The different ways to score in American football games

Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors. ~Frank Gifford, quoted in Sports Illustrated, 1960 July 4th

Football teams score points in multiple ways — and more points than the other team are the goal of the game. The following sections describe the individual methods of scoring. You can get yourself active in the American football season by playing absolutely free American football games at this website — this way you will understand even better how American football game scoring works .

Touchdowns

A landing is worth six points — the ultimate goal. A team achieves a touchdown, plus the loudest jubilation of fans when an offensive player carries the ball. A defensive player may also recover the ball from the other team after a fumble or catch a pass, from anywhere on the playing field.

Breaking the plane means that a ball bearer can hover over the goal line in the middle of the air and his efforts for a landing count — as long as the ball crosses the level — even if he is right in the air and lands again on the 1-yard line is taken.

A team is also given a landing when each player is caught inbounds or a free ball goal line behind the opponent. This type of landing occurs on a kickoff, a punt, or a fumble (if a player drops the ball).

Extra points and two-point conversions

An attempt for an extra point, also known as a known point after the placement (PAT), is attempted during the scrimmage try that is lent after a landing. The extra point is then successful when the kicker passes the ball between the posts of the goalposts and over the bar, assuming that the ball has been snapped 2 meters away from the goal line of the opponent (or 3 meters away in high school and college). Teams almost always make their extra point attempt, because the kick is a relatively easy one.

If a team feels particularly confident — or desperate — it might be an attempt to scoring two-point conversion after a landing. Two-point conversions that were recorded to the NFL for the 1994 season have always been a part of high school and college football.

The offense gets the ball at the 2-yard line (the 3-yard line in high school and college), and the ball over the goal line or the aircraft break as if a landing scoring. In the NFL, one of the tries (called conversion try) is over when the officials kick the ball dead or when a change of ownership occurs (the defense starts off, or a pass again means a fumble).

Field targets

A field goal is worth three points. A team makes a field goal when a kicker boots the ball completely through the stands of the goalposts without ball either touching the ground or one of the offensive players. The kicked ball must travel between the posts and over the crossbar of the goal post.

You get a field goal of 10 meters extra distance to the yard line from which the ball is kicked. Or just add 17 to the number of meters that the offense would have to cross the goal line (the additional 7 meters represents the typical distance of a snap for a field goal attempt). For example, if the offense is on his opponent’s 23-yard line, they are trying to get a 40-yard field goal.

Safeties

A safety occurs when in the offensive team a player is attacked in his end zone or goes outside the boundaries of his own end zone. Safety — two points for the defensive team. After a safety that the team was scored on, the ball has to poke the other team from their own 20-yard line.

For the offensive team, safety is a bad thing. The other team not only gets two points but also the ball in good field position. Typically, teams leave the 35-yard line. The 20-yard line to Punt allows the other team to advance the ball further up the field to the punt.

Frankly, safety is to embarrass the offense, and offensive players do almost safety that he is about to be attacked in his final zone, and the other team of scoring a safety to prevent him from chucks the ball outside the borders. If an umpire thinks the quarterback threw the pass alone to prevent a safety, the referee assigns the safety to the defensive team.

The offensive team commits a penalty (say, a defensive player holds who is prepared to cope with the ball bearer in the end zone), which would otherwise require the ball to be marked in his own end zone.

A blocked punt goes out of the end zone of the kicking team. The receiver of a punt the ball muffs and then when one tries to bring the ball, forces or illegally it enters the end zone, and it goes from the end zone. A mocked ball kicked or forced into the final zone and then recovered there from a member of the reception team.

I hope this article helped you to better understand the scoring system in American football games.

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