A Posse Football Primer – the Three Ps: Positions, Plays & Penalties

Maybe this explains many women’s indifference to football.

Among my girlfriends, I am the football expert.  At their kids’ games, they seek me out to explain the calls and keep them apprised of what is happening on the field.  While I am not the color commentator that my husband is, I like to think that I could hold my own with today’s female sideline reporters like Erin Andrews, Bonnie Bernstein, Lisa Salters and Lesley Vissers.

With the biggest game of the year only a couple of days away, we want to help you navigate some of football’s more confusing aspects so that you won’t constantly be asking, “What does {. . .} mean?”  We will assume that you have a basic grasp of the game, i.e.,

in four equal quarters of play clock time, Team A’s 11-man offense tries to move the football against Team B’s 11-man defense into the end-zone through a series of up to four attempts (called “downs”) to move the ball 10 yards, with either failure to do so or scoring a touchdown (6 points) followed by a point after attempt (1 or 2 points) or a field goal (3 points) resulting in possession of the ball being turned over to Team B’s offense.

If that made no sense, you need to start with Football 101:  The Ultimate Girls’ Guide to Football.  If you are still with me, let’s take a look at the Three P’s of football:  Positions, Plays and Penalties.

Positions

Here is the standard set up on the field when the offense is trying to move the ball toward the defense’s end zone.

Chick 101-Football for Girls spends a large portion of her website explaining each of these positions in detail.

Each team also has special teams that come onto the field when the offense has either scored a field goal or touchdown, is making a field goal attempt, has had a safety (2 points) scored against it or is punting the ball away because it failed to move the ball 10 yards in three attempts.

Plays

Offense

To get the ball to the end zone, the offense has got to run or pass the ball or both, but the ball can never be passed forward once it has moved past the line of scrimmage (in the picture above it’s the yellow “Spotted Football” line) and can only be passed forward once per down.

The vast majority of the time, the quarterback (qb) takes the snap from center (either right under the center or a few yards back in a shotgun), then will hand the ball off to one of his running backs or throw it to a wide receiver or tight end, or, if he can’t do either, will run it himself.

Sometimes in a play action fake, the qb will fake a handoff to a running back and then pass the ball to one of his receivers who may have less coverage because the defense thinks that the play is a run.

The opposite of play action is a draw play.  The qb looks like he is going to throw to move the defense away from the middle, then the qb hands the ball to one of his running backs who then usually has room to run up the center of the field through the dispersed defense.

Beyond the standard plays, I love the “gadget” plays:   those trick plays that coaches keep up their sleeves and can only pull out a couple of times a season.  While all are exciting just due to their unexpectedness, one of my favorites being used a bit more frequently this season is the wildcat play.  Here the snap is taken by a back or receiver rather than the qb who is either off the field or playing in a wide receiver position for that play.  The play becomes awesome when the back or receiver can actually complete a pass to the qb.

Another more common trick play made on fourth down occurs when either a punt or field goal special team tries to fake out the defense and pick up the last couple of yards or inches to get to a first down.  A successful fake is a thing of beauty, but failure to get that first down can be very costly (especially to a coach’s job).  Checkout a roundup of gadget plays here.

Defense

Defenses stop plays by tackling the offensive player who has the ball.  They also try to get the ball back for their offense by intercepting passes and causing fumbles.  Defensive ends and linebackers love nothing more than to sack the qb, often when they are coming at him with a blitz.  Defenders become heroes when they return an interception or fumble into the other team’s end zone for a touchdown.

Penalties

It could take a lifetime to understand all of the penalties in this game, especially because the NFL likes to change things up from time to time.  Below is a somewhat alphabetical list of the more common no-no’s that you are likely to hear on Sunday with my layman’s explanation.  The official explanations can make your head spin.

General Penalties that Can Be Called Against Either Offensive or Defensive Players

Encroachment

Before the snap, a player enters the neutral zone (see the chart above) and makes contact with an opponent.  Penalty:  5 yard loss.

Facemask

When a play grabs an opponent’s facemask, there can be an incidental face mask penalty against a qb or ball carrier with a loss of 5 yards or an intentional face mask penalty, which is a type of Personal Foul, with a 15 yard loss.

Offsides

At the snap, a player’s body is past the line of scrimmage.  Penalty:  5 yard loss.

Personal Foul

A contact-related penalty, including unnecessary roughness, roughing the passer, kicker or snapper, late hit, illegal block after a fair catch.  Penalty:  15 yard loss and, if committed by a player on the defense, automatic first down.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

A non-contact penalty that can include taunting another player or official or otherwise acting in a way that is contrary to the general principals of the game.  It also includes “prolonged and premeditated celebrations” by players, which generally occurs after a touchdown.  Penalty:  can range from 15 yard loss to ejection from the game and other league penalties.

Offense-specific

Clipping

An offensive player hits a defender from the back below the waist.  Penalty:  15 yard loss.

Delay of Game

The offense generally has 40 seconds between plays to get the next play snapped or 25 seconds once the ball is placed on the line of scrimmage in certain situations.  Penalty:  5 yard loss.

False Start

After lining up in a set position but before the snap, a player moves or a player in the backfield allowed to be moving laterally makes a sudden movement forward.  Penalty:  play stops and 5 yard loss.

Holding

A player cannot hold onto a player on the defense to stop him.  He can only block him.  The NFL describes how the offense may block as follows:

A runner may ward off opponents with his hands and arms but no other player on offense may use hands or arms to obstruct an opponent by grasping with hands, pushing, or encircling any part of his body during a block. Hands (open or closed) can be thrust forward to initially contact an opponent on or outside the opponent’s frame, but the blocker immediately must work to bring his hands on or inside the frame.

(I told you the NFL rules will make your head spin.)  There are many subtleties to this rule.  Penalty:  10 yard loss.

Illegal formation

At the snap, the offense must have 7 men on the line, other players except the qb under center must be at least one yard back of the line of scrimmage, and there can be no more than 11 players on the field.  Penalty:  5 yard loss.

Illegal motion

Except for one backfield player, all players must be stationary at the snap, and there must be a one-second pause after a huddle or shift before the snap.  Penalty:  5 yard loss.

Intentional Grounding

Under pressure from the defense, qb, while still inside the space behind where the tackles were on the line of scrimmage (called the pocket), throws a forward pass that realistically cannot be caught just to try to get rid of the ball before being pummeled to the ground by incoming defenders.  Penalty:  loss of down and either 10 yard loss or ball placed where the pass was thrown, whichever is greater.  Could also result in a safety for the defense if the ball is thrown while qb is in his end zone.

Defense-specific

Pass Interference

After the ball is thrown but before it is caught, a defender makes contact with the intended receiver restricting him from catching the ball and the contact is not considered incidental.  Certain limited contact is allowed, though, in the first 5 yards past the line of scrimmage.  Penalty:  ball moved to spot of foul (or 1 yard line if interference happened in the end zone) and automatic first down.

Unnecessary Roughness

Includes roughing the passer, late hit on a runner out of bounds, and piling on a player who is already down.  Penalty:  15 yard loss and automatic first down.

Helmet to Helmet

A player uses his helmet to intentionally hit an opponent in the helmet.  Penalty:  15 yard loss and automatic first down, plus possible NFL fine and/or suspension.

Final Note

Obviously this Posse Primer is not a comprehensive explanation of the very technical game of football, but I hope that I have done a decent job and shed a bit of light.  If we haven’t instilled a love for the game but you are still going to watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and Beyonce’s reported reunion with Destiny’s Child during the halftime show, do your fellow watchers a favor and follow these football etiquette rules from TresSugar.

Don’t Ask Questions Mid-play