A football refresher for fans who know the game but have gone fuzzy on the details. It covers formations, defensive fronts, pass coverages, how plays are designed, and the terms announcers use. Every diagram is interactive. Click a player to see his job, press Run to watch a play unfold, and take the quiz at the end.
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Four downs to gain ten yards. The down and the distance decide what the offense wants to call, and the defense guesses along with it. Click any player for the job description.
1st and 10 is neutral. 3rd and 2 favors a run. 3rd and 9 is a passing down, so the defense swaps linebackers for defensive backs and rushes the passer.
Seven offensive players must be on the line at the snap. Only the two on the ends, plus the four behind the line, can catch a pass. The five interior linemen cannot.
Offense picks personnel. Defense matches. Offense lines up. Defense aligns. Offense shifts or motions to learn the coverage. Then the ball is snapped.
A formation forces the defense to declare itself. Spread out and you thin the box for the run. Bunch in and you add blockers. Pick one and see where it puts the stress.
First digit is running backs, second is tight ends. Whatever is left out of five is wide receivers. The defense watches who jogs onto the field and substitutes to match.
| Code | On the field | What it tells the defense |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR | The modern default. Defense answers with nickel (five defensive backs). |
| 12 | 1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR | Run strength and play-action. Defense has to choose between base and nickel, and either can be wrong. |
| 21 | 2 RB, 1 TE, 2 WR | Fullback on the field. Downhill runs. Defense stays in base with three linebackers. |
| 10 | 1 RB, 0 TE, 4 WR | Pass first. Defense goes nickel or dime. |
| 22 | 2 RB, 2 TE, 1 WR | Short yardage and goal line. Defense loads the box. |
A defensive call has two halves. The front is how the big bodies line up to stop the run and rush the passer. The coverage is how everyone else defends the pass. Read them separately.
Before the snap, count the deep safeties. One in the middle means the middle of the field is closed (MOFC): expect Cover 1 or Cover 3. Two split wide means it is open (MOFO): expect Cover 2, Cover 4 or Cover 6. Nobody deep means Cover 0 and a blitz is coming. Defenses disguise this by rotating at the snap, which is why quarterbacks confirm the read after it.
Six core concepts, each drawn against a defense it is built to attack. Press Run, or drag the slider to step through the play one beat at a time.
Coaches do not invent plays from nothing. They pick a defender to put in a bind, then assemble a play from standard parts so that whatever he does is wrong.
Count the box. Six defenders against six blockers is a run. If the defense drops a safety down for a seventh, somebody is single-covered outside, so throw.
Put one receiver in front of a zone defender and one behind him. He cannot cover both. Smash does this to the Cover 2 corner.
Put more receivers across a level than there are defenders at that level. Four verticals sends four deep against three deep defenders.
Make a defender responsible for two jobs. Play-action shows run to a linebacker, then throws into the space he just left. RPOs let the quarterback read him and decide after the snap.
A play call is a sentence with a fixed word order. Click each part.
Play calling is matching a concept to the coverage you expect. Click a cell for the reason.
Good, Even and Tough describe the matchup on paper. Execution and disguise change it every snap.
Seventy terms the booth throws around, in plain words. Search for the one you nodded along to last Sunday.
Ten questions, dealt at random from a pool of 25, so a second try gets a different set. Several ask you to read a diagram the way a quarterback would before the snap.
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