Basics

The 12 Posts of Playoffs : 10 Yards

Did you know that all progress on a football field hinges on advancing 10 yards at a time?

True story.

It’s time to talk about everyone’s favorite aspect of football…the down system!!!

If the phrase “first down” makes you twitch a little bit because you have no idea what it means or why it pertains to football, this post should help.

The offense has four chances, called “downs,” to advance the ball ten yards. If they do, they receive a new set of downs and the opportunity to continue trying to reach the end zone to score.

Once the offense starts their drive, they have four chances, called “downs,” to move the ball 10 yards from where they started (this place is called “the line of scrimmage”). Each play is then calculated by what chance (down) the offense is on and how many yards they have left until they reach 10 yards total. Once they reach or exceed the 10 yards in one set of downs, they get a new set – four more chances to move the ball 10 more yards.

This is the reason why 10 yards is the distance that makes the football world go round.

Here’s an example. Let’s say the offense is starting their drive on their own 20 yard line. The offense needs to reach or exceed the 30 yard line, which means they’ve gained at least 10 yards total from where they began (at the 20 yard line), over the course of the next 4 downs to receive a new set of downs and therefore another opportunity to score. You will know how far the offense needs to go to gain a new set of downs thanks to the magic of technology: they need to reach or exceed the bright yellow electronic line on the field, which indicates how far the offense has to go to get a first down.

The first play is called “1st and 10,” because it’s the offense’s first down (chance) and they still have 10 yards to go to get a new set of downs. Every play after that is calculated by what down it is and how much further the team has to go to reach 10 yards total. So if on the first play (1st and 10) a team gained 3 yards, then next play would be 2nd and 7 – it’s the second down, and they still have 7 yards to go to reach the first down marker.

Got it? If you need any extra help and lots of other examples, check out the Basics of Offense post.

The 12 Posts of Playoffs : 11 Men

There are a whole mess of people on the sidelines of a football field, but too much of a good thing on the playing field will lead to a 5-yard penalty.

Each unit is allowed to have 11 players on the field. They can field less (if they want to find new and creative ways to lose), but they can’t field more. Too many men on the field is a 5-yard penalty.

Who are the 11 players on each unit? On offense, it’s usually five offensive linemen, one quarterback, and five offensive “skill” players – tight ends, runnings backs, and wide receivers. It looks something like this:

On defense, things are a little more flexible. A standard defense will usually be composed of three or four defensive linemen, three or four linebackers, and between four and six defensive backs (safeties and cornerbacks). It might look something like this:

On special teams, the unit that comes out for kicking plays, different players come out for different types of plays. I don’t have a visual for that, but I do have this post.

A peek into the future: next season we’ll be doing a whole series on special teams because they’ve gotten the shaft for the past ~~history of football~~ two years here. Sorry, guys.

Final note: have you ever heard of the 12th man? The phenomenon in which the fans are so disruptive that it’s like their team has an extra player on the field? That expression exists because of the 11-men-per-unit rule.

(P.s. Happy New Year!!! Have a wonderful day, everyone!)

The 12 Posts of Playoffs : 12 Playoff Teams

I know that we are a few days removed from the start of the 12 Days of Christmas, but how about the 12 Posts of Playoffs? Because who doesn’t want more to celebrate?!

The 12 Posts of Playoffs will be a series that runs for the next four weeks (conveniently also the duration of the playoffs). Each post will feature a lesson that coincides with the number of the day. Kind of like Sesame Street, but helpful for knowing what’s what on a football field.

Today’s lesson: the 12 playoff teams.

The playoff schedule is set. Twelve teams have advanced. But how did they make the cut? Let’s review.

We recently went over how the 12 teams are selected. Here’s a refresher:

Within the NFL there are two conferences, the AFC and the NFC. Each conference has four geographic divisions: the North, East, South, and West. Each division has four teams. So the AFC North, for example, consists of the Bengals, Browns, Ravens, and Steelers.

Teams advance into the postseason by the merit of their regular season record. The team with the best regular season record within each division gets an automatic playoff spot. That’s 8 teams. Two additional teams from each conference also advance. These “wildcard” teams are the two teams with the best record among the non-division winners from the whole conference (AFC or NFC). That’s 4 total wildcards teams. In total, that makes 12 teams that advance into the postseason.

The four teams that win their division from each conference are ranked (“seeded”) according to their regular season record, 1 through 4. That results in eight teams total. The remaining four teams are the wildcard teams, and they are ranked 5th and 6th within their conference based on their overall record. When matched up throughout the playoffs, the team that is seeded higher plays at home; the lower seed has to travel.

Let’s put some flesh on all of that by seeing what it looks like this season.

The four division winners in the NFC are the Eagles (East), the Packers (North), the Panthers (South), and the Seahawks (West). The NFC Wildcard teams are the Saints and the 49ers (by merit of having the best regular season record among the remaining NFC teams). The division winners are seeded 1 through 4 (also by merit of their regular season record) and the wildcard teams are seeded 5 and 6:

Seahawks (West)
Panthers (South)
Eagles (East)
Packers (North)
49ers (Wildcard)
Saints (Wildcard)

The winner of the conference gets home field advantage throughout the playoffs (good luck with that, NFC). The top two seeds get a first round bye, which means the Seahawks and the Panthers don’t have to play this weekend. The remaining four teams play in the first round, Wildcard Weekend, and the higher ranked seed plays the lower ranked seed at the higher ranked seeds stadium. So the Saints will play the Eagles in Philadelphia and the 49ers will play the Packers in Green Bay (you can mail the Pepto Bismol directly to my house).

In the AFC, the Patriots won the East, the Bengals won the North, the Colts won the South, and the Broncos won the West. The Chiefs and the Chargers won the two wildcard slots. They are all seeded as follows:

Broncos (West)
Patriots (East)
Bengals (North)
Colts (South)
Chiefs (Wildcard)
Chargers (Wildcard)

This weekend, the Chargers will play the Bengals in Cincinnati and the Chiefs will play the Colts in Indy. The Broncos and Patriots have the week off.

Make sense? For much more on all things playoff, check out this post.

Postseason Prep : How Scoring Happens

Here’s a football fact you already know:

The team with the most points wins the game.

See! You can do this!!!

While the most publicized (and coveted) way to earn those points is by scoring touchdowns, there are other ways to pad the numbers on your side of the scoreboard. In today’s postseason prep, we’ll talk about all of the ways that scoring happens.

ON OFFENSE

Touchdowns (6 Points) (Not 7!)

A touchdown is scored when one team gets the football into the other team’s end zone. If the football is entering the end zone by a running player, the football has to cross the goal line and be inside of the pylons to count as a touchdown. (Goal Line? Pylon? Greek? Check out this post.) If the football is being caught in the end zone by a receiver, the receiver must have two feet down in-bounds and have full control of the ball for it to count as a touchdown.

Extra Points (1 Point) (You already knew that)

As an added bonus, teams get to have an extra opportunity to score points after scoring a touchdown. Most will kick the extra point: a scoring attempt kicked from the 2-yard line that counts for 1 point. (That’s why it’s usually perceived that touchdowns are worth 7 points – 6 points for the touchdown + 1 point for the extra point = 7 points.)

Going for 2 (You guessed it…2 Points!)

Going for 2 is the other thing a team can do after they score a touchdown. Instead of kicking an extra point from the 2-yard line, they can try to get the football into the end zone (by running or passing – just like a touchdown) from the 2-yard line. If they do, they earn 2 points.

Field Goals (3 Points)

If a team decides to kick a field goal (why would they? find out here), it’s kicked from the current line of scrimmage (the imaginary starting line where the ball is placed) and it’s worth 3 points. One thing to keep in mind with field goals: the actual field goal distance is the line of scrimmage + 17 yards. So if your team is at the 30-yard line and decides to kick a field goal, it’s not a 30-yard field goal. It’s a 47-yard field goal. That’s because the goal post is at the back of the end zone (10 yards deep) and the kicker lines up 7 yards behind the line of scrimmage. 30 yard line + 17 extra yards = 47 yard field goal.

ON DEFENSE

Pick Six or Fumble Returned for a Touchdown (6 points)

A “pick six” is when a defender picks off a pass intended for a receiver and runs it into the end zone for a touchdown. He picked it off and returned it for a touchdown – 6 points – hence the name pick six. Points can also be scored on recovered fumbles. If a player loses the ball and a defensive player recovers it and runs it into the end zone for a touchdown, that’s also worth 6 points. (For all things turnovers, check out this post.)

Safety (2 points)

Just to keep things interesting, a safety is both a player and a play. Because why not? To make things even more interesting, safeties can be scored in a variety of ways: 1. If an offensive player is tackled with the ball while still in his own end zone, 2. If the offense gets called for a holding or intentional grounding penalty while in their own end zone, and 3. If the offense kicks the ball out of bounds or the quarterback steps out of bounds while in his own end zone. Safeties result in 2 points for the defense, and, salt in the wound, the offense doesn’t even get the ball back immediately afterward like they would after a scoring play on a turnover. They have to kick the ball off to the defense on their own 20.

ON SPECIAL TEAMS

Kick returned for a touchdown (6 points)

As we all saw in the Auburn Alabama game, kicks – whether missed field goals or kickoffs – can be returned for touchdowns.

And that’s a wrap! Even though scoring is traditionally thought of as the offense’s thing, scoring can happen by any unit at any time.

And that’s why we love football.

5-Minute Football : Red Zone

NFL RedZone is a channel on the NFL Network. I’ve never actually seen it before but from the description I think it might be my own boiling point of brain. It just sounds so awesome.

But good news! The actual NFL red zone is a place on the field that everyone can see!

So, what is the red zone?

The red zone is the 20-yards prior to the opposing team’s end zone. (Need a refresher on end zones? Check out this post.) It’s called the red zone because it’s supposed to put you on high alert that scoring opportunities are ripe for the taking. The red zone is not actually red, which you already know, but here’s a visual to work with:

Ok, so in this “rustic” visual, the team on offense is on the other team’s 15-yard line. That means they are approaching their end zone and are in scoring range. See how close they are to the end zone? In the red zone – anywhere within 20-yards of the opposing team’s end zone – they can reasonably score, either by field goal or touchdown.

There’s nothing significant or specific that happens when a team enters the red zone. It’s not like they earn any special privileges. The just the name for a section of the field, same as “end zone” or “side lines.”

Postseason Prep : How the Playoffs Work

Last week in our postseason prep we learned about how teams make it to the postseason. Now that we know how teams get there in the first place, let’s move on and talk about how they advance through the playoffs.

Since this year’s postseason groups is still being decided I’m going to use last year’s playoff picture to put some flesh on this lesson:

The teams in yellow are the division winners. The teams in green are the wildcard teams. The number next to each indicates where they are seeded based on their overall and divisional record.

Good? Ok.

Once the teams and the seed order has been determined, then we can finally get around to playing!

The playoffs are a single elimination tournament played over the course of several weeks. The playoffs are a way of determining the best team from each conference, so teams only play other teams within their conference (AFC or NFC) during the playoffs. Each week features a different matchup within the conference.

Week 1: Wildcard Round

The top two seeds from each conference earn a first round bye, which means they get the week off. After a long season, it’s a coveted luxury since all of the teams are playing hurt and greatly benefit from a week without a game. (Usually. Sometimes teams can also loose momentum from a week off, which is to their detriment. But more often than not it seems to be helpful.) In 2012, the top two seeds in the AFC were the Broncos (1) and the Patriots (2) and the top two seeds in the NFC were the Falcons (1) and the 49ers (2).

Among the remaining eight teams, the highest and lowest seeds in each conference play each other (Seeds 3 and 6) and the middle seeds play each other (Seeds 4 and 5). The higher seed gets home field advantage. So, using our little infographic up there, we know that in the AFC the Ravens (4) played the Colts (5) in Baltimore and the Texans (3) played the Bengals (6) in Houston. In the NFC, the Redskins (4) played the Seahawks (5) in Washington and the Packers (3) played the Vikings (6) in Green Bay.

We also now know that the Ravens, Texans, Seahawks, and Packers all won their games and advanced to the next round.

(And there you have an accurate portrait of parody in the NFL. There’s a good chance that more than half of the teams that played on Wildcard Weekend last year won’t even make the playoffs this year.)

Week 2: Divisional Round

The top seeds return from the bye week and get to play at home. The same schedule follows: the highest and lowest ranked seeds play each other and the middle seeds play each other. Using last year’s example, we know that in the AFC the top seeded Broncos (1) played the Ravens (4) and the Patriots (2) played the Texans (3). The Ravens and Patriots both won and advanced to the next round. In the NFC the top seeded Falcons (1) played the Seahawks (5) and the 49ers (2) played the Packers (3). The Falcons won, as did the 49ers ~~and I don’t still have nightmares about Colin Kaepernick running freely about the field or anything~~.

Week 3: Conference Championships

At this point, four teams remain, two from each conference. Last year, in the AFC, it was the Patriots (2) and the Ravens(4). The last two standing in the NFC were the Falcons (1) and the 49ers (2).

Those teams play each other at the higher seeded teams stadium and the winners are the AFC and NFC Conference Champions. In last year’s case, it was the Ravens and the 49ers. Those two teams, the last team standing from each conference, are the teams that go to the Super Bowl.

Week 4: Bye Week (Week Off)

AKA: Controlled craziness. Until media day arrives, the only day the media has access to players, at which point the craziness is completely uncontrolled.

Super Bowl!

The AFC and NFC Champions play each other in a predetermined location. Last year, the game was played in New Orleans. There were brothers and a blackout, and eventually the Ravens emerged victorious. This year’s Super Bowl is at MetLife stadium in NYC…which should be a party with Jack Frost and a million or so of his closest snowflake friends. Another Ice Bowl might be on it’s way.

Whew! And there you have it: how teams advance through the playoffs. And we only have to wait a few more weeks until this year’s games start!!!