Turnover on downs

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In gridiron football, a turnover on downs occurs when a team's offense has used all its downs but has not advanced the ball enough to earn another set of downs. The resulting turnover gives possession of the ball to the team on defense.

Contents

Background

A football team has four plays (downs) (three in Canadian football) to advance the ball at least ten yards or to score. Any ground gained during each down short of these ten yards is kept, and any ground lost must be regained in addition to the ten yards. Thus, if a team gains four yards on first down, it then has three more downs to gain the six remaining yards; if a team loses four yards on first down, it must gain a total of fourteen yards over the next three downs.

If a team gains the required ten yards, it becomes first down and the team receives another four downs to gain another ten yards or cross the goal line for a score. Otherwise, the result of the final down includes turning possession of the ball over to the team that had been on defense.

Strategy

If a team reaches its final down, then rather than risk a turnover on downs, it usually concedes that the drive has ended and executes one of the following plays:

Reasons for not kicking on final down

In some instances, a team may elect to use its final down to try to gain the yardage, rather than punt or kick a field goal. This is referred to as "going for it" (or "sticking" as opposed to "kicking"). The risk is that, if the play fails, the opposing team takes possession of the ball at a more advantageous field position than it would after a punt. Factors that may lead to a team making this choice are:

Near the end of the game, the score of the game becomes more relevant to the decision to go for it:

If there is only time left on the clock for a single play (in either half), there are no long-term considerations. The offense typically executes a Hail Mary pass or a series of lateral passes. A team that is leading at the end of the second half, or either team at the end of the first half, may have the quarterback kneel to end the half with minimum chance for mishap.

Notable strategy

High-school coach Kevin Kelley, the former head coach at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas, achieved national notoriety for his absolute refusal to punt, regardless of field position. He led the school to multiple state championships with a heavily analytics-driven strategy. After becoming Pulaski's head coach in 2003, he ran across a research paper by a Harvard professor who argued that punting made no mathematical sense. Kelley responded by initially reducing punting to less than twice per game, and soon eliminating it altogether. [1]

Statistics

In the National Football League, turnovers on downs do not count as turnovers in statistics for either team; turnover statistics tally turnovers that occur during a play — namely, fumble recoveries and interceptions.

See also

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References

  1. Mojica, Adrian (September 12, 2019). "Tennessee high school to draw national attention during football game against Arkansas foe". Nashville, TN: WZTV . Retrieved November 3, 2019.