Outside Class Week 1

This weekend our homework was to watch/ play a game and also try and get as much information about a game as possible. First I looked up the rules of a football game online to get as much detail as possible about how the game is played. Here is a basic summary of what I found:

A football game is a series of downs played by two teams both with the objective to score more points. They are allowed 11 players on the field at a time one side with an offense (trying to score) and one with a defense (preventing the scoring). The offense has 4 tries to make advance the ball 10 yards and can score points by reaching (touchdown/ 6 points) or being near (field goal/ 3 points) the opponents endzone. If in 4 tries they do not reach 10 yards, the defense gains control. The only other way for the offense to score points comes after a touchdown, they can kick an extra point (1 point) or try to advance the ball back into the endzone ( 2 point convergent). The defense can also score points by retrieving the ball through a fumble or an interception or by tacking the ball in the opponents endzone (safety/ 2 points). the time of play is broken down into 4, 15 minute quarters with a halftime. However, there are many times when the clock can be stopped. The clock is stopped when the offense throws an incomplete pass or the runner goes out of bounds which is controlled by referees. Besides that, each team has 3 timeouts per half that are used at their discretion and also there can be an official's time out to review any play that is questionable.

This weekend was also the Superbowl weekend so watching a game was easy to handle. I made sure to sit down next to two ex football players while watching the game to receive the best notes on the game that I could. Here are some words I wrote down during the game that my group had missed before:

American Football Conference
National Football Conference
Instant Replay
Down markers
punt return
stadium
MVP
touchback
long snapper - punts
holder - field goals
"moving the pile"
game clock - 15 min quarters
play clock - how long before snap (delay of game)
shot gun formation
run patterns - running back
run routes - wide receivers

During the game I was also able to get one of the ex football players to draw me a diagram of the offense and defense formation with everyone labeled: