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How to watch

A live game plays out one play at a time over about an hour; the score and stats show only what has happened so far, so nothing is spoiled. A finished game can be replayed from any play.

Watch shows all 22 players moving through each play. Box Score, Play-by-Play and Team Stats fill in as plays are revealed. The box score goes category by category with both teams in each, and its switch shows both teams or just one. The Recap is written once the game ends.

In your own games, the Film room opens when the game ends: every snap you played with its grade, what the film shows, and a training focus worked out from your mistakes.

If you are in the game, your player is highlighted everywhere: ringed on the field, and marked in every table and play.

MIA Stormriders1-1, 1-1 away ATL Gryphons1-1, 1-0 home

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Miami Stormriders at Atlanta Gryphons

Kickoff Sun, Nov 29, 1:00 PM EST. This page updates on its own.

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How play calls work

Every run and pass is a real play call: the offense picks a concept, such as Inside Zone or Mesh, and the defense picks a coverage, such as Cover 3 or a blitz, before the snap and without seeing the other's call. The Watch tab shows both under the scoreboard ("Shotgun Mesh vs Cover 3"), and the play-by-play and the film room name them too.

The coaches call plays the way NFL teams do: outside and inside zone are about half of all runs, play action about a quarter of passes, screens about one pass in ten. Defenses play Cover 0, Cover 1, 2-Man, Cover 2, Tampa 2, Cover 3, Cover 4 and Cover 6; a blitz sends extra rushers, and Cover 0 always does. A team's game plan tilts its defense toward man or zone and one or two deep safeties, and its run and pass lean, deep shots and heavy sets change the offense's mix.

No play is best against everything. Against the league's usual mix of coverages every play comes out about even; what changes is the matchup. Good and weaker here mean next to the other runs, or the other passes, against the same coverage. Runs: Inside Zone: the line steps together and the back reads the first down lineman for a hole between the tackles; good against 2-Man, Cover 4 and Cover 6, weaker against Cover 0, Cover 1 and the blitz. Outside Zone: the line reaches to the sideline and the back presses the edge, cutting back when the defense overflows; good against Cover 0 and Cover 2. Duo: double teams on both interior defenders, the back running downhill at the linebackers; good against Cover 4, weaker against Cover 0 and Cover 2. Power: a gap scheme: the backside guard pulls and leads through the hole the down blocks open; good against Cover 1 and Cover 3, weaker against Cover 0, 2-Man, Cover 2, Tampa 2, Cover 4 and Cover 6. Counter: a false step one way, then two pullers lead the back back against the flow; good against Cover 0, Cover 1, Cover 3 and the blitz, weaker against 2-Man, Cover 2, Tampa 2, Cover 4 and Cover 6. Draw: it looks like a pass: the line sets, the rush runs upfield, and the back takes a delayed handoff under it; good against Cover 4, Cover 6 and the blitz, weaker against Cover 0 and Cover 1. Toss: a pitch to the back to get him to the edge fast, with the line and receivers sealing inside; good against Cover 0, Cover 1, Tampa 2 and the blitz, weaker against Cover 4.

Passes: Slants: quick three-step slants: the ball is out before the rush gets home, into the window inside the corner; good against Cover 0, Cover 4 and the blitz, weaker against Cover 2 and Tampa 2. Mesh: two shallow crossers rub past each other underneath, with a sit route and a back in the flat; good against Cover 0, Cover 1, 2-Man and Cover 4, weaker against Cover 3. Screen: the rush is let through and the ball goes behind the line to a back or receiver with blockers in front; good against Cover 0, Cover 1, 2-Man, Cover 4 and the blitz, weaker against Cover 2 and Cover 3. Smash: a hitch outside and a corner route over it: the corner in Cover 2 cannot take both; good against Cover 2, Tampa 2, Cover 4 and Cover 6, weaker against Cover 0, Cover 1, Cover 3 and the blitz. Flood: three routes at three depths to one side, a clear-out, an out and a flat, overloading the zone there; good against Cover 2, Tampa 2 and Cover 3, weaker against Cover 0, Cover 1, 2-Man, Cover 4 and the blitz. Four Verts: four receivers go deep, stretching the deep zones; the back checks down underneath; good against Cover 2 and Cover 3, weaker against Cover 1, 2-Man, Tampa 2, Cover 4 and the blitz. Play Action: a run fake pulls the linebackers and the safety in the box forward, then the throw goes behind them; good against Cover 3, weaker against Cover 0, Cover 2, Cover 4 and the blitz. A quarterback sneak is for third or fourth and 1.

How instant replay works

After the field shows one of the game's big moments (touchdowns, safetys, interceptions, lost fumbles, blocked kicks and replay reviews), it pauses and the play runs again at half speed from a second camera, a tight shot that rides with the ball. Field goals and extra points do not get one.

Skip replay takes you straight back to the game, and the Instant replay button under the field plays a big play again whenever you like.

With Reduced motion on, plays never replay on their own; the button still works. A replay only ever shows a play the field has already shown, so it gives nothing away.

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How replay review works

Officials sometimes get a close call wrong: a catch or no catch, a fumble or down by contact, the spot at the first down marker or the goal line, an interception. The game plays out what really happened, and the officials' ruling on the field is what counts unless a review changes it.

A head coach can challenge a ruling that hurt his team. He gets 2 challenges a game and a third if he wins both, he needs a timeout left to throw the flag, and a challenge he loses costs him that timeout. Coaches cannot challenge after the two-minute warning of either half or in overtime; then the replay official decides what to look at. Every close touchdown and turnover is reviewed by the replay official, never by a challenge.

On the field you see a red banner (Coach challenge and the team, or Booth review), then the referee's ruling: The ruling is overturned, or The ruling on the field stands. The play text, the play-by-play and the call then say what the final ruling is and what it leaves, such as "the ball was short of the line to gain, so it is 3rd and 1". The replay that follows shows the play again under review. The play-by-play, the stats and the box score always count the play as finally ruled, and a review never shows before the play it belongs to.

A replay does not settle every call: some are not clear enough, and the ruling on the field stands. And not every wrong call is challenged, so now and then one stands that the replay would have changed.

Each head coach has his own habit: an aggressive coach throws the flag on more close calls, a conservative one saves his challenges and timeouts. You can read a head coach's habit and his record on challenges on his coach page. Players and managers do not challenge in this version; the coach decides.

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How game sound works

Sound is off until you tap Sound off above the field to turn it on, and this browser remembers your choice. It plays with the field view.

Each play ends on the official's whistle. The home crowd roars for its team's touchdowns, turnovers, sacks and gains of 20 yards or more, and groans when the visitors make them. Under it all the crowd builds through a close game, a game within 8 points, and is loudest late in the fourth quarter and in overtime.

The crowd reacts only once a play is over, never while it is running, so the sound never hints at how a play will end. Every sound is made in your browser, so there is nothing extra to download.

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How the TV graphics work

The score bar above the field shows the score, the quarter and clock, the down and distance, and who has the ball. Under it, a row of small bars shows each team's timeouts left (each half starts with three, and overtime with two) and where the ball is.

Under the field, the drive chart lists every play of the current drive in a strip: the yards gained or lost, Inc for an incomplete pass, Flag, Sack, a punt or kick, and TD or FG when a drive ends in points. A line under a play marks a first down. The play on screen shows only its down and distance until it is over.

When your own player makes a play, a banner slides over the bottom of the field with a tag and his game line so far. It shows for a score, a made field goal, a sack, an interception, a forced fumble or recovery, a pass breakup, a gain of 20 yards or more, a third-down conversion, and when he passes 100 receiving yards or 100 rushing yards or 300 passing yards. Plays that hurt him, like a sack taken, are left to the commentary.

Every graphic is worked out from the plays the field has already shown, never from the ones still to come, so none of them gives anything away. They change nothing about how a game plays out.

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How the second screen works

Under the field, the second screen draws the home team's chance of winning after each play, from kickoff to the play on screen. Higher on the chart is better for the home team, lower is better for the visiting team, and the dashed line is 50 percent. Thin lines mark the quarters, and the top and bottom of the chart never move, so its frame says nothing about how the game ends.

The three plays that moved the win chance the most so far are marked with numbers, and listed under the chart in plain words with the quarter, the clock and how many points of win chance they were worth. A play has to move it by at least 5 points to be marked. In a finished game you are replaying, tap a marker or Go to this play to jump to it.

The momentum meter adds up how the win chance moved over the last six plays and names the team with the edge, for example "Momentum: Owls (clear)". It always says the team in words, never by color alone, and it reads "even" when neither team has one.

A text summary above the chart says the same for screen readers. Motion is off in the meter when you ask your device for reduced motion.

The second screen only knows what the field has already shown. It never runs ahead of the picture, and a win chance for the final result appears only when the field shows the end of the game. The win chance is the same model behind Win chance added and Your moments, and it changes nothing about how a game plays out.

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How the announcers work

Every game has the same two voices in the booth, both invented. Hal Brindle is the play-by-play voice: Quick and plain, in short sentences. He calls what is happening as it happens, gives the numbers, and saves his voice for the points. Dee Marchetti is the color analyst: Explains why, with a lineman's eye for the line of scrimmage and the situation. Dry, never loud.

In the commentary under the field, a small tag with Hal or Dee shows whenever the voice changes. Dee takes the battles at the line, pressure, blitz pickups, hang time and fakes; Hal takes the snap, the ball and the tackle.

Each has a few signature calls: Hal says "Here we go.", "Six points.", "They are going for it." and "And the ball changes hands."; Dee says "That one was won up front.", "Third down is where drives live.", "The field gets short inside the twenty." and "Ball security is the first thing a coach teaches." They come only when the play calls for it, and no call comes back within 6 plays.

The booth only says what the game shows: every kind of play, from a punt to a two-point try, and the moments around it, such as a sack, a third-down conversion, a turnover, a touchdown drive of 8 plays or more, the red zone and the goal line, a fourth-down try or the last two minutes of a half. It also knows the bigger picture: a close finish, overtime, a lopsided score, a rivalry game, a comeback, a goal-line stand, the longest play of the game, and a player going over 100 yards rushing or receiving or 300 passing.

The two have hundreds of lines between them, and a game hears the same remark twice only once a kind of play has used every way the booth has of saying it. Nothing it says changes how a game plays out, and the same game always gets the same commentary.

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How night games and field wear work

The 4:25 PM (Eastern) game starts in the last of the daylight. From 5:00 PM on in the game's own clock, about 42 minutes for each quarter played, the field slowly dims and the stadium lights come up in the corners, until it is as dark as it gets about 1.5 hours later. The 1:00 PM game is played in daylight all the way through. A game played indoors is lit the same all game long.

In rain the grass turns darker and, where the plays are run, churns to mud. In snow the white cover thickens as the game goes on and is scuffed through to the turf where the traffic is. A dry day shows no wear, and neither does a game played indoors.

Wear builds up from the line of scrimmage of every play so far and where the earlier plays ended, so you can see where a game has been played. It never shows how the play on screen turns out. The sideline camera shows the same wear and lights from its own angle.

Everything here is only how the field looks, drawn from the game's weather and the plays you have already seen. It changes nothing about how a game plays out.

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How the 3D game view works

The 3D view draws the same plays as the top-down field: a painted field with the home team's logo in the end zones, goal posts, a stadium, and simple board-game players in team colors with their numbers on their backs. The ball is drawn at its real size, so it is small from far away: it spirals on passes and turns end over end on kicks, and in a wide shot a faint trail follows it through the air so you can keep your eye on it.

It shows only what the field has already shown, so it never gets ahead of the game. Play, pause, speed and the play steps all work as before, because the 3D view follows the same clock.

Above the field, pick Top-down, 3D sideline or Behind the QB. The 3D sideline camera sits high on the sideline and slides with the ball. The camera behind the quarterback sits low behind the offense and looks down the field. Your pick is remembered on this device for a year, and it replaces the older Sideline camera button.

Until you pick, a large screen (a laptop or a tablet held sideways) starts in 3D sideline, and a phone or a slower device starts in the top-down field, which is lighter on the battery. The picker above the field is always there, so any device can switch to 3D at any time.

Between plays the offense huddles a few yards behind the ball, the quarterback in the middle calling the play, then breaks with a clap and jogs to the line. The defense lines up, and often shifts just before the snap. On some plays a receiver or tight end goes in motion and arrives at his spot right at the snap. Players far from the ball, like wide receivers after a long play, go straight to their spots. In the last two minutes of a half the offense skips the huddle.

The huddle fits in the short walk to the line the field already had, so the game clock and every play are exactly as before; it only looks quicker at a faster speed and slower in slow motion. Skip to snap, next to the camera buttons and under a 3D replay, jumps straight to the snap of the play on screen.

A seven-person officiating crew works the game, as on TV, in 3D and on the top-down field: the referee in the white cap behind the offense, the umpire, the down judge and line judge on the line at the sidelines, the side and field judges and the back judge deep. They signal what the play's result already shows, and only once it is on screen: both arms up for a touchdown, a point toward the goal for a first down, arms waved low for an incomplete pass, a time out, and the referee's signal for the foul after a flag, which lands where the foul was. On field goals and extra points the two officials under the posts raise both arms for good or wave it off low for no good; on a miss the one on the side it went by waves first. A bean bag marks a fumble or where a punt is caught, the chain crew moves the chains after a first down, and on a close one the chains come out for a moment. None of it changes a result or makes a play longer.

Every player is drawn from his real height and weight: linemen are big and wide, receivers and corners lean, and kickers and punters smaller, with lighter pads and a single-bar facemask. The home team wears dark jerseys and the visitors white, as in the NFL: the home jersey is the team's darkest color, the away jersey white with numbers and trim in team colors, and both teams' helmets carry their crest from the logo builder on each side. Up close, as in a replay or behind the quarterback, a player's last name shows on his back above his number. The uniforms are generic, made only from each team's colors and crest.

How 3D replays work

Every replay can be watched in 3D: the instant replay under the game, Replay on each snap in the film room and in Your snaps, and the play clips you share. Under the replay, pick a camera and a speed.

Sideline is the TV angle from high on the near sideline. End zone looks back up the field from the stands behind the end zone the offense is attacking. Behind the QB sits low behind the offense. Skycam hangs high over the play and follows the ball. Each camera pulls back or widens on its own so the ball stays in the picture, even at the top of a punt.

A play that ends in or near an end zone adds two more cameras: Pylon, low in the corner pylon at the goal line, and Goal line, on the goal line extended and looking straight along it, so you can see whether the ball broke the plane. Those replays open on the goal line camera unless your last pick on the page was Top-down or Pylon.

Pick 1x, 0.5x or 0.25x to slow the play down, and change camera or speed while it runs: the replay carries on from the same moment. Top-down shows the flat field instead. The replay opens on the camera you watch the game with, and keeps your last pick for the next replay on the same page.

A replay shows only plays you have already been shown: the same plays, with the same result, as the flat replay. It never shows a play before its moment in the game.

If this device cannot draw 3D, or 3D runs slowly, the replay shows the flat field with a short note, the same as the 3D game view, and Show 3D anyway works the same way.

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How watch parties work

Every league game, development league included, has a watch party: a chat under the field on its Watch tab. It opens 60 minutes before kickoff and stays open for posts until 24 hours after the game finishes playing out. After that you can still read it.

No spoilers, by design. Each post is stamped with the play it was written after, by the server, never by your phone. You only ever see posts written up to the play you are watching, so nobody can post or read anything from ahead of the game.

Watching live, you see posts as they come in. Replaying a finished game from kickoff, each post appears at the play it was written after, just as it did live. You can post while following the game or after the final whistle; during a replay, jump to final to post.

The same word filter, Report button and conduct rule apply as everywhere else in the community.

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