Kickoff Nitty Gritty: Onside Kicks and Fair Catch Kicks

Recently, I explained procedures associated with kickoffs, including the meaning of “runback,” “touchback” and special teams.  Now that you have, hopefully, seen several kickoffs, there are a few more kickoff details that are worth explaining.  Kickoffs are more than a mere formality to switch possession to the other team.  If you haven’t already, you will soon see that a kickoff can turn the tide for the losing team, or can help the winning team shoots itself in the foot.  The game situation can also impact the strategy a team uses on its kickoff.  How can this one aspect of the game mean so much?  Keep reading…

ONSIDE KICK

Under the rules of football, the ball must go ten yards from the spot of the kick to be legal.  Moreover, once the ball has gone ten yards, it’s up for grabs—either team can get possession by grabbing the ball.  This brings us to the first critical kickoff situation:  the onside kick.

Imagine this scenario:  the Chicago Bears are trailing the Green Bay Packers in the fourth quarter by nine points, 21 to 30.  There’s 1:25 left in the game when the Bears get the ball on their own 20-yard line.  They manage to work their way down the field and score a touchdown with 42 seconds left in the game.  The score is now Bears 28, Packers 30, but the Bears have to kick the ball to the Packers.  Time for an onside kick attempt!

The Bears’ place kicker will attempt to connect with the ball in such a way that it will hit the ground and bounce very high.  Hopefully, the bounce will allow at least one of his teammates to get in position to catch, or land on, the football once it goes ten yards.  If this happens, the Bears will have the ball again and a final chance to score.  So, why don’t teams do this every time?  The risk is that, if you don’t get the ball, the receiving team gets great field position, making it easier for them to score.

The receiving team will usually know that an onside kick is coming.  If the game situation (like the one I just described) doesn’t make it obvious, there are two other possible clues.  First, the kicking team will usually (but not always) line up in a formation where most of its players are bunched up on one side of the field.  This indicates that the ball will be kicked in that direction.  Second, the kicking team will send on their “hands team”; that is, their players who are most skilled at catching and holding onto the ball.  These will be their receivers, with the most reliable in the bunch in the most ideal position.

Onside kicks happen quite often, but not just in critical last-second situations.  A famous example is Super Bowl XLIV, when the New Orleans Saints, only down by four points, opened the second half with an onside kick:

FAIR CATCH

The returner on the receiving team might believe he can catch the ball, but that he won’t be able to make a runback for much yardage.  This is usually because he can sense the cover players on the kicking team closing in on him, or closing up the route he intended to run.  In such a case, the returner can protect himself and improve his chance of catching the ball safely (i.e., without dropping it or fumbling) by signaling for a fair catch. 

He does this by raising one arm over his head and waving it across his body (like at the movies when you wave to your husband when he’s come into the darkened theater with your Skittles).  Once the returner correctly signals a fair catch, no player on the kicking team can touch him; he must have enough space around him to catch the ball unmolested.  Of course, if he muffs the catch and drops it, the ball is still fair game and can be recovered by the kicking team.

I want to tell you about a neat little quirk associated with fair catches in the NFL and high school (but not college).  After a fair catch is made, the receiving team can choose to attempt a field goal from the spot of the fair catch instead of just going on offense like usual.  This is called a fair catch kick.  When the receiving team elects this option and tells the officials, the defense must line up ten yards away from where the kick will take place.  Therefore, the place kicker has those few extra moments to kick the ball before the defense reaches him.  This allows him to take a bit of a running start instead of just taking a couple of steps like a regular field goal attempt.  You’re not allowed to use a tee, so a teammate has to hold the ball.

Fair catch kicks are VERY rare.  The last successful attempt was accomplished by Ray Wersching for the San Diego Chargers in 1976 against the Buffalo Bills.*  The last attempt was a miss by Mason Crosby for the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions in 2008.  Here’s Neil Rackers trying it a month before Crosby:

*Source: http://quirkyresearch.blogspot.com/2006/07/nfl-fair-catch-kick-attempts.html

Special Teams and Kickoffs

Today’s lesson explains the term “special teams.”  If you have been watching preseason football or listened to any talking heads discussing team personnel decisions, you may have heard this term several times by now.  It’s time you got the basics on what makes certain players “special.”

Generally speaking, special team refers to the group of players not involved in the offense or defense, but rather in kicking situations:  kickoffs, punts and extra point attempts.   They are “special” because they are not the players that are on the field for a typical down (or play) (although some can also be on offense or defense).  The reason special teams are significant to personnel decisions is that many players who might not otherwise make a team’s roster (usually rookies) will make the team when that team has a need on in its special team.  Over time, that player may impress the coaches enough to become a starter on offense or defense.

For this post, I want to focus on the kickoff.  Of the other types of special team plays, the kickoff looks most different from other plays, and there are some significant rule changes to kickoffs this year that you need to learn.  I have already discussed extra point attempts in a previous post.  A punt occurs if a team elects not to go for a first down on fourth down, and is very similar to a kickoff except that the formation looks more like a typical down and the kicker is called a punter instead of the place kicker.    

KICKOFFS

As I have explained previously, the first and third quarters of every game start with a kickoff.  A kickoff also occurs after a team has scored.   For kickoffs, the special team that is kicking the ball consists of the place kicker and the cover players.  The team receiving the ball will have one or two returners located deep on their end of the field where they will attempt to catch the ball; the rest of the players are blockers for the returners.  The place kicker places the ball upright on a tee in the middle of the 35-yard line.*  He will then back up about ten yards or so and raise his hand when he is ready to make the kick.  The cover players will line up along the 30 yard line and begin running forward when the kicker reaches the 30-yard line to kick the ball. 

Once the ball is kicked, one of three things will happen:  (1) a runback; (2) a touchback; or (3) the ball goes out of bounds before it reaches the end zone. 

Runback:  A "runback" is when a returner catches the ball and runs toward the opposite end zone.  In a runback, the cover players (the team that kicked the ball) will attempt to cover the distance to the returner and tackle him.  The returner’s blockers will attempt to block the cover players’ progress.  The goal for the returner, of course, is to run the whole length of the field and score a touchdown at the other end.  However, this is rare, and the spot where he is eventually tackled by the cover players, or goes out of bounds, is where his team will begin its drive toward the other end of the field.  There are, however, two players—Devin Hester (Chicago Bears) and Josh Cribbs (Cleveland Browns)—that have a particular talent for kick returns.  So much so that kickers often employ the strategy of aiming the football away from them.

Touchback:  On a kickoff, a "touchback" occurs in one of two ways: (1) the ball goes through the end zone and out of bounds; or (2) a returner catches or picks up the ball in the end zone and kneels to the ground (called "downing" the ball).  In a touchback, the ball is brought out to the 20-yard line on that end of the field and that is where the team that received the kick will begin their drive to the opposite end zone.

If the ball goes out of bounds before it reaches the end zone, and the receiving team hasn’t touched it, the kicking team gets a penalty.  Stay tuned for a further explanation of this and other kickoff-related penalties.   

You may have also heard about changes to the rules regarding kickoffs this season, and it’s important for you to understand them and their impact.  Before this season, the ball was kicked from the 30-yard line and the cover players were allowed a ten-yard head start to run before reaching the point where the ball had been.  Now, the ball is placed at the 35-yard line and the cover players are only allowed a five-yard head start.  The purpose of the rule change is to reduce the risk of injury caused by the high velocity impacts occurring as the two teams charge toward each other.  There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding these rules.  First, there is a concern that more kickoffs will result in touchbacks than ever before, which takes the excitement out of kickoffs and neutralizes the impact of players like Hester and Cribbs.  Second, the new rules may change the way teams make special team personnel decisions.  They may decide that they no longer need return specialists because there are so many more touchbacks, or that they don’t need a specialty kicker who is able to aim the ball short of the end zone. 

*Note that the ball will be teed on the 35-yard line unless either team committed a foul, such as unsportsmanlike conduct, on the scoring play that preceded the kickoff.  If that is the case, the location of the ball for the kickoff reflects the yardage penalty associated with the foul.

The Field, Scoring, Timing and Starting the Game

HEY THERE, FOOTBALL FANS IN TRAINING!  THE NFL’S PRESEASON STARTS TONIGHT!!!  SO…

Today’s lesson is the first effort to give you basic facts about how football is played.  I will get into more detail into all of the topics discuss below in later posts.  However, after reading this, you should be able to watch a game and at least understand what is happening. 

First, a word of encouragement.  Please don’t be discouraged if the workings of football aren’t easy to grasp in the beginning.  It’s not as straight-forward as other sports like basketball, tennis, golf.  There are a lot of things happening at once, strange terms being thrown out by the announcers, and penalties that are sometimes hard to see. 

Tangent:  After graduating college, I went backpacking with friends through Europe for a few weeks.  We were able to get tickets for a preseason game between the Chicago Bears and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin.*  When we arrived in the middle of the second quarter, we were surprised to see that people were already leaving.  Compared to soccer and hurling, two fast-moving sports popular in the UK, football seemed very slow.  But they were also confused.  For example, the people sitting around us couldn’t understand why every once in a while all of the players on the field would leave and be replaced by other players (“Aye, where are they getting’ to?  Are they winded?”).  (As I will explain, this will occur when possession changes.)  No, the only thing the Dubliners liked about football were doing the wave and the cheerleaders (who weren’t even NFL cheerleaders but local stand-ins).  SO, don’t feel alone.  There are lots of nice, intelligent Irishmen who are in the same boat.

OK, now to the basics of football… 

The Field.  The game is played on a rectangular field that measures 120 yards long by 53 yards wide.  “Wait!” you might say, “What is she talking about?  I thought a football field was 100 yards long!?!”  Well, smarty pants, the 120 yards includes the two end zones, one at each end of the field, which each measure 10 yards long.  The playing field is the 100 yards between the goal lines, which are the lines that separate the end zones from the rest of the field.  It looks roughly like this:

END ZONE

1

0     2

0     3

0     4

0    5

0    4

0    3

0    2

0    1

0

END ZONE

Scoring.  The object of the game, naturally, is to score more points than your opponent in the allotted time.  There are three ways to score points: (1) touchdown; (2) field goal; and (3) safety. 

A touchdown is scored when the team that has the ball, the offense, gets the ball into the other team’s end zone.  This can be done by running the ball into the end zone, or throwing the ball to a teammate who is already in the end zone or subsequently runs into the end zone.  A touchdown gives a team six points.  Then, the team can collect either one or two extra points.  It will get one extra point if its kicker can kick the ball through a set of uprights positioned at the back and center of the end zone (they look like a big block “Y”).  A team will earn two points if it manages to get the ball into the end zone again, by running or throwing, from a few yards outside of the end zone.

A field goal is scored when the team's kicker manages to kick the ball from the playing field through the uprights at the back of the end zone.  A field goal nets a team three points; there is no extra point attempt after a field goal.

A safety is one way a defense can score during the game, and is worth two points.  This a bit complicated--click here for my post on safeties.

Duration and Timing.  At the professional level, each game consists of four 15-minute quarters, with a halftime break after the end of the second quarter.  If the game ends in a tie, an overtime period begins (more on overtime in a future post).  At the start of each quarter, the game clock will count down from 15:00.  There are several events that will stop the game clock, such as: a time out called by either team; an incomplete pass; the player with the ball running out of bounds; and an injury.  In the NFL, the officials will call stop the clock when there are two minutes left in the second and fourth quarter (or, if a play starts at, say, 2:01, the clock will stop after that play ends).  This is called the two-minute warning.

Start of Game Play.  The game begins with the captains on each team meeting for a coin toss.  The winner of the coin toss decides either (1) whether his team will receive or kick the opening kickoff; or (2) which end zone his team will defend.  The loser makes the other election.    In that case, the winner’s choices are given to the loser. 

Why would the winner decide not to make the choice at the start of the game?  There are many reasons and theories about this.  For one thing, the team may decide that it’s better to have control over the start of the second half, when they have had an opportunity to adjust its game strategy during half time.  Also, since the loser of the coin toss will likely decide to receive the kickoff, a team with a strong defense may want to defer if it thinks they can stymie the opponent’s offense and set the tone for the rest of the game.

Once the coin toss decisions are made, the game begins with the kickoff.  The team kicking off will place the ball on a kicking tee at its 35-yard line (35 yards outside the end zone it is defending).  The team’s place kicker will then kick the ball toward the other team.  A player on the other team will either catch it as it returns to earth, or pick it up after it has hit the ground, and run toward the opponent’s end zone.  Once a player has the ball, he is called the “runner”.  If the runner is stopped before reaching the opponent’s end zone, the place where he is stopped is called the line of scrimmage and the offense can now begin its drive to the opponent’s end zone.  Kickoffs occur at the beginning of the first and third quarters, and after each score.

Whew.  I think that’s enough to get you started for now.  Next time, a little more about how to advance the ball on offense, including the meaning of that vague term “First and 10.”

*The NFL has been staging preseason games in foreign countries for years in an effort to promote the sport internationally.  Now, there is a commitment to have at least one regular season game held abroad each year.