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Pick My Team

Lesson 3 of 14 · 6 min

How you score

Touchdowns, kicks, and the rare safety. Why 24–17 is a perfectly normal Saturday night.

Path 0/14

Cream circle = offence (they have the ball)Gold letters on dark = defenceGold oval = the ballSolid gold line = line of scrimmage (LOS)Red arrow = rush

Offence (cream circles)

  • QB quarterback
  • RB running back
  • WR wide receiver
  • TE tight end
  • LT LG C RG RT the offensive line (left tackle to right tackle, centre in the middle)

Defence (gold letters)

  • DE defensive end
  • DT defensive tackle
  • LB linebacker
  • CB cornerback
  • S safety

Special teams (when they appear)

  • K kicker
  • ST coverage / special teams
  • RET returner

Scoring looks odd if you expect rugby’s five or football’s one. NFL scores pile up in sixes and threes, then get a little extra tacked on. A 27–24 game is a thriller, not a basketball match that escaped.

The ways to put points on the board

  • Touchdown: 6 points. Carry or catch the ball in the opponent’s end zone, or recover it there.
  • Extra point: usually 1 more, a short kick after a touchdown. Almost automatic, until it isn’t.
  • Two-point conversion: instead of the kick, try to run or pass into the end zone from the 2-yard line for 2.
  • Field goal: 3 points. Kick the ball through the posts, usually on fourth down when a touchdown looks unlikely.
  • Safety: 2 points to the defence, if they tackle an attacker in their own end zone. Rare, and very loud.
Carry or catch it in the end zone: touchdown (6). Kick it through the posts: field goal (3) or the extra point after a touchdown (1). The posts sit at the back of the end zone, not on the goal line.KPOSTSEND ZONE
Carry or catch it in the end zone: touchdown (6). Kick it through the posts: field goal (3) or the extra point after a touchdown (1). The posts sit at the back of the end zone, not on the goal line.

A typical scoring drive

A team gets the ball around their own 25. They string together first downs (a run here, a catch there) and slowly eat up the field. Inside the 20 they have reached the red zone, where scores become likely. They either punch it in for a touchdown or settle for a field goal. Then the other team has a turn.

Some drives last eight minutes. Some last 12 seconds because someone throws an interception. Both are legal. Both happen in the same quarter.

Reading a scoreline

If you see 17–10 at half-time, you do not need to reverse-engineer it live. A 7 usually means a touchdown plus the extra-point kick. A 3 is a field goal. So 17 is often two scores and a kick (7 + 3 + 7), and 10 is a touchdown plus a field goal.

Red zone
The last 20 yards before the end zone. Coaches obsess over scoring once they get here.
Walk-off
A kick or score as time expires that wins the game on the spot.

Finished this one?

Next: Offence vs defence →See this week’s games →