So I’ve started watching NFL more as I work evenings and it’s one of the few sports I can watch live. I know I can search NFLNoobs but easier to ask directly here.

Apologies if these are obvious questions but I didn’t grow up with gridiron being the national sport.

1. In Madden when I get a touchdown, most of the time it then takes me to the field goal. Other times it lets me have another play and potentially getting another touchdown. Why is that?

2. What is the other line for (not the yellow first down line)?

3. What is the purpose of the timeouts? Is it the coach has seen that the play they have going on isn’t going to work (judging by the other team) or other things?

4. What is the significance of the 2 minute warning?

5. What is and isn’t unnecessary roughness? Sometimes to my untrained eye someone gets yeeted and nothing happens. Other times it doesn’t seem to be as severe and a penalty is called?

1) After scoring a TD, you have 2 options

A) Kick the Extra point FG for 1 point
B) Go for a 2 point conversion which is a 1 play shot at the 2 yard line of the opponent where if successful, you get 2 points instead of 1.

2) Other line is the LOS(Line of Scrimmage). That is where the ball is placed and where the center snaps the ball from.

Late in games you will also see a Red Line which networks will indicate the (usual) FG range for a kicker and where their career long/overall range is so you know as a fan where the ball has to be for a serious shot at a FG kick. 

3) Timeouts stop the clock and or can bail you out of a penalty ala 12 men in the huddle/field or can be used to stop the tempo of a fast paced offense or to give a defense/offense a breather. You also have timeouts in use for challenges where if you fail to make a proper challenge against the officials ruling, you lose one of your timeouts for the half. They can also be used for injuries where if a player gets hurt under the 2 minute mark, the team has to use a timeout or have a 10 second run off. Same with a penalty.

Mostly timeouts are to stop the clock where if you are chasing a team and need a FG or TD to win it, the clock is your enemy and using a timeout stops that. Or if a player fails to get out of bounds, you use a timeout to stop the clock.

4) 2 minute warning is an auto timeout regardless so teams will try and use that to their advantage where either the team up will try and burn that with a play to hurt the other team or the other team will utilize that as a free way to stop the clock in a tight game.

Anything under 2 minutes is auto reviewed by officials for any calls where as (most since this is new this year) outside of 2 minutes, you must challenge a ref ruling on the field minus turnovers/touchdowns which are auto-reviewed if called on the field.

5) This is subjective and really frustrating for us. Blows to the head or super late hits post whistle count as this. Some are terrible calls and miss calls which is why a lot of us get frustrated at the refs, even if it's bang-bang often and not easy to make the call on the spot.

Basically anything dirty or excessive would quality for this penalty. Roughing the passer/kicker/punter as well, especially the passer. QBs are protected loads. Shots to the head is an auto 15 yard penalty or fully taking them down after the ball has been out or shots to the knees(Dives) are also counted but again it's on/off with how this is called.

Most of us diehard fans for years get confused of what is and isn't called by the refs with this one so there's zero shame with being perplexed as a newcomer.

Cheers Blindy, that's helping me understand the sport a little better now

Someone explain the new kickoff rule because I still don’t get it or why it is an improvement on what they were already doing

Oct 10, 2024 20:37:24 GMT RT said:

Someone explain the new kickoff rule because I still don’t get it or why it is an improvement on what they were already doing

Player safety+ Trying to encourage more returners/teams to opt to try and go for it. 

I HATE the fact that you have to declare for an onside kick though, ruins the element of surprise of that. Love a good surprise onside kick every once in a blue. 

Oct 10, 2024 20:58:57 GMT Blindy said:

Oct 10, 2024 20:37:24 GMT RT said:

Someone explain the new kickoff rule because I still don’t get it or why it is an improvement on what they were already doing

Player safety+ Trying to encourage more returners/teams to opt to try and go for it. 

I HATE the fact that you have to declare for an onside kick though, ruins the element of surprise of that. Love a good surprise onside kick every once in a blue. 

I figured as much. But like how does it work? Nobody can move until the ball is caught? What is the green rectangle for?

Oct 10, 2024 21:01:32 GMT RT said:

Oct 10, 2024 20:58:57 GMT Blindy said:

Player safety+ Trying to encourage more returners/teams to opt to try and go for it. 

I HATE the fact that you have to declare for an onside kick though, ruins the element of surprise of that. Love a good surprise onside kick every once in a blue. 

I figured as much. But like how does it work? Nobody can move until the ball is caught? What is the green rectangle for?

Yes the non-returners can't move until the ball lands or gets caught. The green rectangle (landing zone) is the area where the ball must be returned if it lands inside. If it lands in the zone and then bounces into the endzone and the returner takes a touchback it comes out to the 20. If it's kicked all the way into the endzone a touchback is at the 30.

As I suspected, it hasn't made as much of a difference as people thought it would but the percentage of returns is up slightly. I think they will move the touchback to the 35 next season to increase it even more.