How NFL Scoring Works: Touchdowns, Field Goals and Safeties

Football scoring looks complicated until you see that there are only a handful of ways to score. Once you know them, a live score such as 27-24 tells you a lot about how the game has gone.

Touchdowns: six points

A touchdown is worth six points. A team scores one by carrying the ball across the opponent's goal line, catching a pass in the end zone, or returning a fumble, interception or kick into the end zone.

The extra point and the two-point conversion

After a touchdown the scoring team gets one more try. It can kick an extra point from the 15-yard line for one point, or run one play from the 2-yard line for two points. Most teams kick, but trailing teams late in a game often go for two to change the math of the final possession.

Field goals: three points

A kicker can send the ball through the uprights from anywhere on the field for three points. Teams usually try a field goal on fourth down when a touchdown is out of reach but the kick is in range.

Safeties: two points

A safety is the rarest score. The defense gets two points when it tackles the ball carrier in his own end zone, when the offense commits certain penalties there, or when a ball goes out of the back of the end zone. The team that conceded the safety also kicks the ball back to its opponent.

Common scoring totals

• 3 points: a field goal.
• 6 points: a touchdown without a conversion.
• 7 points: a touchdown plus an extra point.
• 8 points: a touchdown plus a two-point conversion.
• 2 points: a safety.

Why 'two-score games' matter

Because a touchdown with a conversion is worth at most eight points, a lead of nine or more means the trailing team needs two scores to catch up. That is why announcers talk about two-possession games and why late field goals matter even in lopsided contests.

On LiveNFLTV you can watch these totals change quarter by quarter on any NFL game page.