Solution to Evan Birnholz’s Feb. 11 crossword, ‘Loss of Down’

Football fans everywhere will be watching the big game today, so it’s time to go big with a series of small crosswords on Super Bowl Sunday.

Back in April 2022, I published a Downs-only crossword called “It’s the Only Way,” where you weren’t given any Across clues and you had to figure out who was responsible for stealing those clues away from you. I figured that enough time had passed to present another puzzle with half the clues missing, but there are a few obvious differences this time. First, this is an Across-only challenge rather than Downs-only. Second, instead of one large Sunday crossword, I gave you eight mini-crosswords. And third, you’re looking for two different meta answers this time instead of one. Here are the instructions:

Some penalties in football result in a loss of down. In these mini-grids, you have the same problem, literally: a loss of Down. Every given clue is for an Across entry. Your goal is to find two meta answers. Meta Answer 1 is something you can use to overcome the loss of Down. Meta Answer 2 is a phrase that eight of the Down entries might say to eight of the Across entries.

Just to clarify for solvers who aren’t football fans, you don’t have to know any complicated, technical details about the game to solve these puzzles or the metas, though as a brief explanation: For most offensive penalties in football, the teams replay the down with the offensive moved five or 10 yards backward. A “loss of down” makes it harder for the offense to move down the field since they have to move backward and they lose the down, so they have fewer chances to get a fresh set of downs.

The way to approach an Across-only puzzle like this is to fill in as many of the Across answers as you can and then play “Wheel of Fortune” with the Down entries to see what fits. I aimed to give you fairly easy clues throughout to give you the best chance of completing all eight mini-grids, but don’t fret if you’re unable to answer all the clues correctly on your first pass. You may be able to crack the meta answers even if some of the grids have some unfilled squares.

Starting with Grid 1, you have 1A clued as [Limb with biceps]. That’s ARM, so fill it right in. Right below it at 7A, the clue is [Rove about]. That could be a couple of things like maybe WALK or WEND … or ROAM. The words ROVE and ROAM can often be ambiguous answers when the clue is [Wander], and you won’t know which one it is until you fill in the crossing entries at the last two letters. But here, I put “Rove” right in the clue, so hopefully that helps disambiguate it. Right below ROAM at 10A is [Orange traffic marker, often], which is CONE. Already you’ve got several answers that can help narrow your guesses for what the crossing Down answers must be.

Once you have filled in the eight mini-grids, it’s time to figure out the meta answers. There are two clues in Grid 8 that provide key hints, so let’s tackle them one at a time. The hint to Meta Answer 1 is 13A: [Sports org. whose members may run crossing patterns (which is how to find Meta Answer 1)] which is NFL. Even though I said you don’t have to be an expert in football or a lifelong fan to solve this, this is a football-themed meta, so it does help to have some basic information about the NFL in mind. What’s a really basic piece of information about the NFL? The teams. If you look carefully in each grid, you will find an NFL team name in the Across answers … as well as an unclued team name among the Downs.

In Grid 1, 15A: [Young male horses] is COLTS. The NFL team is the Indianapolis Colts. The unclued 9D is SAINTS, for the New Orleans Saints.
In Grid 2, 11A: [Big cats that may have black fur] is PANTHERS and 3D is EAGLES. Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles.
In Grid 3, 25A: [Grizzlies, e.g.] is BEARS and 3D is CARDINALS. Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals.
In Grid 4, 15A: [Males in a flock of sheep] is RAMS and 10D is COMMANDERS. Los Angeles Rams, Washington Commanders.
In Grid 5, 21A: [Guys in westerns] is COWBOYS and 15D is BROWNS. Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns.
In Grid 6, 23A: [“Bottlenose” swimmers] is DOLPHINS and 17D is LIONS. Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions.
In Grid 7, 9A: [Those who voice strong support for their country] is PATRIOTS and 7D is BRONCOS. New England Patriots, Denver Broncos.
In Grid 8, 14A: [Sailors described in Scandinavian sagas] is VIKINGS and 6D is PACKERS. Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay Packers.

But it’s not just that there’s a pair of NFL teams in each grid. The two teams cross each other. Look at the letters of the intersections of the crossing teams and you’ll spell out Meta Answer 1:

Grid 1: COLTS/SAINTS
Grid 2: PANTHERS/EAGLES
Grid 3: BEARS/CARDINALS
Grid 4: RAMS/COMMANDERS
Grid 5: COWBOYS/BROWNS
Grid 6: DOLPHINS/LIONS
Grid 7: PATRIOTS/BRONCOS
Grid 8: VIKINGS/PACKERS

Meta Answer 1 is TEAMWORK, which is something that an NFL team would need to overcome being assessed a loss of down, as well as something you can use to overcome the loss of Down in this puzzle. You needed to find NFL teams to get this meta answer, and if you solved this with a friend or family member, then good for you — that’s literal teamwork!

For Meta Answer 2, the hint in Grid 8 is a long clue at the final Across location. 42A: [Final tally of points in a game, represented by a pair of clue numbers in each grid (convert the higher number in each pair to a letter to find Meta Answer 2)] is SCORE. Since you already know that each grid contains a pair of important answers, that’s where you should look to find the clue numbers you need. The clue numbers for the NFL teams in each grid represent a score, so imagine that each grid is an NFL game between the crossing teams.

Grid 1: Colts vs. Saints. Colts win 15-9. I imagine this game featured nothing but field goals.
Grid 2: Panthers vs. Eagles. Panthers win 11-3. An unusual score, but the Panthers wound up going for a two-point conversion after scoring a touchdown.
Grid 3: Bears vs. Cardinals. Bears win 25-3. Zero way this Bears fan was going to write this puzzle without the Bears winning their game, and they won in a blowout. (The Bears lose a lot in real life, so let me enjoy this.)
Grid 4: Rams vs. Commanders. Rams win 15-10. Sorry, Commanders fans.
Grid 5: Cowboys vs. Browns. Cowboys win 21-15. Sorry again, Commanders fans.
Grid 6: Dolphins vs. Lions. Dolphins win 23-17. This was an overtime game where Jalen Ramsey intercepted a pass from Jared Goff and returned it 73 yards for the winning touchdown.
Grid 7: Patriots vs. Broncos. Patriots win 9-7. It was a nail-biter, but the Patriots sacked Russell Wilson in the end zone late in the fourth quarter to score a safety.
Grid 8: Vikings vs. Packers. Vikings win 14-6. As much as I like it when the Packers lose, I had to grit my teeth when it meant the Vikings would win. It couldn’t end in a tie, unfortunately, and the Seattle Seahawks with their helpful K letter were on a bye this week.

The Across team always has the higher clue number, so the Across team always wins, which is apt for a puzzle called “Loss of Down” since that means the Down team always loses.

Anyway, if you convert the clue numbers for the winning (Across) teams to their letters based on their positions in the alphabet, you will find Meta Answer 2:

Grid 1: COLTS at 15A → 15th letter → O
Grid 2: PANTHERS at 11A → 11th letter → K
Grid 3: BEARS at 25A → 25th letter → Y
Grid 4: RAMS at 15A → 15th letter → O
Grid 5: COWBOYS at 21A → 21st letter → U
Grid 6: DOLPHINS at 23A → 23rd letter → W
Grid 7: PATRIOTS at 9A → 9th letter → I
Grid 8: VIKINGS at 14A → 14th letter → N

Meta Answer 2 is “OK, YOU WIN.” That’s what the eight losing Down teams might say to the eight winning Across teams.

As much of an undertaking this puzzle was, the original idea was going to be much larger, almost certainly impossible to fit on one newspaper page. I wanted to use 30 out of 32 intersecting NFL teams to spell out FORWARD PROGRESS, which I thought might be an apt phrase for the fact that you can use forward-facing (Across) clues without any Downs. The two NFL teams I’d hoped to leave out in this situation were the RAVENS and 49ERS; at the time, it was plausible they could both make it into the Super Bowl, so how neat would it be that the two teams not involved in the crossword were playing in the big game. The football gods intervened, though, since the Ravens were sent home by Kansas City. As if that wasn’t a clear enough sign to think smaller, I then thought, what if I used all 32 NFL teams to spell out ILLEGAL FORMATION? That’s kind of what an Across-only crossword is, right? An illegally formed grid?

Eventually, I thought better than to work with either of those meta answers. Using 30 or 32 NFL teams would have been way, way too much to handle. Even if I got the grids to work and all the clues to fit (which was highly doubtful at best), I just didn’t think FORWARD PROGRESS or ILLEGAL FORMATION were strong enough hooks to make it all worth it. Settling on TEAMWORK and “OK, YOU WIN” made things more manageable and, I think, approachable even for non-football fans. I did try for a while to see if I could get the Down clue numbers to spell something relevant too, and I thought at first I might get it with “I CONCEDE,” but the Rams-Commanders game threw a wrench in that plan. I couldn’t have them intersect at the M while having their clue numbers be 15 for the Rams and 14 for the Commanders.

Since it took some extra teamwork for me to brainstorm and complete this puzzle, special thanks to the following wonderful crossworders for offering their feedback or test-solving and helping bring it into the end zone: Andrew Anthony, Patrick Blindauer, Nate Cardin, Damianne Debrechtabel, Jake Eakle, Josh Forsythe, Amy Goldstein, John Kugelman, Darlene Lesmana, Robb Milford, Abigail Noy, Stan Park, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Sarah Sinclair, Quiara Vasquez and Hoang-Kim Vu.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzle, and enjoy the Super Bowl!