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What He Said : Their Own 20-yard Line

More than likely you’ve heard announcers describe a team’s field position as being on “their own” such-and-such yard line. Which might raise more than a few questions if you aren’t sure which part of the field belongs to which team. Is it their own because of something they did in the game or something they won in the coin toss? Or their own because they’re the team on offense, trying to score?

All valid guesses.

But it’s actually much simpler than you might think. A team’s “own” side of the field is the 50-yards of field directly in front of their end zone. As we learned last week, each team has an end zone, and the one behind them is their end zone. The one in front of them is the opposing team’s end zone. The 50-yards attached to their end zone is their own side of the field, the other 50-yards attached to their opponent’s end zone is the other team’s “territory.”

So in a game between the Bills and the Jets, if the Jets are on the 20-yard line closest to their end zone they are on their own side of the field. If they are on the 20-yard line closest to the Bills’ end zone, they are in Bills territory.

Here’s a terrible visual, as well as a visual representation of why I am learning Photoshop right now. But it should do the trick. (Or blind you all, one or the other.)

So let’s make life easy and pretend we have two teams: the blue team and the red team. The blue side of the field is the 50-yards attached to the blue team’s end zone, or their “own” side of the field. Ditto for the red team. If, as per the title of this post, the blue team was starting at their own 20-yard line, they would be lined up as pictured above. The yellow line across the 20 is the line of scrimmage. The blue team is going to line up facing the red teams end zone because that’s the end zone they are trying to score in. The red team lines up on the opposite side of the line to defend their end zone. They are also trying to force a turnover and score in the blue team’s end zone if possible.

As you can see (if you can still see), the blue team as a lot father to go until they cross over into the red team’s territory. This is the visual to keep in mind when 4th downs come to come. If, hypothetically, the blue team pictured above was facing a 4th and 5, they would only go for it is they were really, really desperate or really, really confident that it would work because if it doesn’t and they don’t get the first down they’d have to turn the ball over to the red team right where they are. That means the red team is already in scoring position, only 20-yards outside of the blue team’s end zone.

Does that make sense?

At the Water Cooler : Week 15

Yesterday morning I woke up to a foot of snow and I thought the day probably couldn’t get much better than that. (I’m a notorious and unapologetic snow lover.) And when the Packers were down 26-3 come halftime I thought, “It’s ok. I have snow!” But then, in what can only be described as The Half of Football That Made Me Lose My Ever-Loving Mind, the Packers won. And Week 15 became the best week ever.

Let’s review, shall we?

San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos (Chargers won, 27-20)

I was at a Christmas party for the majority of this game. And when I turned the game on NFL Mobile during the drive home I fully expected the score to be Broncos A Lot, Chargers Not A Lot. Shocker of a loss for the Broncos – and at home, no less!

Washington Redskins at Atlanta Falcons (Falcons won, 27-26)

Consider this: last year, both the Redskins and the Falcons were playoff teams. After this game, the Redskins fell to 3-11 and the Falcons to 4-10. It’s a crazy, crazy league.

Chicago Bears at Cleveland Browns (Bears won, 38-31)

It may not have been a flawless return to the field, but Jay Cutler’s first game back was a win all the same. Alshon Jeffrey helped.

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts (Colts won, 25-3)

Well, I was wrong.

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins (Dolphins won, 24-20)

And all the Broncos said, “Amen!” (This guy was probably saying something other than amen.)

Philadelphia Eagles at Minnesota Vikings (Vikings won, 48-30)

In what we all thought would happen, the Vikings shellacked the Eagles – with Cassel and without Peterson. Of course!

Seattle Seahawks at NY Giants (Seahawks win, 23-0)

Don’t be surprised if the Seahawks find themselves back in NY for the Super Bowl come February.

Buffalo Bills at Jacksonville Jaguars (Bills won, 27-20)

It was a good weekend for Florida State quarterbacks, former and current. EJ Manuel had a great game against the Jags.

San Francisco 49ers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (49ers won, 33-14)

It was a first-half-of-2013 kind of game for the Bucs.

NY Jets at Carolina Panthers (Panthers won, 30-20)

I would not want to be on the receiving end of a Mike Tolbert run. This guy is a mountain. He is all the mountains. He is the Swiss Alps, basically.

Kansas City Chiefs at Oakland Raiders (Chiefs won, 56-31)

Are you ready for some offense? The Chiefs may have put up 56, but they allowed 31 – 21 of those unanswered. That doesn’t say awesome things about the Kansas City defense.

Arizona Cardinals at Tennessee Titans (Cardinals won, 37-34 OT)

This was a see-saw game – back and forth all the way. Until one untimely interception in overtime that gave the Cardinals the win.

New Orleans Saints at St. Louis Rams (Rams won, 27-16)

What happened, you guys? The Saints have a tough one up ahead too – facing the Panthers in Carolina. This division is far from decided.

Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys (PACKERS WON! 37-36)

This has been a “there are no words” kind of season for the Packers, but there really are no words for what happened in Dallas yesterday. Perhaps the Packers should play all of their important games at Cowboys Stadium from now on.

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers (Steelers won, 30-20)

Did we all see the part where the Steelers came out and scored 21 unanswered points to start the game? It was pretty much over after that.

Baltimore Ravens at Detroit Lions (MNF on ESPN)

Ravens, my closest hometown team once I move to Harrisburg in a few weeks, I’m begging you to send an early Welcome to Town! gift and best the Lions tonight. Remember that you are the defending Super Bowl Champions!!! You can do it!

Review and Preview : Week 14

Review

Monday: Are you a normal girl who is also a football fan? We want YOU! Join our offseason feature.

Tuesday: We learned a new party trick: how to quickly tell which end zone belongs to which team.

Wednesday: Read only if wrapping your mind around a new definition of backward won’t give you a brain cramp.

Thursday: It’s the most wonderful time of the year…to get ready for the postseason! Part One: How the Postseason Works.

Preview

I’m just going to level with you all. For this late in the season…there isn’t a wealth of spectacular games to choose from this weekend. However, there are few things to keep an eye on.

Normal Girl Game of the Week

Packers at Cowboys, 4:25pm EST on FOX

America’s worst defense matches up against America’s worst able-to-recover-from-losing-their-starting-quarterback in America’s Game of the Week on FOX. All the same, the Cowboys and the Packers playoff hopes are both (precariously) on the line. It’s like the 1960s all over again…but far, far worse.

Also on the Radar:

1. Houston at Indy is a good game disguised as a terrible game – a 2-11 Texans team up against the division leading 8-5 Colts. Those records don’t take into account that the Colts have been struggling like all get out over the past few weeks, and the Texans nearly stole a game from the Patriots a few weeks ago. So that should be a telling AFC South matchup.

2. Also watch-worthy: Jay Cutler’s return to the Bears against a not-as-bad-as-they-seem Browns team – another “bad” team that almost stole a game from the Patriots.

3. Speaking of the Patriots, this could be the week in which they actually lose the games they seem destined to lose, as has been the case for most of the past month. The Dolphins are still very much in the middle of the AFC scrum for the last wildcard spot and one would think that their play will probably reflect that motivation. However, one should also think that the Patriots are the Patriots…and will probably win by 50 just because everyone thinks that they won’t.

Postseason Prep : How the Postseason Works

We’ve arrived at the final quarter of the NFL regular season. Which means that in less than a month…the postseason will be here! Already!!! The regular season always flies by too quickly.

Let’s backtrack a bit. Just as a frame of reference, here are the various seasons within the NFL year:

August = Preseason (4 games that don’t count)

September – December = Regular Season (16 games that determine if you advance to the postseason)

January – February = Postseason (a single-elimination tournament (playoffs) culminating with the Super Bowl)

February – July = Offseason (a painful, dull time of year in which much ado is made about lots of nothing)

The postseason is the season that happens after the regular season, more commonly known as the time when playoffs and the Super Bowl happen. We all know that the best teams are the ones that play in the Super Bowl, but how do they get there?

It all boils down to what happened in the regular season and how teams stack up against other teams within their division and conference. In the NFL, there are two conferences, the NFC and the AFC. There are four divisions within each conference and four teams in each division (resulting in 32 teams).

Here’s what that looks like:

So the big, overarching entity is the NFL.

Within the NFL there are two conferences, the AFC and the NFC.

Each conference has four divisions (loosely) based on geography: 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.

Got it?

Ok, let’s move onto the postseason.

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.

It seems fairly cut and dry: win your division or make the wildcard cut, advance to the playoffs. But as we’ve come to expect, it’s not quite that easy.

Sometimes it really is that easy, like in the AFC East. The Patriots usually end the season north of 12 wins. The rest of the division (Bills, Dolphins, Jets) usually end much farther south of 12 wins. They are usually the undisputed victors of the AFC East. But most of the time the race is a little closer. Take the NFC East, for example. The Eagles, Cowboys, and Giants will probably be fighting for first place until the final week of the season. And what happens if two of the teams end up with the same record? What is multiple potential wildcard teams have the same record, too?

That’s where divisional wins come in, and why divisional games (games against the other teams in your division) are so important.

During the 16-game regular season schedule a team plays all of the other teams in their division twice: once at home, and once away. That accounts for 6 whole games out of a 16-game schedule (the remaining 10 games are played in an even split of home and away games on a rotating schedule against all of the other teams in the league). If two teams in the same division have the same overall record, the team that has the best divisional record gets the playoff spot.

So let’s stick with the NFC East. The Cowboys have won all 4 of their games against the other teams in the division so far. The Eagles have played 5 divisional games and have a 3-2 in-division record. If the season ended today and the Cowboys and Eagles had the same overall record, the Cowboys would still win the division based on their higher divisional record.

The same goes for wildcard teams. If there are multiple potential wildcard teams with the same record (a likelihood in the AFC this year), the two wildcard teams from the division will be decided by which two teams have the highest divisional record.

Once the division winners and wildcard teams are decided the teams are seeded (ranked) according to their record, 1-6 for each division. The four division winners are ranked 1-4 and the wildcard teams are ranked 5-6.

Are you thoroughly confused yet?

If so, you’ve got a week to review! We’ll continue our postseason prep next week by going over last year’s playoff picture to figure our how the playoffs work. And if you have any questions in the meantime you know where to find me!

Zebra Talk : The Not Forward Pass

Last week we learned about what constitutes an illegal forward pass. But a forward pass isn’t the only pass allowed in the NFL. There’s also the backward pass. Which should probably just be labeled the Not Forward Pass, as we’ll soon find out.

Here’s a definition that just might make your day:

Any pass not forward is regarded as a backward pass. A pass parallel to the line is a backward pass.

The first part would have a better shot at making sense if second part wasn’t there. Because the second part makes me want to come to a four way stop, turn right, and regard myself as going backwards, as per the definition. And also because a pass parallel to the line is actually a thing. It’s called a lateral pass.

And you wonder why football makes you crazy.

So for those of you keeping score: a pass that isn’t a forward pass is a backward pass. Even if it’s a lateral pass. Any direction not forward is backward.

And that’s Wednesday.

But not so fast! There are a few other details.

First, backwards passes are legal. There won’t be any yellow flag action for a non-forward pass.

Second, backwards passes circumvent the second pass rule we talked about last week. A player can throw the ball either backwards or sideways (which, apparently, is still backwards) and the player who catches it can legally throw the ball forward to another player since that would be the first forward pass. Second total pass, but first thrown forward.

This is most frequently seen when the circus comes to town at the end of a close game. You might have seen a team that is losing receive a kickoff as time runs out and try to advance the ball down the field backwards – one player throws it behind to another player who runs forward and then throws it behind to another player and so on and so forth. It’s all legal as long as the ball doesn’t travel forward.

In closing: may all of your progress be forward. And may your car understand you mean regular backwards and not NFL backwards when you put it in reverse today.

Amen.

5-Minute Football : End Zones

We all probably know what an end zone is. That’s a no brainer. But we’ve talked about end zones fairly frequently over the past few weeks, so I thought it’d be a good time to corral all of that info into a 5-minute football lesson.

Here’s a ~~crooked~~ homemade visual to serve as a frame of reference while we chat about all things end zone:

1. The end zones are the 10-yard scoring zones located at the ends of each playing field.

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you already knew that, but we’ll cover all of our bases just in case. On that note: the objective of the game is to score in the other team’s end zone.

2. The end zones are 10-yards deep.

A football field consists of 100-yards of playing space with two 10-yard end zones at each end. That’s how kicks returned for touchdowns can be greater than 100-yards, even though the playing field is only 100-yards long. If the receiver catches the kick in the back of the end zone he’s likely 8 or 9 yards deep before he crosses the goal line and runs into the playing field. By the time he crosses the goal line at the other end of the field to score in the other team’s end zone, he’s run a total of 108-yards or so. Thus, a 108-yard return on a 100-yard field.

3. The yard line just prior to the end zone is called the goal line.

The goal line functions as the barrier between the playing field and the end zone. The nose of the football must cross the goal line to count as a touchdown. (If a receiver is standing in the end zone to catch a touchdown, he must have full control of the ball and two feet in-bounds to count as a touchdown.)

4. Four orange pylons (plastic cones that look kind of like tall, skinny, square construction cones) indicate the outer parameters of the end zone.

When the football crosses the goal line it must be inside of the pylons to count as a touchdown.

5. Each team does not claim one end zone for the whole game!!!

This might me one of the most commonly unknown facts in all of football: a team doesn’t get to keep their end zone for the whole game. There is not one side that is, say, the Browns end zone and then the other side is the Titans end zone for the whole game. As we learned last week, teams switch end zones at the end of every quarter to accommodate for fair playing conditions, and the team that defers the kickoff gets to choose which end zone they’ll defend first.

Easy way to remember which end zone is which team’s? Each team’s end zone is the one behind them. Here’s a good example that might serve as your lightbulb moment for the day (I know it was for me the first time I heard it!):

Let’s say the Browns and the Titans are playing. The Titans are on offense and the Browns are on defense. When both teams line up along the line of scrimmage, the Browns end zone will be the one behind the Browns, and the Titans end zone will be the one behind the Titans. The Titans are trying to score in the Browns end zone, and the Browns are trying to defend their own end zone against being scored in.

And now you know all the things you never knew you never knew about end zones. So it’s already been a successful Tuesday! Good work!