Topic summary
Defensive team
Extracted from the Wikipedia article American football positions.
Defense
The defensive team, simply known as the defense, is the team that begins a play from scrimmage without possession of the ball. The objective of the defensive team is to prevent the other team from scoring and win possession of the ball for their side. The defense accomplishes this by forcing the offense to turn the ball over by either preventing them from achieving a first down and forcing them to punt, forcing and recovering an offensive fumble, intercepting a pass, or more rarely, forcing a turnover on downs.