it's a matter of down

at the core of every football game, there's a little, furry, long-eared creature called the down. as far as i can tell, a "down" is just the medical term for "10 yards". the offensive team has four tries to go ten yards from where they started. at the start of the game, both teams start at the 50-yard line, ie. the line of scrimmage. so the first down is the 40-yard line. if the ball is caught past the 40-yard line, say, the 35 yard line, then the next down starts where the ball is caught. so the second down would be at the 25 yard line. the offense gets four downs. i think. then do they have to hand the ball over to the other team? or go for a field goal? and if the defense intercepts the ball, do they start their first down from where they intercepted the ball, or do they go back to the 50-yard line? maybe the offense has 15 minutes to get four downs? and then when the clock runs out, the other team gets the ball and they go back to the 50 yard line. man, i know we're close, but still just out of reach. i'll get you yet, down!

Comments

[mr. xls]

omg!

. . . omg . . .

(hope it's ok i am crashing your blog)

this post is too good to be true.

[nancy]

Crash-away Klutch.xls. After watching a lot of goddamn football yesterday, I think we've finally got control of this bitch (the down, that is). It looks like a team gets four chances to go ten yards. Each chance is called a down. So if they get 6 yds on the first try, then you would say they are at 2nd and 4, meaning it's their second chance and they have 4 yds to go. If they get 10 yds, then they can just keep on keepin' on with another 4 chances to go another 10 yds.

[mr. xls]

wow! week 3 and you've got a good grasp. and to think I've been trying to teach the q-dogg for the last 10 years!