Dude. I don't even know how Football is played!...

Okay.
Don't sweat it because we're gonna learn ya. No need to get into Nickle Defenses and Hook Routes or anything like that-
We're gonna break it down to the basics. That's all you need to know to be a good Fantasy Football Manager.
Here we go!

The base of Football is this:

The Offense has four plays (or "Downs") to move the ball ten yards (which are marked by poles at the sideline and is usually that yellow line on your television screen).

Once they get past that yardline they earn another four plays to move the ball another 10 yards from where the ball was last marked down.
The Defense tries to stop them, of course.

They continue this "march" until they get into the "end zone". When they get here it is called a "Touchdown" and the offense is awarded 6 points.

Immediately after the Touchdown, the offense is allowed to go for an extra point by kicking the ball through the goal posts from the 20 yardline (usual) OR they can try to carry the ball into the end zone for two points.

And THAT is what is going on in Football.
Yeah, there are penalties and interceptions and things that make things more complicated but all you need to really understand is the movement of the ball and how players score.

Now.
Let's see it in action a little bit...

The game starts with one team receiving the ball:



Alright.
This is just a Madden version but it's the only play online I could find where the kick wasn't returned for a touch down.

So. The ball is marked down where the runner is tackled (or goes out of bounds) and the "First Down" yard line is marked 10 yards from that point.

Now the Offense has four "Downs" (plays) to get to that First Down yard line.

There are two types of plays-
A Run: Where the team runs the ball.
And A Pass: Where the team throws the ball.

You will find that there are teams that favor one or the other but usually the situation a team is in will dictate what type of play they use.

If you have a short distance left to get a First Down- often teams will hand the ball to their Running Back (RB) to get it over the line.

Here are the Dallas Cowboys in a 3rd (down) and 1 (yard to the First Down) situation.



Note how the field is digitally marked to show you that it's 3rd down and a yellow line illuminates the First Down marker.

Dallas would now get a fresh set of Downs at the 35 yard line after this play.

Now here is a play by the Cowboys where they decide to throw the ball at 2nd and 10 yards to go.



Typically, successful Passing plays get you more yardage- so they are often used when a team needs to make up a lot of distance to get that First Down.

Now this all happens until you get a result like this:



Awwwwwww YEAH!

Do you get it?
Good.


Now-
When a team is facing 4th down and doesn't think they are going to get the First Down- they may opt to kick the ball (Punt) to the other team- (so that they aren't close to the goal line when they take over the ball) or to go for a field goal (if they think their kicker can make it from where they are) for 3 points.


So, you are probably asking how all of this translates to Fantasy Football.
Well, briefly-
Romo- who threw the ball to Witten, might earn a fraction of a point for completing a pass.
Witten would earn a point for catching that pass.
If Witten had made a Touchdown on that pass he would have earned 6 points and Romo 4 points (depending on your league rules).

In the last run, Felix Jones would have earned 6 points for the touchdown and 1 point for every 10 yards he ran (so 6.6 points for that one play- 12.6 in total).

If you owned those players, you would get those points.

More on that in the next post...

Now to close it out- here is an NFL retelling of the best Drive Ever: