Time of Possession
What is Time of Possession?
A statistic in football that measures the time in which one team has possession of the ball over the other team.
Sporting Charts explains Time of Possession
In a non-overtime game there are 60 minutes of game play. Since one of the two teams will always have possession of the ball at any given time the 60 minutes splits up among the two teams. If team A has possession of the ball for 25 minutes of the game it is a given that the time of possession for team B will be 35 minutes. Time of possession is important since a team's win-loss correlates to the amount of time they have the ball. Teams with excellent defenses and solid offenses will usually have the most control of the ball during game play. To have a higher time of possession a team on the defense will need to prevent the offense from mounting several long drives. To have a higher time of possession during an offensive play the team will need to have good running plays.