Ok.  So it’s game day. So it’s time for part 3 before it’s time for kick-off.

Scoring and Penaties.

There are 4 ways to score in football.

Touchdown – this is where the ball crosses the goal-line.  This can happen with a player carrying the ball over or a pass being caught in the endzone by a player (so long as they are on the same team as the player that threw the ball.  (Typically the quarterback).(6 points)

Extra Point/Two-Point Conversion – After a touchdown the team has two choices.  Kick for an extra point.  Except for rare exception this is totally a gimme point because it is rarely, if ever, blocked or missed.   (one point)  There are times when a team will choose to go with a two point conversion which means they have the chance to essentially score a 2nd touchdown.  They start on the two yard line and they to get it over again.  If they do instead of the 1 point kick, they get two.  And that 2 points instead of 1 can sometimes make all the difference.  (2 points).

Field Goal:  When the team with the ball is not going to be able to get a touchdown but they are within their kicker’s range, they will go for a field goal.  It’s always a heartbreaker in the final seconds of a game, down by two points that your kicker misses the field goal turning what could have been an amazing win into a crushing defeat.  The kicker has to kick the ball so that it goes between the goal posts.  (3 points)

Safety:  This is my single most favorite thing in football.  Safetys make me practically giddy. A safety is scored when any of the following occurs:   a ball carrier is tackled in his own endzone, the ball is blown dead in the endzone except for an incomplete pass and the defense is responsible for the ball being there, the offense commits a foul in the endzone.   The sign for this by the referee is like the “A” in YMCA.   I LOVE it.   It’s awesome.  (2 points).

Penalties:

I’m just going to highlight some of the most common penalties   This is by no mean an exhaustive list.   Also I’ll let you know the signals for them so you know.

First, penalties are called out by the throwing of a yellow flag.

Delay of game:  The team with the ball has not gotten the play started before the play clock expires.  It sets the offense back 5 yards.   Signal can be one arm over the other or each hand touching the opposite shoulder.

False Start:  This is where a player on the offense starts moving across the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.  Signal is one forearm rolling over the other.  Like when you sing “The wheels on the bus”.

Helmet to Helmet contact:  15 yard penalty in favor of the non-offending team.  Results in automatic first down if caused by the defense.   In tight games a big penalty like this can make the difference between a win and a loss.  - No signal.

Holding – Either offense or defense – this is one of the most common penalties.   A player can just just hold on to the non-ball carrying player on the other team.  You can block over and over to keep them from getting through, but you cannot just hold them.  Offense – 10 yard penalty.  If committed in the endzone it results in a safety for the other team.   Defense – 5 yards.   Signal is one arm up with a 90 degree angle and the other hand grasping that arm at the wrist.

The last one, because the rest are pretty self explanatory is Pass Interference.  If committed by the offense, meaning they interfered with the defensive player – 10 yard penalty.  And this is the BIG ONE folks.   If committed by the defense the ball is placed at the yardline of the spot of the foul.  So if the quarterback throws a long bomb down the field and the receiver is all the way down at the 10 yardline and they call defensive pass interference.   Oh my gosh.   The ball is suddenly down at the 10 yard line.   Awesome!

I don’t know if I covered challenges.   A coach gets two challenges during the game where they can question a ruling…  i.e. spot of the ball, whether a pass was received, etc.   If they WIN the challenge, they are not forced to use a timeout.  If they lose the challenge they do lose a time out.   If, however, they use both of their challenges and WIN both of their challenges they are awarded a third challenge.

Lastly, overtime.   It’s an additional quarter.   Coin toss and everything.  However, the first time that is on offense has to score a touchdown to win.  They cannot just score a field goal and win.  They get a touchdown?  Game over.   If they get a field goal or don’t score the other team gets a turn to have the ball.  If THEY score a touchdown they win.  If they get a field goal, then the game is tied.   If they don’t score the game is over.

Ok, I am seriously running late getting ready to go so I have to go hop in the shower.   For parts 1 and two just go “home” and read them in order.

ENJOY THE GAME!!!!!

A Guide to the Game – I is here.

Before getting into the defense, I’ll address the questions from the last post.

1.  Is there normally a “right” answer to whether a team chooses to receive or defer?

It depends on the game.  If you know your opponent is typically a fast scorer right out of gate and they open their games with quick plays and score quickly – you may not want to give them that chance and therefore you would receive.   On the other hand if you have a team that gets really settled in as the game goes on and gets more comfortable and aggressive later, then deferring so you have the ball first in the 2nd half may be the way to go.  What I see most often is during regular season teams choose to defer and playoffs a lot of the time they choose to receive in the hopes to get points early since playoffs in football, unlike any of the other 3 major sports, are one and done.   There’s no best of 5 or 7 or anything.  If you lose…  you’re done.   (Baseball does not have a coin toss.  Visitor bats first so home team gets last chance at bat.)

2.  Why would a player – not in the end zone – choose not to run and instead call for a fair catch?  And if the case of calling a fair catch where does the ball go?

Second question first.  When a player catches a ball – not in the end zone – and he signals for a fair catch the ball starts on the yardline where it was caught.   If it is caught at the 11 yard line, it starts at the 11.  If it’s caught at the 30, it starts at the 30.

For the first part of the question, there are two main reasons that a fair catch would be called for instead of trying to run.   If the player sees that there is no way they will be able to catch the ball and then run without getting hit they’ll call for a fair catch.  Sometime a ball will go high and therefore kind of “hang” in the air longer giving the other team more time to get to the player who is going to catch the ball.  The moment that player has to stop watching the men running at him and look at the ball to catch it he becomes defenseless.  So reason 1 is to cut down on the risk of serious injury.    Reason 2?  To eliminate the risk of a fumble and subsequent turnover just yards away from the other team’s goal line.   A turn over just a few yards out from the other team’s endzone is pretty much a guaranteed 3 points at least if not 7 or 8 for the other team.  Not good.

Ok.   Questions have been addressed…  on to the defense.   Goal of the defense as straight forward as the goal of the offense.   Where the offense’s goal is to score, the defense’s goal is to keep them from doing so.

So, defensive positions:

DEFENSIVE LINE – D-Line

Defensive Tackle (DT):  There are normally two of these.  At least one, but usually two.  Their job is to break through the offensive line (remember them?) and rush the passer or stop any running plays coming up the middle.

Defenstive Ends DE):  There are also two of these.  They position themselves outside of the DTs on each side.  Their job is to attack the passer or stop any running plays that come to the outer sides.

A hit on the quarterback while he has the ball and is still behind the line of scrimmage (the yardline that the ball starts on for any given play) is called a sack and is awesomeballs.  It’s usually always for a loss of yards so if the play was 1st and 10 but then the QB is sacked the next play could be like 1st and 17 if the QB dropped back to pass.   Any time the ball doesn’t get back to the original line of scrimmage there is a loss of yards.

LINEBACKERS

Middle Linebacker – “Quarterback of the defense”.  This position is super important.  This player frequently is the primary play-caller on the defense.   They also have to be able to stop any run coming up the middle that gets past the defensive line.

Outside Linebackers – One on each side of the middle linebacker – There is a weak side linebacker and a strong side linebacker.   WSLB lines up on the side of the field that doesn’t have a tight end on offense.  The strong side linebacker lines up against the tight end.   SSLB covers the tight end and running back on pass plays.   The WSLB rushes or blitzes the QB and defends against pass plays.

An aside here to talk about blitzing.  This means the focus of the defense is on getting to the QB and bringing him down.   You’ll hear about a QB “reading blitz” and killing the called play.  Sometimes you can even hear the QB yell “KILL, KILL, KILL”  this means he’s “read” the defense, can see they’re going to blitz and kills the pass play they were going to do and changes it to a running play.  This adds urgency as there is a Play Clock.   The offense has 25 seconds to get a play “off” – more on the play clock and what happens if they don’t get the play off in part 3.

DEFENSIVE BACKS  (aka The Secondary)

Cornerbacks (The Corners):  Two players whose jobs are to cover the receivers and tight ends on pass plays, try to bat the ball down or try to catch it themselves (an interception).  On running plays if the running back gets past the defensive line the corner’s job is to redirect the runningback back to the middle of the field to be tackled, tackle him themselves or force him out-of-bounds.

Safeties:  Two players.  The last line of defense if all else fails with all the defensive players in front of them, they position furthest away from the line of scrimmage and help the corners on those long pass plays down the field.  The strong safety is the bigger and …  stronger… of the two.   They help on the running plays to bring down the runner.  The free safety is smaller and faster and helps on the pass plays covering the wide receivers running down field.

Nickelback and Dimeback:  In certain situations the defense will bring in more players to cover a pass play.  In this situation they will replace a linebacker or a member of the D-Line with another Defensive back – making five defensive backs…  or… a nickle.   If they replace TWO players they replace with defensive backs…  the second one is called the dimeback.  (Get it?  The SECOND nickleback is a dimeback?)  So anyway, if you hear the announcers say that the defense is in a “Nickle” defense, now you know what that means.  A nickle defense is more common than a dime defense.

So that is the defense and what they all do.   Typically teams will play either a 3-4 defense or a 4 – 3 defense.   The first number refers to the number of D-Line players and the 2nd number refers to the number of linebackers.   So a 3-4 defense has 3 D-line men and 4 line backers.   4-3 is vice versa.   Whether a team plays a 3-4 or a 4-3 just depends on the Head coach and Defensive Coaching staff and what they prefer.

Now, as the defense is all reactionary to what the offense does, there’s no need to walk you through plays.  Just being a bit familiar with the positions and what they are SUPPOSED to do is good enough.

Since this post is shorter than the other I’ll go ahead and cover Special Teams on this post as well and again part 3 will be the different ways to score and penalties.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker:  The red-headed step-child of the team.   He handles kick-offs, extra points and field goals.   Now as many games end up being won or lost by an either made or missed field goal the kicker can at any time be a hero or burned if effigy later in the parking lot.

Holder:  Um.  He holds the ball for the kicker on field goals and extra points.  And also on windy days when the ball keeps falling off the tee.

Long snapper:  The center of the special teams.  He snaps the ball to the holder or to the punter.  Different from the regular center on the offensive line because the snap has to go much further.

Punter:  Punts the ball on 4th down when the offense hasn’t made it the 10 yards needed to keep going.

Punt returner or Kick returner:  Self explanatory.  Catches the ball and either does the fair catch thing or runs.  Typically the fastest player on the team.

There are two more positions you’ll like never hear named because I never ever have.   I had to look up to see what they were called.   At any rate there’s a guy that is back with the punter.  He’s like the last line of defense if the returner gets by everyone else.   The last position is a super fast player and his job is to take off at full speed to try to get to the returner before they can get far with the ball.

There you have it.   The defense described fairly well and the special teams in a nutshell.

I’m going to be watching both games tomorrow.  If you would like…  watch them.  Then you can tweet me questions @wordsofthebard1 or comment here and I’ll answer them when I write-up part 3 next week.   (If you tweet me questions I will answer them in real-time during the games…  I will then also answer them on the next post as well.)

As we’re coming into the last week of playoffs for the NFL and the obligatory lead up to the Superbowl, it has come to my attention that some of my girlfriends WANT to watch football with their husbands.  Want to like it.  The only thing is they don’t understand the game and don’t know the ins and outs of it.  And they don’t want their husbands trying to explain it and getting all irritated and frustrated.  I’m going to fix that.

While I’m not going to be able to cover every moment and penalty and I’m not going to go into actual plays and details.  I’m going to tell you enough to get you through a game and maybe make your significant other wonder when you got so savvy in the world of football.

So let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

The coin toss.   Coin is tossed visiting team calls it in the air and the winning team chooses whether they wish to receive or defer.   If they choose to receive it means when the ball is kicked off it’s kicked off to them.  If they choose to defer, they will kick the ball off to the other team and they will get the ball first in the second half.

Ok, so the ball gets kicked off and one of 3 things can happen – usually.   The ball can go out the back of the endzone – in this case the ball comes out to the 20 yard line.   The ball can be caught in the endzone and the player with the ball can kneel down which also brings the ball out to the 20 yard line.   Lastly, the player who catches the ball can call for a fair catch, where he isn’t in the end zone but is choosing not to run OR he can run whether he’s in the endzone or not.   There is nothing better than watching a kick-off be run all the way back for a touchdown…  if it’s your team.

So flukey things can happen.  Like if the player trying to catch the ball muffs it, fumbles it or drops it.  Basically if he screws up and that ball hits the ground the other team can jump on it and it becomes their ball.  That is rare but can happen.

Ok, so let’s assume all goes well.  Kick goes out the back of the endzone, as many do, and we’re out at the 20 yard line with both teams facing off.   This is the meat of the game, ladies.  This is where we separate the  women from the girls.

The team that has the ball is facing where they’re trying to go.   Two types of plays are called the majority of the time.  A pass or a run.   There are a plethora of pass plays that you DO pick up as you watch the game.   A boot-leg, a crossing route, a screen, a fade route and the deep pass.   Seriously, not going into all of them.   Just know they are either going to pass or run.

If the quarterback is lined up several feet back from the line of players, it’s called the shotgun.  Odds are..  pass play.   Many times the play will call for the quarterback to fake passing and hand the ball to a running back (more on the running back later) or vice versa – fake the handoff to the running back and pass instead.   What this does, if executed well, is to draw the other teams players off of who really has the ball and on to who the ball was faked to.

Let’s talk about the line of players in front of the quarterback.   When your team has the ball they are playing offense.  The other team is trying to keep them from scoring and are playing defense.   Every position is important in football.  Not all of them get the glory.  They are just names tossed about as providing a block or making a tackle.  The quarterback, running backs wide receivers get most of the glory on offense.  Though tight ends are becoming more prevalent as mid-level receivers as well.  This means passes that are thrown short as opposed to the long bombs down the field.  Gotta love those tight ends.

Running backs…  um, run the ball.  They will sometimes take very short passes as well, but 95% of the time the QB is handing it to them and they are doing what they do best.  Dodging defenders, slipping tackles and juking and jiving to get as many yards as possible before they’re brought down.   Some of them are breathtaking to watch.  I’m lucky to have one such running back on the Eagles – LeSean “Shady” McCoy.

Wide Receivers – when the ball is snapped they take off.  Sometimes way down field, sometime they run a short route more like a tight end, but lordy they are fast.   Not always running back fast, but fast nonetheless.   You hear more and more talk these days of safety in football.  For the most part this is the position taking the most punishment.  When you hear about a hit on a defenseless receiver – that means they are going for the ball…  no longer looking at the defender.  Their eyes are on the prize and all focus is on catching the ball.  At that point they become defenseless.  A brutal hit on a defenseless receiver is bad.  Particularly if it is helmet to helmet.  There are penalties..  and fines…  and stretchers on the field for the worst of them.

Tight ends I already touched on.  Heh.  They catch (not usually often)… they run (not usually very fast)…  the block (this most of them do very well)…   jack of all trades…  master of…  one?  :)   Anyway..  still…  gotta love those tight ends.

Aside from the QB, RB, WR and TE you also have the right tackle, left tackle, right guard, left guard and center.  The center is who snaps the ball to the QB.  Super important job.   When the snap s messed up, it sets up the potential for disaster in the form of a turnover.   (Where something gets screwed up, the ball hits the ground and the other team gets to it first…  or in the case of an interception the QB throws it and a player on the other team catches it.  In short turnovers = bad – if your team has the ball…  if your team is on defense turnovers are AMAZEBALLS).  The biggest job of these 5 players – the offensive line – is to keep the QB upright long enough to do whatever it is he needs to do.  Weak offensive line – injured QB.  Injured QB?  Losing season.   Except in the anomaly cases like where Drew Bledsoe was injured on the Patriots and we were all introduced to Tom Brady.   But those are rare.  Very rare.

Now that we’re through the players here is how the game works.  The offense, lead by the QB has 4 tries to go 10 yards.  They GET 4 tries.  They mostly only use 3 except in desperate situations and the 4th try is for them to punt the ball to the other team.

So here is how a game play could go:

1st and 10 – means it’s the first try and they have 10 yards to go to get a 1st down.  So the ball is snapped and the QB hands it off to a RB who runs for 4 yards and is then tackled.  The next play is 2nd and 6 – second try… 6 yards to go for a first down.   On this play the ball is snapped and the QB drops back into the “pocket” (the space the QB has to do what they need to do – when the offensive line can’t hold the defenders anymore the “pocket” collapses – QB gets hit) and fires off a pass to a WR 25 yards downfield.  The pass is overthrown, the pass is incomplete.  This brings up 3rd and 6.   Third try…  still 6 yards to go.  They call one more pass play and the ball is snapped.  All the receivers are well covered by defenders so it’s a short pass to the running back.  He catches it two yards ahead and is able to go one more yard before being tackled.  3rd down is huge.  You hear a lot of talk about the 3rd down conversion rate.  It’s one of the “important stats” and means how often a team can convert a 3rd down play into a first down… meaning they got the yards they needed.  So now we’re at 4th down and what?   If you said 4th down and 3 you’re right.  We were at 6, the QB passed for two yards and the RB was able to run one more.   Meaning…  not enough yards. 4th down…  not a desperate situation…  we’re not in field goal range (more on field goals later) so we’re punting off to the other team at which time their offense takes the field and we’re now on defense.

Here is another scenario:

1st down and 10 – ball is snapped handed to the running back.  He runs for 4 yards.  2nd and 6… ball is snapped.   QB drops back to pass, spots a TE that is open a few yards up and the TE catches it and is able to get the additional yards needed to get to 10 total yards.   They made this easy for us several years back by making the spot that they have to get to or past yellow.  Player gets over that yellow line…  the team got a first down and everything resets and we’re back to 1st and 10.  We go back to 1st and 10 every time those 10 yards (or more) are reached.

Questions??

Part II  will talk about defense.     Part III will go over the various ways to score, some terms and some of the most common penalties, what they mean and what the hand signals are for them.

Honestly I would love to get all of you like my friends together and just watch a game with all of you – answer questions in real time – I’m not sure how to make that happen.  If anyone can figure that out, let me know.

For now let me know if you have any questions so far.

I’m going to have you all game day ready for the big game this year.

I somehow can’t believe people aren’t talking about it more…  maybe because it was inevitable…  maybe because he gets hurt so much… maybe because we’re all just over it and ready to move on with the future..  but somewhere lost among the firings of coaches…  the releasing of players…  the cautious excitement of a rookie showing some promise…  Michael Vick played his last game as a Philadelphia Eagle.

August 13, 2009 the Eagles signed Mike Vick.  I sat down and sobbed when I heard the news.  I felt like I’d been cast in the shadows and a coldness settled over my team spirit.  The Eagles broke my heart that day.  More than any loss ever had or ever will.   However, in the last few years both with my college and with my football team I have learned that my passion runs deeper than any one man.  Jerry Sandusky couldn’t break my pride in Penn State and Mike Vick couldn’t sap away my fanhood for the Eagles.  Though, it was sullied for sure.

I am glad that he’s done.  I am not glad he was here.  I made the best of it while I had to and tried to see the good.   I don’t have to do that anymore.  And I’m relieved.  Being an Eagles fan is exhausting enough as it is without having to face a moral battle of conscious.

So…  fare the well, Mike.  Your arrival here was like a huge slap in the face and sent shock-waves through not only this city, but the NFL and actually was the top story of the National news that night.   Your exit is turning out to be not so note worthy.  I’m not sure if anyone even noticed.   But I did see the cloud drifting off that has been looming over the NovaCare center and Lincoln Financial Field for the past 3 years and almost 4 months.

It’ll be nice to see the sun again.

Today kicked off a 90 day weight loss challenge based on percentage of weight lost.

I weighed in this morning at the local mall and every Saturday before midnight I have to email a picture of the scale in and then there will be a weigh in at the end.

So far the prize pot is $480 but the leader does expect it to get up higher the second week.  Winner take all.  I’m so excited about this.

I’m also going to put aside money, too.  For each pound or whatever.  So even if I don’t win the whole thing I’ll have a nice stash of money anyway to use for whatever.  However, it would be nice to have my stash of money and everyone else’s, too.  :)

I’m at a bit of a disadvantage starting out, what with the broken foot…  which has been in a boot for three weeks (with just one left to go) and yet feels no better.  But I’m going to try not to let that discourage me.  During the 21 day sugar detox I lost 10lbs in one week.   And didn’t exercise a bit because of the foot.

I’m going to go back to pretty much what I was doing before.

We’ll see how it goes, but I’m pretty stoked.

Wish me luck!!

I sure wish Facebook would tell me.   HA!

Of course it’s Thanksgiving.   And while I try to be grateful all year long for all the things – family, friends, Mercy and Grace… there are a few specific things I’m especially grateful for over this past year.

First, so thankful my husband has a new job that he really is enjoying.  He’s a different man at work.  He’s a different man at home.   I was starting to think his permanent emotion was angry and he just had moments of other emotions from time to time.  As it turns out, I underestimated how miserable he was at his job…   until…  he wasn’t.

I’m thankful for my new job.   I will admit there are days that I’m not sure if I made the right decision, but then I remind myself that those bad days only occur as often as the good days did at my last job and realizing how few and far between those days actually are, makes me see that I am better now than before.  And I get to laugh at work.  A lot.  And there’s pretty much never a moment of silence.   People talk, laugh, whistle,  joke and sing all day long.   It’s so wonderful.  Plus?  I get a ton of time off.   Which is very nice.

The last major thing that happened this year that words can’t express how much I’m thankful for is the re-connection of me with two of my dearest friends and a couple of the best ladies I know.  And two of my three from this post.  It was a long six years without them.  And one of those things where I didn’t know how much I missed them until I had them back.  The world is back as it should be and as soon as I either become a best selling author or we win the power ball…  it will be perfect.

But for now, it’s pretty stinkin’ good…   and I’m so very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!