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Go For It: What to consider when making fourth-down decisions
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Clevenson, M. Lawrence Wright, Jennifer |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | It is Sunday afternoon in the late fall and a football game has just started between the Green Bay Packers and the St. Louis Rams on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. St. Louis received the opening kick-off, moved the ball forward for some plays, but their third-down attempt to reach a first down failed and left them with fourth down and two yards to go on their own 42-yard line. Without much thought, the punting team comes onto the field and St. Louis punts. The decision to punt on fourth down is so common that hardly anyone thinks about it. But, wait. Should St. Louis have punted, or should they have gone for it? One way to decide would be to quantify expected points after both decisions. But what does one need to know to do that? For readers unfamiliar with American football, the two teams try to advance the ball toward the other’s (defensive) goal line. The team with the ball (offense) gets four chances to advance the ball. These chances are called “downs.” An important rule is that if the offense can advance the ball 10 yards or more before their four chances are over, they get a “new first down” and four more chances to advance the ball. Often, if a team has reached its fourth down (its last chance) and the players feel they cannot gain a new first down, they will punt the ball (kick it) as far from their defensive goal as possible. Other times, a team will try for a field goal, which means a player kicks the football between posts at the end of the field, if the team is close enough to its offensive goal line, a possibility we do not address here. This means we assume the offense has the ball at a point on the field where a field goal attempt is not a realistic option. If the offense punts, goes for a field goal, or tries for the first down and fails on their fourth down, then the other team is the team on offense with the opportunity to advance the ball. |
| Starting Page | 34 |
| Ending Page | 41 |
| Page Count | 8 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1080/09332480.2009.10722945 |
| Volume Number | 22 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://page-one.springer.com/pdf/preview/10.1007/s144-009-0006-1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1080/09332480.2009.10722945 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
