LEARNING MODE
Learn football. Predict the future.
Learn football. Predict the future.
OVERVIEW
For those new to football, start here!
Welcome to LEARNING MODE! This is the interactive way to watch and learn about the game of football. Although it's possible to learn on your own as a beginner, it's ideal to have someone familiar with the game to help guide the learner.
We will start with providing the basics of the game of football, progress to learning player positons, common plays, and then discuss the basics of formations. Once you’ve learned these, you’re ready to make predictions and play GAME MODE.
THE FIELD
American football is played on a rectangular field 100 yards long with end zones (which are each 10 yards) beyond that on either side.
Line of Scrimmage: An imaginary line that separates the offense and defense before each play. On television this is drawn on the screen – historically it’s been a BLUE LINE but more recently may be a BLACK, WHITE, OR RED LINE (it seems broadcasters can choose their own adventure here). The football is placed on the ground at this line prior to the play starting.
First Down line: Starting off, the offense needs to gain 10 yards in four attempts (downs) to get to or surpass the first down line. By doing so they attain another first down and continue their drive. On television this is drawn on the screen – USUALLY THE YELLOW LINE.
End Zone: a rectangular area at each end of the field into which the ball must be carried or caught in order to score a touchdown. Which team starts on offense and direction of play are initially determined by a coin toss and switch at half time.
TEAM composiTION
Each NFL team has 53 players on their active roster. 11 players from each team take the field at a time, making a total of 22 players actively playing at any given time. Although they certainly can (and often do) cross over, players generally play in one of three phases: Offense, Defense, and Special Teams. More on this later…
Gameplay
The game is divided into four 15-minute quarters with a longer halftime break. Due to reasons like stoppages for timeouts, penalties, commercials, injuries, etc., games typically last between three to three and a half hours in real time.
The game starts with a kickoff giving possesion to one team, that team’s offense then takes the field. The offense aims to march down the field, one first down at a time (or with bigger more explosive plays) in order to score. The defense is trying to prevent this.
Pre-snap: Each play in football has a lot of action before even starting. An offensive player (usually the quarterback) receives a play call, this call is communicated in code to the rest of the team and players line up in their assigned positions. The quarterback assesses the defense, and may alter the play call based on what he sees (you may hear a “kill kill” or “can can'“ when this happens). There is possible pre-snap motion, and then there is the snap. All of this must happen before the play clock runs out.
The Play Clock: A timer that tells the offense how much time they have before they must start the next play. The play clock is usually set to 40 seconds and begins after the end of the previous play. After penalties, timeouts and changes of possession, the play clock starts at 25 seconds. In the NFL, the quarterback has a green dot on their helmet and receives radio communication from the coaches to let them know what the next play call is. With 15 seconds remaining, or with the snap of the ball, this communication gets cut.
The Snap: Each play starts with a "snap" where the center gives or throws backwards (a.k.a. “hikes”) the ball to the quarterback.
The Play: This is the action of the game and it’s quite variable. The quarterback executes the play by running, handing it off, or passing the ball. The other offensive players have specific assignments all aimed at getting open, blocking or distracting the defense all in an attempt to gain positive yardage and eventually score. The defense is working to thwart this plan by pressuring or tackling the quarterback, or anticipaing and stopping the run or pass play.
Once the play is in action it commonly ends in 1 of 4 of ways:
① A tackle: a defender stops the ball carrier by physically bringing them down to the ground. Parts of the offensive player other than their hands or feet must touch the ground to be considered down. The ball is spotted at the location it was when the player was tackled.
② An incomplete pass: a forward pass is thrown, but not caught by a receiver. This is also termed an “incompletion.” The ball is marked at the same position where the play started. If the receiver does not get both feet in bounds after having possession of the catch this is also considered an incompletion.
③ Going out of bounds: if a ball carrier’s foot touches either side line, the play is over at that location.
④ Scoring: see the scoring section.
Some less common ways a play can end include being down by contact, spikes, and kneel downs. Turnovers are intentionally left out here given they don’t always indicate the end of a play.
The anatomy of a play
The Next play
As long as the team on offense retains the ball and has neither scored, nor failed to gain a first down by their 4th attempt (on 4th down) their possesion, or “drive,” continues and this process starts all over again with another play. In this way teams can methodically march down the field to score, or have big gains on a play to score faster.
There are a number of ways to score points in football, each with different point values:
Touchdown (6 points): An offensive player gets the ball into the opponent's end zone by running across the goal line or catching a pass in the end zone.
Extra Point (1 point): After a touchdown, the team can kick the ball through the goalposts. This is the more common option after a touchdown.
Two-Point Conversion (2 points): After a touchdown, the scoring team can instead choose to run another play to get into the end zone again starting from near the goal line. This is the less common option after a touchdown and is chosen only when needed.
Field Goal (3 points): A team can kick the ball through the goalposts from the field at any point they choose. This is typically on 4th down or when time is running out.
Safety (2 points): The defense scores points by tackling an offensive player with the ball in their own end zone.
SCORING
CHANGE OF POSESSION
Offense and defense switch (meaning which team has the ball and is trying to score) under any of the following 4 circumstances:
① The offense scores.
② The offense commits a turnover.
③ The offense decides to punt the ball on 4th down.
④ The offense fails to gain a 1st down on 4th down.
Possession may or may not change after half time. At the start of the 2nd half, the team that kicked off initially now receives the ball regardless of which team had possession at the end of the first half.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Special Teams are the units on a football team that handle any play involving kicking — a kickoff, punt, field goal, extra point, or onside kick.
Kickoff: kickoffs occur at the beginning of each half and after every score.
Punt: If the offense is unlikely to get a first down and are far enough away from the opponents end zone that kicking a field goal doesn’t make sense, they may elect to punt the ball away on 4th down. This places the ball further away from the end zone in which the opposing team is trying to score.
Onside Kicks: During a kickoff, the kicking team deliberately kicks the ball short (but at least 10+ yards) in an attempt to recover it themselves instead of giving possession to the receiving team. The ball must travel at least 10 yards before the kicking team can touch it (unless the receiving team touches it first), and no player on the kicking team can block before the ball travels 10 yards. It’s a desperation play for teams who are behind and running out of time in the game.
With the basics of the game covered, you can USE THE SNAP DECISION GAME CARDS to help with further learning.
Review player cards. Go through the offensive and defensive player cards. Pick a phase (offense or defense) and start with learning the basic definition and role of each player. Then switch phases and repeat. Once you understand the basics of each position, review the extra details that vary on each card (intermediate learning).
LEARNING WITH CARDS
Review action cards: There are various additional terms that you may hear during a football game that are written on the action cards. Review these cards to gain more football insight.
LEARNING formations
You will need a table and something to designate as the line of scrimmage (a piece of string or a thin strip of paper). Place the Line of Scrimmage in the middle of table. Then pull offensive player cards one at at time and place each player in the correct position relative to the line of scrimmage. Use the activity below as a good starting point and you can mimic this with physical cards in front of you.
The activity below shows 11 offensive players in shotgun formation (there are MANY other formations, but this is a good starting point). Use Free mode to explore where each player lines up. When ready switch to quiz mode. Get all 11 players right in a row and win!
Here are some important tips you may have picked up on — the center snaps the ball (and so is right under the football). The quarter back receives that snap and so is the player just below the center. The guards are on either side of the center, and the tackles flank the guards. These 5 players are collectively known as the OFFENSIVE LINE. The tight end often lines up on one side or the other of the offensive line and may act as a lineman and block, but may also line up to catch a pass and act as a receiver.
Now lets try the same thing but for the defensive side of the ball. Use the activity to get accustomed to the positions and locations of each player and set up your physical cards in front of you as a tactile experience. The example below shows a 4-3 Defense which means there 3 Defensive linemen close to the line of scrimmage and 3 Linebackers just behind (or above in this illustration) them.
Click on any card to see position details
OFFENSIVE “SHOTGUN” FORMATION
The 4-3 Defense
4-3 Defense is a helpful place to start learning defensive formations. In this formation there are 4 defensive linemen (at the line of scrimmage), 3 linebackers and 4 remaining defensive backs (cornerbacks + safeties).
Click on any card to see position details
One note: The modern NFL uses spread formations a lot (multiple wide receivers spread out — pass heavy), and more and more we see a 4-2-5 base defense. This is called Nickel defense because there are 5 defensive backs (cornerbacks + safeties). There will only be 2 linebackers in this formation and the naming convention for these linebackers varies. That 5th defensive back is usually a blend between a linebacker and a defensive back, able to help with stopping running plays but also agile enough to guard receivers. That 5th defensive back is often moved around the field more flexibly.
After completing the formations activities above with the physical cards from your deck, see if you can place pertinent action cards on top of players who might reasonably do them. This won’t work for all action cards, but will reinforce the learning. This should be done alongside another person who knows the game well to provide feedback. Consider adding actions that rely on special teams or the coach off to one side in a pile.
For other, more advanced content please see our blog below.
Now you're more than ready to make predictions while watching a football game – the basic engine of GAME MODE! To start, we recommend trying with the two offense prediction cards – run and pass. Pull up a game (see here for our list) and prior to each snap and have the newcomer predict if the play will be a run or a pass play. After the play happens, pause the game and explain the result.
Once the dynamics of offensive prediction maing has been mastered, move on to making defensive predictions alone - Stop, Contain, and Allow. Again, pause and explain the results here.
Once you can do both at the same time you're ready for GAME MODE!
Making Predictions