Turnover on downs
In gridiron football, a turnover on downs occurs when a team's offense has used all its downs but fails to advance the ball enough to earn another set of downs. The resulting turnover gives possession of the ball to the team on defense.
Background
A football team has four plays 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:- If close enough to the goal posts, it attempts to kick a field goal to score points.
- Otherwise, it punts the ball, conceding possession to the defense but trying to give the defense a less advantageous field position.
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". 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:- Going for it seems more likely to succeed because only a small distance is needed to gain a first down or score a touchdown.
- Punting/kicking seems less likely to succeed because of the weather or the quality of the kicker.
- A team not quite within field goal range believes that the advantage of punting is not substantial.
- A team plans to use the down to trick or surprise the defense:
- * With a trick play: Set up to punt or kick a field goal but go for yardage instead.
- * By inducing the defense to commit a foul, where the penalty reduces the yardage needed for first down, or results in a first down.
- * By simply doing the opposite of what the defense expects.
- A mishap on a kicking play forces the offense to abandon the kicking play and try for yardage.
- A team is leading but wants to score additional points to prevent the opposing team from coming back to tie or win the game.
- A team is leading and wants to retain possession to take more time off the clock.
- A team is trailing and believes that, if it surrenders possession of the ball, it might not get another possession.
- A team is trailing by so much that scoring a field goal would not substantially improve its situation.
- A team is in field goal range but is trailing such that a field goal would not tie or win the game, but a touchdown would.