Football Gameplay and Scoring

Football Game Play and Scoring has evolved over the years.

There have been many changes in football game play and scoring since football first started to develop in America in the late 1800s. The biggest change occurred in the 1930s when the forward pass born--some of the penalties concerning incomplete passes were removed and the ball, which had started out looking like a soccer ball became closer to the oval it is now, making it easier to hold on to and pass. The play went from a more defensive-type game to an offensive one. While at first passes were made more on a wing and a prayer, just hoping there would be a receiver close enough to catch it, college teams eventually started developing techniques of blocking and passing routes that would  be applied one day to football play in the National Football League (NFL).

Passing became more of a technique when the American Football League (AFL) was formed to compete with the NFL.  Long passes became standard play with teams hoping the running game would excite fans and draw them away from the NFL.  When the AFL and NFL merged (1970), the AFL became the AFC--American Football Conference and the NFL became the NFC--National Football Conference.  This led to the NFC needing to pick up the running game fast in order to keep the competition keen.

The West Coast Offense was developed in the 1970s by Bill Walsh, when he moved to Cincinnati to coach the Bengals.  He was the first to develop a system of time-based routes for passing that were hard for the opposing team to cover, along with what is now known as a horizontal system of passing.  Later, at Stanford, Walsh was the first to label the routes of wide receivers as 3-step, 5-step and 7-step.  This indicated how many steps both the receiver and the quarterback would take before the pass.  For instance, in the 3-step the receiver would take 3 steps and then turn toward the quarterback.  At the same time the quarterback was taking 3 steps backwards after the snap. On the third step the receiver should have been open to make the catch.

Each decade seemed to develop its own play patterns with the run and shoot-stretch offense becoming a trend in the 1990s. An offensive play sometimes had as many as ten options depending on how the defense was set up.  Today, the NFL uses a mix of offensive strategies, which include the running game along with a West Coast or Stretch and Spread strategy.  Teams go with their strengths with Washington and Denver, for instance, pursuing a running game and the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts having great success with the passing game. 

In recent years the NFL has gone to a two running back system as few running backs can catch a pass in the backfield, and successfully block and run between tackles. The Dallas Cowboys have been particularly effective with this method of play. 

Scoring in football has not changed much over the years, with the same methods of scoring being in place, and only an occasional change in the number of points for each.  Today the touchdown, where the ball crosses the goal line either by being carried or by a pass into the end zone, is worth 6 points. After a touchdown, the team can choose a one- point conversion, where the ball is kicked through the goal posts or a two-point conversion, where they line up on the two-yard line and have one attempt to get the ball into the end zone by either running or passing. 

If a team is in a fourth or last-down situation, they can choose whether or not to kick a field goal.  The football must pass over the upright bars of the goal post to land in the other team’s end zone.  If successful, it counts as three points.  The last way to score in football is called a safety--it means an opponent with the ball in their possession was tackled in their own end zone. For this, the team is awarded two points.