Aplay from scrimmage is the sequence in the game ofgridiron football during which one team tries to advance the ball, get a firstdown, or score, and the other team tries to stop them or take the ball away. Once a play is over, and before the nextplay starts, the football is considereddead. A game of American football (or Canadian Football) consists of many (about 120–150) such plays.
The term is also used to denote a specific plan of action, or its execution, under a particular set of circumstances faced by either team.[1] For instance, theoffensive team may be faced with one or twodowns left in a possession and still ten or more yards to go to earn a new set of downs. In this instance, they may decide to employ aforward pass. Well in advance of the particular game, a number of different kinds offorward pass plays will have been planned out and practiced by the team. They will be designated by obscure words, letters and/or numbers so that the name of a play does not reveal its exact execution to outsiders. The team's coach, or perhaps thequarterback, will choose one of the plannedforward passing strategies, and tell the team, during thehuddle which one has been chosen. Because of planning and practice, each player is expected to know what his role in the play is to be, and how to execute it. This will be the offensive play.
Conversely, thedefensive team will know that the offense has to cover a good deal of ground in a single play, will expect a forward pass, and will know from earlier study something of the propensities of the offense they face. The defensive captain is likely to call out a specificformation or defensive play, to anticipate and counteract the expected action by the offense.
The play will begin with thesnap of the ball (typically but not exclusively to thequarterback), and it will end when the effort by the offensive squad to advance the ball has either succeeded in scoring, or has been frustrated by the ball beingdowned before the aim of the offensive play is accomplished, or by the defensive squad having managed to come into possession of the ball without first downing it. In the event of change of possession during a play, the team newly in possession of the ball may try to advance it toward their opponent's goal, which the team formerly in possession will naturally resist. Change of possession during a routine play may occur byinterception or byfumble (often collectively referred to asturnovers).
Change of possession may also occur in other ways. A change of possession can occur "on downs", if the offensive team fails to achieve afirst down or atouchdown in a specified number of consecutive attempts, known as "downs" (four in American football; three in Canadian football). Another way is through a change of possession play, when the offensive team (having perhaps surmised the unlikelihood of scoring or of achieving afirst down within the allowed consecutive attempts to do so) kicks the ball away in what is known as apunt. A touchdown (and subsequent conversion attempt, whether successful or not) or successful field goal attempt will be followed by a kickoff.Kickoffs andfield goal attempts are not considered true change of possession plays. An unsuccessful field goal attempt will usually also result in a change of possession (without a kickoff), but is usually not counted as a turnover.