A touchdown is a scoring play that occurs when a player has possession of the ball in the opposing team’s end zone.
In football, each team will have an end zone at one end of the field. The goal of the game is to get the ball into your opponent’s end zone.
Once a player has the ball in their opponent’s end zone they will be awarded a touchdown. A touchdown is the highest scoring play a team can achieve in football.
Teams can get a touchdown by passing the ball into the end zone or carrying the ball into the end zone.
Touchdowns will usually earn a team seven points. Six points for scoring the touchdown and one point on the point after attempt.
Extra Point
One key thing football fans should know about touchdowns is that they are always followed by an extra point attempt.
People widely consider touchdowns to be worth seven points. The truth is a touchdown is worth six points, plus an attempt to score one or two points after the touchdown.
One point conversion
The most popular option after scoring a touchdown is to go for a one-point conversion.
This involves kicking a short 33 yard field goal. From this distance, kickers are incredibly accurate.
This means teams will almost always be able to successfully convert their one-point attempt and will usually earn seven points for their touchdown.
Two point conversion
The other option after a touchdown is to go for a two-point conversion. This involves the team running one offensive play from the two-yard line.
If the offense gets the ball into the endzone they will be awarded two points. This can allow a team to earn up to eight points from a touchdown.
If the team fails to get into the endzone on their one play the two-point conversion has failed and the team will only get six points for their touchdown.
Types of touchdowns
There are two main types of touchdowns in football those being passing touchdowns and rushing touchdowns.
Passing touchdowns occur on any play in which the offense completed a forward pass.
This means the player does not have to catch the pass in the endzone for it to be considered a passing touchdown.
Any play which involves a forward pass and a touchdown is a passing touchdown.
The other kind of touchdown scored by the offense is a rushing touchdown.
Rushing touchdowns occur when a team moves the ball downfield by carrying it.
This can be done via a handoff from the quarterback to another offensive player or a rush by the quarterback themselves.
Can the defense score a touchdown?
Though the main role of the Defense is to stop touchdowns they also have the ability to score them.
A Defense can score a touchdown when the opposing team turns the ball over.
If the Defense is able to intercept a pass or recover a fumble they will have a chance to return it for a touchdown.
Though if the defensive player is tackled or travels out of bounds at any point during his return the play will end and the offense will come onto the field.
