Football is littered with specialized terminology. From Three Cone Drill to Spot Concept, commentators rarely get to explain everything you need to know before the next play. Inside The Pylon’s glossary was developed to give fans a deeper understanding of the game through clear explanations, as well as image and video examples. Please contact us with any terms or phrases you’d like to know more about.

Quick Kick

Unrelated to the podcast of the same name, a quick kick is a play where an offensive player, often the quarterback, punts the football in an attempt to catch the defense by surprise and change field position. This is typically done on third down, when the offense is buried deep in their own territory and wants to flip field position quickly, but it can be done in other situations. This is done with the the hope that the offensive player can get off a good punt without any defensive players in position to field the punt to advance the ball. An offense might try this near midfield as well, to try and pin the other team deep in their own territory, given that no returner will be downfield to attempt a fair catch.

Here, California quarterback Jared Goff executes a quick kick on fourth down near midfield, trying to catch USC by surprise:

[jwplayer file=”http://cdn.insidethepylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/QuickKickVideo1Final.mp4″ image=”http://cdn.insidethepylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/QuickKickStill1.jpg”]

Goff attempts to pin the Trojans deep here, but his kick rolls into the end zone.

Another example is when Tom Brady and the Patriots closed out a playoff win over the Broncos in 2012 with this well-executed quick kick:

[jwplayer file=”http://cdn.insidethepylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/QuickKickVideo2.mp4″ image=”http://cdn.insidethepylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/QuickKickStill2.jpg”]

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