Football 101 - Methods of Scoring

• The biggest goal for an offense, every time they take possession of the ball, is to score a touchdown. To score a touchdown, a player must carry the ball across the opposition's goal line, or catch a pass in the end zone. Once the ball crosses the plane of the goal line while it is in a player's possession, it is scored a touchdown. A touchdown is worth six points.
• The team scoring a touchdown is given the bonus of trying to add one or two more points. These are called extra point conversion attempts.
• If a team elects to go for two extra points, they will line up at the two-yard line and make one attempt at either running or passing the ball into the end zone. If they make it, they are awarded two points. If they don't, they get no extra points.
• They can also elect to go for just one extra point by kicking the ball through the goal posts from the two-yard line.
• Another way for a team to score is by kicking a field goal. When a team finds themselves in a fourth-down situation, many times they will attempt to kick a field goal if they feel they are close enough for their kicker to kick the football between the upright bars of the goal post in the opponent's endzone. A field goal is worth three points.
• A team can also pick up two points by tackling an opponent possessing the ball in their own end zone. This is called a safety!

To summarize:
Touchdown = 6 points
Extra Point Conversion = 1 point
Two-Point Conversion = 2 points
Field Goal = 3 points
Safety= 2 points

• If you have any questions you can get them answered quickly by posting them on the About Football Forum!