Most unusual (US) football score

The Game Room
1

There was a trivia challenge to come up with the most unusual final score for a football game. You could not use 1 as either team’s score. Unstated rules in original, but this being SD, I’ll add: We’re using current NFL scoring rules, and high scores are not to be considered. Let’s say neither team scores more than 50.

My answer:

The official answer was 4-4 requiring each team scoring 2 safeties. My answer was 6-4 OT requiring same thing plus a safety in OT. A big debate ensued as to whether specifying overtime was part of the score.

2

Asked and answered a year and a half ago.

4-4 never occured, nor did 2-2. 4-x of any sort is rare, but a 1923 game between Racine Legion and Chicago Cardinals finished 10-4. :smiley:

3

As a semi-related aside, there was a 7-5 game the other night in a thunderstorm in Ottawa, the lowest total score in a Canadian Football League game in over 40 years.

4

In the 1970 NFC playoffs, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Detroit Lions by a final score of… 5-0.

The only scoring consisted of a safety and a field goal.

5

I’d have thought it was obvious by my saying we’re using current NFL rules, that I was not talking about historical occurrences, but improbable possibilities. But that old thread was interesting.

6

CFL scores can be weird by NFL standards due to those singles.

7

My answer has always been the same as the OP’s.

8

A local high school game here in San Antonio finished 42-4 this past Friday.

Another notable score I saw over the weekend: Texas A&M-Commerce 98 East Texas Baptist 20 in a Division II v. Division III matchup.

9

Up until last year, it was possible to score 1 point in high school football without the game being a 1-0 forfeit, if the only point a team scored was when the other team scored a touchdown and then got a safety on the extra point attempt. This may still be the rule in college; I don’t see anything in the NCAA rules that says the defense can’t score on a safety on an extra point attempt.

10

It’s gotta be 4-4. With the OT option, I think 9-4 would be even rarer then 6-4. First team getting ball scores a field goal to make it 7-4. Other team gets ball and QB is sacked in the end zone to end the game. 9-4 final

11

There apparently have been two games in NFL history that ended with a 2-0 score. And it was the same two teams playing: the Bears and the Packers. Green Bay beat Chicago on October 16, 1932 and Chicago beat Green Bay on September 18, 1938.

12

nm

13

CFL rules seem to make for a more interesting game. The goal posts are on the goal line, meaning kicking a field goal from inside the 5 might be a bit of a challenge, especially if you have to kick from a wide angle. But a missed field goal can yield a rouge (one point) if it lands in the end zone and is downed there by the D (note that the CFL endzone is 20yds deep).

I kind of like the rouge-point idea, in that it forces the receiving teams to run the ball out of the endzone – touchbacks only occur if the ball flies out of the endzone, which means the punter in Canadian games sometimes scores a point for the team.

14

There was a 6-4 game in college football not too long ago, I think between Penn State and Iowa, but that was in regulation (two field goals vs two safeties).

15

Only one game in NFL history has ever ended 43-8.
(I know the OP was looking for theoretical likelihood, rather than historical records. I just think it’s kinda interesting.)

16

The criteria of the OP notwithstanding, college football holds the record:About 1916 Georgia Tech won a game 222-0!

17

In 2008, the Steelers beat the Chargers 11-10. The only such score in NFL History.