# What is the most common number of points scored by a football team? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 2, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147 "2013-02-02T21:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/1 "2013-02-02T21:21:50Z")
I can find the most common scores - but those always include two teams. I simply want to know the most frequently appearing score, either winning or losing. Where might I find this information? ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/2 "2013-02-02T21:56:03Z")
You don’t give your location, so it might be pertinent to ask …by “football” do you mean American football, or “soccer” ? EDIT : scrub that, obviously it’s American football …in soccer they score “goals”, not “points” ---
**Author:** ![Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speak_to_me_Maddie)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/3 "2013-02-02T22:31:46Z")
Making a bet for tomorrow? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/4 "2013-02-02T23:10:08Z")
No, but since everyone else is, I started to wonder about it. Just the most common single team ending score in the history of football. And I can’t seem to find it. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/5 "2013-02-03T00:21:30Z")
The most common score is 12. Your turn to guess what type of football. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/6 "2013-02-03T00:35:33Z")
> [@CC](#): > > I can find the most common scores - but those always include two teams. I simply want to know the most frequently appearing score, either winning or losing. Where might I find this information? Push comes to shove, you can always massage that data to get what you want by totaling up all the counts of each number across all the scores. I take it you found a list like this one: [http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/game\_scores.cgi](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/game_scores.cgi) ETA: That has an option to present the data in CSV, making it fairly easy to do a quick script or program to generate totals for all the score numbers 0-73. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/7 "2013-02-03T00:37:19Z")
Moved to the Game Room. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/8 "2013-02-03T00:41:11Z")
The average score for a team in[2012 is 22.8](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/NFL/scoring.htm) I don’t know what the “most common” would be, however. ETA: [According to this](http://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/nfl/what-is-the-most-common-score-in-the-nfl.aspx), the most common game score is 23-20. But that doesn’t answer your question, I guess. I suppose you could take that list and add up the total number of games each number appeared in the final score. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/9 "2013-02-03T01:11:50Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Push comes to shove, you can always massage that data to get what you want by totaling up all the counts of each number across all the scores. > > I take it you found a list like this one: > > [http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/game\_scores.cgi](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/game_scores.cgi) > > ETA: > > That has an option to present the data in CSV, making it fairly easy to do a quick script or program to generate totals for all the score numbers 0-73. OK, I did this and got the most common score as 17. Here’s your counts: 0: 1475 1: 0 2: 36 3: 833 4: 1 5: 18 6: 775 7: 1745 8: 39 9: 386 10: 1683 11: 36 12: 264 13: 1384 14: 1813 15: 183 16: 850 17: 2073 18: 98 19: 493 20: 1680 21: 1435 22: 250 23: 943 24: 1713 25: 151 26: 443 27: 1289 28: 964 29: 195 30: 604 31: 1031 32: 97 33: 260 34: 709 35: 488 36: 100 37: 326 38: 508 39: 43 40: 104 41: 288 42: 218 43: 45 44: 110 45: 212 46: 15 47: 43 48: 100 49: 76 50: 15 51: 34 52: 43 53: 7 54: 7 55: 22 56: 29 57: 6 58: 7 59: 12 60: 2 61: 5 62: 9 63: 3 64: 1 65: 2 66: 2 67: 0 68: 0 69: 0 70: 1 71: 0 72: 1 73: 1 ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/10 "2013-02-03T01:12:44Z")
Based on the link above, the most common single team score is 17. Here is the chart of all answers 1-73: ```auto Score Count of Results 0 1475 1 0 2 36 3 833 4 1 5 18 6 775 7 1745 8 39 9 386 10 1683 11 36 12 264 13 1384 14 1813 15 183 16 850 17 2073 18 98 19 493 20 1680 21 1435 22 250 23 943 24 1713 25 151 26 443 27 1289 28 964 29 195 30 604 31 1031 32 97 33 260 34 709 35 488 36 100 37 326 38 508 39 43 40 104 41 288 42 218 43 45 44 110 45 212 46 15 47 43 48 100 49 76 50 15 51 34 52 43 53 7 54 7 55 22 56 29 57 6 58 7 59 12 60 2 61 5 62 9 63 3 64 1 65 2 66 2 67 0 68 0 69 0 70 1 71 0 72 1 73 1 ``` ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/11 "2013-02-03T01:16:01Z")
Sorted by count instead of score: 17: 2073 14: 1813 7: 1745 24: 1713 10: 1683 20: 1680 0: 1475 21: 1435 13: 1384 27: 1289 31: 1031 28: 964 23: 943 16: 850 3: 833 6: 775 34: 709 30: 604 38: 508 19: 493 35: 488 26: 443 9: 386 37: 326 41: 288 12: 264 33: 260 22: 250 42: 218 45: 212 29: 195 15: 183 25: 151 44: 110 40: 104 48: 100 36: 100 18: 98 32: 97 49: 76 43: 45 52: 43 47: 43 39: 43 8: 39 2: 36 11: 36 51: 34 56: 29 55: 22 5: 18 50: 15 46: 15 59: 12 62: 9 58: 7 54: 7 53: 7 57: 6 61: 5 63: 3 66: 2 65: 2 60: 2 73: 1 72: 1 70: 1 64: 1 4: 1 71: 0 69: 0 68: 0 67: 0 1: 0 ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/12 "2013-02-03T01:30:24Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > The average score for a team in[2012 is 22.8](http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/NFL/scoring.htm) I don’t know what the “most common” would be, however. > > ETA: [According to this](http://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/nfl/what-is-the-most-common-score-in-the-nfl.aspx), the most common game score is 23-20. But that doesn’t answer your question, I guess. I suppose you could take that list and add up the total number of games each number appeared in the final score. That’s from 2002 to 2011. The numbers we used above give 20-17 as the most common score, and the site claims it’s all games from 1920 to “present”, which seems to mean 2012. You can either claim that that’s more accurate since it represents a larger sample, or say that all those old games throw off the results because scoring is different today. Take your pick. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/13 "2013-02-03T01:33:11Z")
In the spirit of the OP though, here’s the frequency chart for the final digit of scores (used by the ubiqitous “score grid” games): ```auto 0 5564 7 5482 4 4354 3 3476 1 2829 6 2214 8 1716 9 1205 5 1076 2 918 ``` ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/14 "2013-02-03T05:43:06Z")
More trivia from the linked-to table: The most common points by winning team are, in order, 24, 27, 20, 31, 17, 23, 28, 21, 34, 30. The most common points by losing team are, in order, 7, 10, 14, 0, 17, 13, 21, 3, 20, 6. The most common points by tieing team are, in order, 0, 14, 20, 34, 40, 26, 48, 56, 28, 42, 12, 6. The most common total scores are, in order, 37, 41, 44, 34, 51, 38, 31, 30, 27, 45. The most common score differences are, in order, 3, 7, 10, 4, 6, 14, 17, 1, 21, 11, 13, 2. The least common small total scores are, in order, 1, 4, 11, 2, 5, 8, 18, 15, 12, 3, 9, 0. (1 and 4 never occurred.) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/15 "2013-02-03T05:52:36Z")
Four never occurs? A team can’t score two safeties against the opposition and not score anything else? Or has it just never happened. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/16 "2013-02-03T06:01:24Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Four never occurs? A team can’t score two safeties against the opposition and not score anything else? Or has it just never happened. It is possible but apparently has never happened. It would certainly be rather exceptionally unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/17 "2013-02-03T06:27:16Z")
What do you think the odds of breaking the single game scoring record per team (73)? I keep waiting, and whenever I see 35 or more points in the first half, I get excited and let down. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/18 "2013-02-03T13:42:38Z")
I think pretty slim. The modern game doesn’t reward (and, in fact, disincents) running up the score. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/19 "2013-02-03T15:16:41Z")
Gregg Easterbrook has long touted “Home team wins, 20-17” as the most reliable default score. If you’re trying to predict a final, that’s the most commonly-occurring one. Granted, it’s still an exceptionally rare score, but it’s the most common one overall. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147/20 "2013-02-03T17:12:17Z")
Beautiful. Thank you, all. Is this a great site, or what? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-common-number-of-points-scored-by-a-football-team/649147.md?page=2)