Tag: football

Final Exam Answers!

Here are the answers to the final exam! Thanks for playing along, Mary; you did a great job! Your package will be on it’s way ASAP :)

1. True or False: Each team plays the other teams in their division twice every season.

  1. True 
  2. False

2. Where is the red zone?

  1. The end zone
  2. Out of bounds
  3. The 20 yards prior to the end zone
  4. The spot where a penalty occurred

3. It’s half-time. Your team ended the half with the ball on the other team’s 1-yard line. What happens at the beginning of the next half?

  1. Your team starts at the 1-yard line at the opposite end of the field
  2. Your team starts at the same place as when the first half ended
  3. The other team takes possession and starts at your team’s 1-yard line
  4. The team that didn’t kick off to begin the game kicks off now and a new drive begins

4. Which of the following actions will NOT stop the play clock?

  1. A complete pass is thrown
  2. An incomplete pass is thrown
  3. A player steps out of bounds
  4. A penalty is called

5. The offense is facing a “3rd and 9” situation. What does this mean?

  1. It’s their 3rd down and they have to move the ball one yard for a new set of downs.
  2. It’s their 3rd down and they have to move the ball nine yards for a new set of downs.
  3. It’s the 3rd quarter and they have nine downs remaining before time runs out.
  4. It’s the 3rd quarter and there are nine minutes remaining before the 4th quarter begins.

6. The regular season is how many weeks long?

  1. 15
  2. 16
  3. 17
  4. 18

7. If the ball is caught and downed in the offensive team’s endzone by a defensive player during kickoff it’s called a:

  1. Touchdown
  2. Turnover
  3. Touchback
  4. Turndown

8. The imaginary line where the players line up is called:

  1. The red zone
  2. The backfield
  3. The starting line
  4. The line of scrimmage

9. A safety occurs when:

  1. A player alerts a ref to a penalty on the field
  2. A player is awarded for being on the receiving end of a unnecessary roughness penalty
  3. An offensive player is tackled in his own endzone
  4. A defensive player is tackled in his own endzone

10. How many teams make it to the playoffs?

  1. 8
  2. 10
  3. 12
  4. 16

Final Exam!

Ok, ladies, here’s the deal: This final exam is a brief one, consisting of only TEN questions! But they are ten questions that, if you know the answers, you’ll know you are well on your way to understanding the basic ins and outs of the game.

So, ANYONE who completes this final and scores with a “passing” grade – 70% or above – will receive a nice little surprise in their mailbox: a congratulations packet for making it this far and encouragement to keep going!

To enter, just leave your answers in the comments section before MIDNIGHT ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14TH. Answers will be posted on Monday, October 15th! Good luck!!!

1. True or False: Each team plays the other teams in their division twice every season.

  1. True
  2. False

2. Where is the red zone?

  1. The end zone
  2. Out of bounds
  3. The 20 yards prior to the end zone
  4. The spot where a penalty occurred

3. It’s half-time. Your team ended the half with the ball on the other team’s 1-yard line. What happens at the beginning of the next half?

  1. Your team starts at the 1-yard line at the opposite end of the field
  2. Your team starts at the same place as when the first half ended
  3. The other team takes possession and starts at your team’s 1-yard line
  4. The team that didn’t kick off to begin the game kicks off now and a new drive begins

4. Which of the following actions will NOT stop the play clock?

  1. A complete pass is thrown
  2. An incomplete pass is thrown
  3. A player steps out of bounds
  4. A penalty is called

5. The offense is facing a “3rd and 9” situation. What does this mean?

  1. It’s their 3rd down and they have to move the ball one yard for a new set of downs.
  2. It’s their 3rd down and they have to move the ball nine yards for a new set of downs.
  3. It’s the 3rd quarter and they have nine downs remaining before time runs out.
  4. It’s the 3rd quarter and there are nine minutes remaining before the 4th quarter begins.

6. The regular season is how mnay weeks long?

  1. 15
  2. 16
  3. 17
  4. 18

7. If the ball is caught and downed in the offensive team’s endzone by a defensive player during kickoff it’s called a:

  1. Touchdown
  2. Turnover
  3. Touchback
  4. Turndown

8. The imaginary line where the players line up is called:

  1. The red zone
  2. The backfield
  3. The starting line
  4. The line of scrimmage

9. A safety occurs when:

  1. A player alerts a ref to a penalty on the field
  2. A player is awarded for being on the receiving end of a unnecessary roughness penalty
  3. An offensive player is tackled in his own endzone
  4. A defensive player is tackled in his own endzone

10. How many teams make it to the playoffs?

  1. 8
  2. 10
  3. 12
  4. 16

Leave your answers in the comments section, and come back on Monday for the results!

What To Know : After Week 5

Here are the Top 5 from Week 5:

  1. Drew Brees broke Johnny Unitas’ record for the most consecutive games with a touchdown pass (47). Also significant because it was the Saints first win of the season, and suspended personnel Mickey Loomis, Joe Vitt, and Sean Payton were allowed to attend the game to see the record broken and the game won.
  2. The Colts came back from an 18 point deficit to beat the Packers in an inspirational win to honor their head coach, Chuck Pagano. On the flip side: the Packers looked bad, and things are about to get worse. They are losing one of their most productive offensive players, Cedric Benson, to a Lisfranc foot injury for 8 weeks at the least. They also have the task of playing the undefeated Houston Texans on Sunday night in Texas. It promises to be a long night for me and my #12 jersey.
  3. Speaking of the Texans, they were also dealt a significant blow in last night’s game, losing linebacker Brian Cushing to an ACL injury, perhaps for the rest of the season. They pulled out the victory…but it probably would have been a lot harder if the Jets would actually use Tim Tebow. Not even as the starter if they’re not ready for that yet (emphasis on yet), but just in ways that MAKE SENSE. I said it last night on Twitter and I’ll say it again here: having Tebow on the roster and not using him on critical 3rd downs or in the red zone is like having a dishwasher and choosing to wash your dishes by hand. Blindfolded. It just doesn’t make any sense.
  4. The much-lauded Manning/Brady game wasn’t a bad game, but wasn’t a nail biter, either. It looked like it might turn around in the 4th quarter with the Broncos on their way to a touchdown to make it 28-31, but a goal-line fumble ended that. But competitive or not, it’s still great to see both of them play. They’re just so good.
  5. The Bills have been outscored 91-7 in the past 6 quarters. To every fan I met at training camp who had an optimistic spark in their eyes about this season: I’m sorry.

Celebrate The Good

Let’s take a minute to address something that happened in the NFL yesterday, and then take some time to celebrate something good.

Matt Cassel, struggling quarterback of the struggling Kansas City Chiefs, got knocked out of the game yesterday – literally. He took a big hit and suffered a concussion as a result, lying motionless on the field for quite a few minutes.

And fans cheered.

Kansas City’s own fans. 

It was truly sickening. No one summarized it better than the Chiefs Right Tackle, Eric Winston:

From CBS Sports:

“We are athletes,” Winston said. “We are not gladiators. This isn’t the Roman Coliseum. People pay their hard-earned money to come in here, and I believe they can boo. They can cheer. They can do whatever they want. We’re lucky to play this game. A game. It’s hard economic times, and they still pay the money to do this, but when somebody gets hurt there are long-lasting ramifications to the game we play — long-lasting ramifications.

“I’ve already come to the understanding that I won’t live as long because I play this game, and that’s OK. That’s a choice I’ve made. That’s a choice all of us have made. But when you cheer somebody getting knocked out, I don’t care who it is, and it just so happened to be Matt Cassel, it’s sickening. It’s 100 percent sickening, and I’ve been in some rough times on some rough teams, and I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life to play football than in that moment right there.”

Gang, this is bad. It goes further than football – it speaks to the nature of our society. Lots of people are going to slay football today, saying that this is the result of a game that is no longer appropriate for our society due to it’s brutality, but I don’t think it’s football. I think it’s a culture that is, at times, uneducated, entitled, and immoral.

Personally, I believe that this is an unfortunate result of a society that no longer believes in the existence of absolute truths. The basic convictions of right and wrong seem to be lost. That has never been more evident than it was yesterday as 70,000 people cheered an injury that could have been at the very least career-threatening and at the very worst life-altering.

That was the bad and the ugly. But there was also good over the course of the football weekend, as the Colts overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the Packers in a victory that was 100% in honor of their head coach, Chuck Pagano. As a Packers fan, the loss concerns me because, good glory!, there are some glaring insufficiencies…everywhere. But even though the loss demoted the Packers to 2-3 on the season, I couldn’t have been happier for the Colts and Chuck Pagano. They truly deserved that win.

From Peter King:

There are a lot of stories in the naked city this morning — the Brees ascension over the great Unitas, the 49ers playing like the ’66 Packers, the air being let out of the Buffalo Counterfeit Bills, Eric Winston in a rage, Wes Welker with a needle, Chicago playing piranha defense, Minnesota shocking the world, Atlanta off to the best start in its history — but there is one story that stands above them all. The story is the game of the year.

Halftime score in Indianapolis: Packers 21, Colts 3.
Final score in Indianapolis: Chuck Pagano 30, Packers 27.

A few minutes before the start of Sunday’s game at Lucas Oil Field, just before going out for introductions, interim Colts coach Bruce Arians found his cell phone and texted five words to one of his best friends in coaching, head coach Chuck Pagano. Arians actually hoped Pagano was sleeping, but he knew better. The coach was two miles down the street from the stadium, in room C23 at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center when Arians’ text showed up.

“Don’t think you’re not here.”

This is why we  love sports. This is why football matters.

Let’s be part of the intelligent fan base that refuses to celebrate violence but LOVES to celebrate true sportsmanship. Because it matters. It really, really, matters.

Just ask Chuck Pagano.

What To Know : Week 5

Here’s what you need to know about Week 5 in the NFL:

GAME OF THE WEEK: This one is a no-brainer. Whatever you are doing on Sunday at 4:30pm, you should really stop to watch some of the Broncos/Patriots game. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game. Neither is getting any younger and no one can know how much longer they’ll be in the league, so opportunities to see them face off like this should be treasured.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Drew Brees is only one touchdown away from breaking Johnny Unitas’ for consecutive games with a touchdown pass (47). It’s likely that he’ll break it on Sunday in their game against the Chargers in New Orleans. The interesting part of this story is that suspended personnel Sean Payton, Joe Vitt, and Mickey Loomis are being granted permission to attend the game to see Brees go for the record breaking score. It should be an emotional game for all involved, and will hopefully result in the Saints first win of the season.

STORYLINE TO KNOW: Indianapolis will be playing their first game without head coach Chuck Pagano, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia. The Colts have had an emotional week and will have a tall order facing Green Bay, but they’re playing at home and should be considered an upset threat.

RECIPES TO MAKE:

It’s all about the brownies this week…

2 ingredient pumpkin brownies

brownie batter on a stick

caramel brownies

chocolate covered pretzel peanut butter brownies

fudgy brownies with cookie butter frosting

The Power of Prayer, for Everyone

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

James 5:13-16

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the people we see on TV are real people just like us, with real problems and real pain. Athletes and those involved in professional sports seem especially prone to this perception; their private lives, unlike those of celebrities, only occasionally play out in the public eye for all to see. We experience the high highs and the low lows they endure on the field and sometimes forget that they have lives off the field, too.

But this week, Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia. It was a sobering reminder that life is hard sometimes – for everyone. No matter who you are or what you do.

Since I’m both a fan of the NFL and a follower of Christ, I feel like it’s time to do more than just cheer for my team on Sundays. I’d like to go a bit deeper than that and start praying for the people who make up the league that I love. They play such a significant role in my day-to-day life even though we are complete strangers, so why not actively value them by lifting them up in prayer?

I’m not sure if this will become a regular blog feature or not, but for today, if you are a praying person, maybe you’d like to join me in praying for these people. (And if you or someone you know of would like to be added to the list, by all means let us know in the comment section! We’d love to pray for you, too.)

Chuck Pagano

From SB Nation:

News came yesterday regarding Pagano’s condition after he had reportedly complained of fatigue and bruising dating back to the preseason. Both of these symptoms are potential signs of leukemia, a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow, and tests conducted last week, while the Colts were on a bye, confirmed the specific diagnosis of APL [acute promyelocytic leukemia].

Greg and Kara Olsen

From ESPN:

Olsen’s wife is pregnant with twins, but one of the children has been diagnosed in utero with a heart defect known as HLHS. (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.) The child, who will be named T.J., already has been scheduled for three surgeries, including one shortly after birth. His chances for survival are up to 70 percent. 

Tony Corrente

From Peter King:

Corrente checked into the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston the day after his final game of the 2011 season — the Detroit-New Orleans Wild Card game — for treatment of a thumb-sized malignant tumor at the base of his tongue, where it connects with the back of his throat. He had 13 chemotherapy treatments and 33 zaps of radiation in a short period, to attack the tumor aggressively. Doctors told him if the tumor had been discovered as little as three weeks later the news would have been very dark for him. But they began treatment in time, and in the spring, they found that the tumor was under control. He’s had two thorough checkups since, and both have given him a clean bill of health.

Eric LeGrand

From ESPN: