distance.

Check out this video to put all of the pieces together – the offensive line on the line of scrimmage, the holder 7-yards behind, and the goal post at the end of the end zone.

Quiz of the day: In the video, Matt Prater kicked a 53-yard field goal, which means that the Broncos 4th down line of scrimmage was at which yard line?

10 points if you guessed the 36-yard line! 53 – 17 = 36.

(And 10 more if you used a calculator to double check your 1st grade math, as I just did.)

5-Minute Football : The Difference Between Vs. and At

Here’s a lesson that is going to be one of those, “Oh…duh” moments as soon as you finish reading this post. But it’s something that I didn’t always know, and I figured a few other normal girls might be interested in knowing it, too.

How can you tell whether a team is playing at home or away, just from the listing? And what’s the right way to use vs. and at as it relates to home or away?

Ok, ready? This is so easy it’s stupid. Really.

Vs. = the first team listed is playing at home.

At = the first team listed is playing away.

So let’s look at tonight’s game. The Panthers are playing the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay. So the Panthers are away and the Buccaneers are at home. As a game listing this looks like:

Buccaneers vs. Panthers

Panthers at Buccaneers

If I’m right, I believe the “correct” way to write it out is the first way – home team vs. away team. But one way or another, it’s helpful to know that the vs. and at designations aren’t arbitrary. They sensibly denote which team is playing at home and which team is playing away.

And now, collectively:

“Oh…duh.”

5-Minute Football : Turnover vs. Fumble vs. Interception vs. Pick 6

Football terminology is similar to all terminology in the English language: there a multiple terms for the same thing that sound the same but aren’t the same and can’t always be used interchangeably but sometimes can.

But just like there/their/they’re, there are easy ways to remember which terms go with which actions once you know what they mean. So consider this a little grammar lesson for turnovers! It’s going to be way less painful than any other grammar lesson you’ve ever had!

You’ve probably heard all of the terms listed in the title at some point in time: Turnover, fumble, interception, pick 6. They all have to do with a similar event, but all mean separate things. Let’s go through them from least specific to most specific:

Turnover: A turnover happens when the team that has possession of the ball loses possession of the ball and the other team gains possession of the ball as a result. They are literally turning the ball over (giving it over) to the other team, hence the term “turnover.” When the running back is carrying and the ball comes lose and the other team recovers it, it’s a turnover. When a defensive back picks off a pass intended for a wide receiver, it’s a turnover. Any time the team that had the ball loses the ball and the other team recovers it, it’s a turnover.

Fumble: To fumble, as a verb, literally means to, “use the hands clumsily while doing or handling something.” And that’s what it means in football, too. It’s when the football is mishandled in one way or another and ends up on the ground. You may have heard of quarterbacks “fumbling the snap,” which is really a joint effort between the center and the quarterback to not get the snap off correctly. You’ll notice a fumbled snap when the ball is bouncing around somewhere in between the center and the quarterback and everyone on the field is trying to jump on it. Fumbles can also occur when a ball carrier gets distracted or loses his grip or runs into any set of circumstances in which he loses possession of the ball. There are also forced fumbles, which occur when a defensive player causes the impetus for the fumble, usually by punching the ball out from behind. Fumbles all relate to the football being on the ground when it isn’t supposed to be.

Not all fumbles are turnovers. If the other team recovers the fumbled ball, it is a turnover. But if the team previously in possession recovers the ball – like if the snap is fumbled but an offensive linemen jumps on it to recover it – then they keep possession of the ball. It is not a turnover. It is cause for celebration.

Interception: An interception is when a pass intended for an offensive player is caught by a defensive player instead. This happens most frequently when defensive backs (cornerbacks and safeties) pick off a pass intended for a wide receiver. Interceptions also happen often when a quarterback throws a bad pass, or when a receiver runs a bad route and isn’t where he was supposed to be, or when the ball gets tipped.

Interceptions always refer to passing plays (or any play in which the ball goes through the air without hitting the ground first) and are always turnovers (because the other team is catching the ball, and therefore has possession of it).

Pick 6: A Pick 6 is a specific type of interception in which a pass is picked off by a defensive player (hence “pick”) and is returned for a touchdown (hence “6” – since touchdowns are worth 6 points). All Pick 6’s are both interceptions and turnovers.

So, to review:

A turnover is any time when the team that was in possession of the ball loses possession of the ball and the other team gains it as a result.

(Turnovers = other team gains possession.)

A fumble is when the ball is mishandled and ends up on the ground.

(Fumbles = on the ground.)

An interception is when the ball doesn’t go through the air to it’s intended target and gets caught by a defensive player. Interceptions are always turnovers.

(Interception = turnover through the air.)

A Pick 6 is an interception that gets run into the opponent’s end zone for a touchdown.

(Pick 6 = interception returned for a touchdown.)

See? Easier than English, right?!

5-minute Football : What’s the pocket?

Ever heard the term “pocket passer” or “inside/outside the pocket” and started to look for something that might appear on a pair of Levi’s? Those terms are referring to where a quarterback is standing when he throws the football – or more specifically, the location of an invisible box and where a quarterback is standing in reference to that box when he’s throwing the football.

Football. It gets more like Harry Potter every day.

The pocket is a term used to describe the distance between the furthest offensive linemen – this includes the tight end if he’s blocking with the offensive line and not running a route to catch a pass. To be technical about it – widthwise, the pocket encompasses the space 2 yards beyond the furthest linemen and lengthwise, it’s as far back as the offense’s end zone.

Let’s incorporate a visual to help put the pocket puzzle together:

(Need a refresher on the positions shown above? Check out this post.)

Why is that box called a pocket? As the play unfolds, the offensive linemen will curve into a horseshoe shape to protect the quarterback from oncoming defenders – a shape that also looks like a pocket.

Traditionally, quarterbacks tend to stay within the protection of the pocket – hence the reason why some quarterbacks are referred to as “traditional pocket passers.” But modern running quarterbacks tend to take their chances and bolt for rushing yards or passing opportunities outside of the pocket.

Last week we learned that the location of the pocket becomes important when intentional grounding is in question. Intentional grounding is a penalty called against a quarterback when he throws a pass that is inside the pocket, short of the line of scrimmage, and in a location devoid of eligible receivers.

This might sound like a dumb question but it’s one I had for a long time – for the purposes of intentional grounding, is the pocket defined as the space between the furthest linemen before the snap or during the play?

It’s the latter. The pocket is constantly changing due to the positions of the linemen (or blocking tight end), so the call depends on where they are at the time of the pass, not on where they were when the play started.

Make sense?

What He Said : Conversions

Have you ever watched an NFL game and heard the announcer say something to the effect of, “the Jets have yet to convert on 3rd down this game,” or “the Chargers 3rd down conversion rate is through the roof this season”? It might have made you wonder…what the heck is a conversion, and why does it happen on 3rd downs?

From our Basics of Offense post we know the deal with 3rd downs: it’s crunch time. On 3rd down the offense either earns a new set of downs (by advancing at least 10-yards down the field from where they started) or has to decide what to do on 4th down if they come up short (punt, kick a field goal, or go for it).

Teams want to earn a new set of downs by gaining the needed yardage on 3rd down. Doing so is called “converting” on 3rd down. The team had a 3rd down situation and they converted it into a new set of downs. A team with a high 3rd down conversion rate does this consistently.

Let’s add in an example. Say it’s 3rd and 4 on the offense’s own 40-yard line. It’s late in the game and they are down by 12 points. The quarterback throws a short pass out to a receiver who advances it up the field by 5-yards. Since the down and distance was 3rd and 4, we know that he earned enough yardage for a new set of downs (he needed 4; he got 5). It’s now 1st and 10 on their own 45-yard line.

That’s an example of converting on 3rd down.

But conversions don’t only happen on 3rd down. They can happen on 4th down, too.

We’ll stick with our first example – only this time, the receiver came up short and was tackled after gaining 2-yards. The new down and distance is 4th and 2. Since it’s late in the game and the offense is down by 12 points, they decide to go for it on 4th down. The quarterback hands the ball off in the backfield to a running back who finds a hole and gains 5 yards. The new down and distance? 1st and 10 on their own 47-yard line (since they were back on the 40 when we started this example and have gained 7 yards since – kudos to the imaginary offense).

That’s also an example of a conversion, only this time it happened on 4th down. That’s called converting on 4th down, or a 4th down conversion.

One last thing: Let’s say our fake team wasn’t so lucky and came up short yet again on 4th down. Since they did not convert, the other team would gain possession of the ball right where is was, which is called turning it over on downs.

And side note: You may also be familiar with another type of conversion called a 2-point conversion. This happens when a team elects to “go for 2” after scoring a touchdown instead of kicking the standard extra point.