Key takeaways
- Each team has 11 players on the field, and the offense gets four downs to move the ball 10 yards; reach that line and the count resets to first down.
- On fourth down a team usually punts or tries a field goal, because failing to reach the line to gain hands the ball to the opponent where the play ends.
- A touchdown is worth 6, a field goal 3 and a safety 2; after a touchdown the scoring team tries for 1 more with a kick from the 15 or 2 more with a play from the 2.
- The field is 100 yards between the goal lines plus a 10-yard end zone at each end, 53 and a third yards wide, with each crossbar set above an end line.
- Read every situation as down, distance and field position, because those three numbers decide what a sensible next play looks like.
American football is a game of territory gained in short, separate plays. Each team has 11 players on the field. The team with the ball, the offense, gets four attempts, called downs, to move it 10 yards. Make the 10 yards and the count resets to first down; fall short after four and the ball goes to the other side. Points come from carrying or catching the ball in the opponent's end zone (a touchdown, 6 points), kicking it through the goal posts (a field goal, 3 points), or trapping the opponent in its own end zone (a safety, 2 points).
That is the whole skeleton. The rest of this guide puts flesh on it by following one drive from start to finish, using the professional rules in the NFL's 2026 rulebook as the reference.
Follow one drive
Every situation in football is described by three numbers: the down, the distance still needed for a first down, and where the ball is. "Second and 6 at your own 39" tells a coach almost everything about what comes next.
Here is an invented drive, play by play. It starts after a kickoff that reaches the end zone on the fly and is downed there, which under the 2026 kickoff rules puts the ball on the receiving team's own 35.
| Play | Situation before the snap | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1st and 10, own 35 | Run for 4 yards | 2nd and 6 |
| 2 | 2nd and 6, own 39 | Pass falls incomplete | 3rd and 6 |
| 3 | 3rd and 6, own 39 | Pass caught for 9 yards | New 1st and 10 |
| 4 | 1st and 10, own 48 | Run for 12 yards | New 1st and 10 |
| 5 | 1st and 10, opponent's 40 | Quarterback sacked for a 5-yard loss | 2nd and 15 |
| 6 | 2nd and 15, opponent's 45 | Pass caught for 11 yards | 3rd and 4 |
| 7 | 3rd and 4, opponent's 34 | Run for 2 yards | 4th and 2 |
A few rules are doing the work in that table.
The line to gain. The rulebook defines it as the spot 10 yards beyond the snap that starts a series, or the goal line if that is closer. After play 3 the offense passed its own 45, so it earned a new series and a new target 10 yards further on.
A down ends when the ball is dead. The most common endings are a runner being brought down (touching the ground with anything other than hands or feet after contact), a runner going out of bounds, and a forward pass falling incomplete. The offense may throw only one forward pass per down, and only from behind the line of scrimmage.
Losing yards counts against you. The sack on play 5 pushed the ball back, so the distance needed grew from 10 to 15.
The fourth-down decision
Now the offense faces fourth and 2 at the opponent's 32, and it has three options.
- Go for it. Run a play; gain 2 yards and the drive continues, fall short and the opponent takes over right there.
- Punt. Kick the ball away to push the opponent back. The league's own glossary notes that a punt almost always happens on fourth down.
- Kick a field goal. The ball is snapped back to a holder, so the kick is longer than the yard line suggests. The glossary says an extra point snapped from the 15 is equivalent to about a 33-yard field goal, which means roughly 18 yards get added to the line of scrimmage. From the 32, that is about a 50-yard attempt.
There is no single right answer; the choice weighs the distance, the kicker, the score and the clock. Say the team kicks and makes it: 3 points, and the ball goes back to the other side with a kickoff.
What each score is worth
| Score | Points | How it happens |
|---|---|---|
| Touchdown | 6 | The ball is carried into, or caught in, the opponent's end zone |
| Try by kick | 1 | After a touchdown, a kick through the goal posts from a snap at the 15 |
| Try by run or pass | 2 | After a touchdown, the ball is carried or caught in the end zone from a snap at the 2 |
| Field goal | 3 | A kick from the field of play over the crossbar and between the uprights |
| Safety | 2 | Usually, the ball carrier is downed in his own end zone, or the offense fouls there |
The try after a touchdown is a single play, and the rulebook says that if a try ends in a touchdown "by either team", two points are awarded, so a defense that returns a fumble or interception the length of the field on a try scores 2. After most scores the ball changes hands with a kickoff. After a safety, the team that gave up the points must also kick the ball away, with a free kick from its own 20.
The values explain a lot of strategy. A touchdown plus a kicked try is worth 7, which is why "one score" usually means a lead of 8 points or fewer: a touchdown and a two-point try can erase it.
The field, in numbers
| Feature | Measurement |
|---|---|
| Whole field | 360 feet by 160 feet (120 yards by 53 and a third yards) |
| Field of play | 100 yards between the goal lines |
| Each end zone | 10 yards deep |
| Goal | Crossbar in the plane of each end line, its top 10 feet high, 18 feet 6 inches wide |
| Inbounds lines (hash marks) | 70 feet 9 inches in from each sideline |
| Yard-line markings | Every 5 yards, with numbers every 10 |
Yard lines count up from each goal line to the 50, so "the opponent's 32" means 32 yards from the end zone you are attacking. Because the crossbar sits in the plane of the end line, a field goal always has the 10-yard end zone to cover as well, which is part of why the 18-yard adjustment above exists.
Who is on the field
The NFL's own guide to formations starts with the basics: an offense "consists of 11 players". At the snap it must have at least seven on the line of scrimmage, with eligible receivers on both ends. The interior linemen block and generally cannot catch a forward pass; the players on the ends of the line and those set behind it, such as tight ends, wide receivers and running backs, can. A defense also fields 11, built from linemen, linebackers and defensive backs.
What each position actually does, and why some are worth more on a draft board than others, is covered in football positions explained. Reading a defense explains what a quarterback looks at before the snap.
The clock, the halves and the referees
An NFL game is 60 minutes long, in four 15-minute periods, with a 13-minute halftime under the 2026 rulebook. Each team has three timeouts per half. Some plays stop the clock (an incomplete pass, for one) and others let it run, which is the basis of end-of-half strategy; clock management in the final two minutes covers it in detail. A game tied after four periods goes to overtime.
Fouls are enforced in yards; the rulebook's penalty summary groups its distance penalties into 5, 10 and 15 yards. The team that was fouled may decline a penalty if the play itself went better, and a defensive foul also gives the offense a new first down unless it is one of the rulebook's listed exceptions, such as offside, encroachment or delay of game.
Where to practise reading the game
Football Career Sim 2026 is a fictional quarterback career built on exactly this vocabulary: its drives resolve with downs, distance, field position, turnovers, timeouts, red-zone situations, overtime and clock management, and your decisions are reads, targets, audibles and scrambles. Playing a few drives is a quick way to make "third and 4 at the 34" mean something without memorising a rulebook.
If you would rather build the team than play in it, the football draft simulator guide explains how football rosters break down into units. For more on the sport, start at our American football page, and the full set of management and career titles is under sports GM games.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How many downs does a team get in American football?
How many points is a safety in football?
How long is an American football field?
Why do teams usually kick on fourth down?
How long is an NFL game?
Sources
- 2026 NFL Rulebook (Official Playing Rules of the National Football League) (opens in a new tab)NFL Football Operations — accessed
- NFL Football Basics: Football Terms (opens in a new tab)NFL Football Operations — accessed
- NFL Football Basics: Formations (opens in a new tab)NFL Football Operations — accessed
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