differences between CFL and NFL Defence and Special Team

DIFFERENCE ON DEFENCE

The defence starts a yard off the ball in the CFL and there are 12 players
on the defence too and there needs to be canadians on the field (12 minus the amount of canadians that played every down on offence). The clock starts again on incomplete passes when the ref whistles the play back in and in the NFL the clock starts again when the center snaps the ball.

DIFFERENCES ON SPECIAL TEAMS

In the CFL when team who are kicking off or punting they have to give the player receiving the ball 5 yards and if a kicking team player is in the 5 yard area and the player receiving the ball catches it the penalty is a 15 yards and if he lets the ball bounce it is a 5 yard penalty. If a kicker goes after the ball they can go into the 5 yard area and not get penalized and if a player is standing behind the kicker it is the same deal. When kicking a field goal the ball is put down 7 yards behide the line of scrimmage but not the 10 yards to get it throw the end zone like the NFL because the goal posts are on the goal line. If the kicker misses he can still get a point if the defensive team kneeled down in the end zone and this can also happen on a punt but if the ball goes out of bounds the defence does not give up a point. If a missed field goal or a punt is in the 20 yard end zone area the defensive player in the end zone can run the ball out or kick the ball out and then someone can kick it back in but in the end the defensive player gets the ball out of the end zone they do not give up the point.

Overtime

In the regular season overtime works like this a team starts at their opponent's 35 yard line and they have 2 downs to get 10 yards and then if they do not get the 10 yards they can kick a field goal or go for the first down. If they get a touchdown they have to scrimmage from their opponents 5 yard line and have one more chance to get the ball into the end zone by running or throwing it and this attempt is worth 2 points. Then the other team gets to have an opportunity to match or better what the other team did starting from the opponents 35 yard line. If after both teams have a chance with the ball and it is still tied both teams get another chance with the ball but at anytime if a team gets a turnover and score with a tied game the game is over and when a team who is leading in overtime and then gets a turnover they win. If after two attempts each the game is still tied the game ends in a tie both teams get a point and if it happens in the playoffs they continue these process until each time has an equal amount of possessions and one team have finally gotten more points they are declared the winner.

Playoff in the CFL will start in 1 week and games will be broadcast on Serius radio if you want to listen along with cfl.ca have other options to viewing/listening to games.

Thanks

Tom Mehegan