Okay, so I’ve been working on this crossword puzzle, and there’s this clue that’s been bugging me: “NFL team.” I started like anyone would, just trying to recall all the NFL team names I know.
I grabbed a pen and paper and started jotting down team names. I wrote down things like “Bears,” “Packers,” “Patriots,” and so on, filling up the page with whatever came to mind. After I had a good list, I began to look at the crossword grid to see how many letters were in the answer space. It was a six-letter space.
So I went back to my list and started to count the letters in each team name. “Bears” has five letters, “Packers” has seven, nope, nope. This took a bit of time. I crossed out the teams that didn’t fit and circled the ones that did. I narrowed it down to a few options, like “Giants” and “Saints.”
Looking at Intersecting Words
Next, I looked at the words that intersected with this answer. There was a clue that crossed the third letter, which was “Type of big cat” and the answer was “Panther.” So, I knew the third letter had to be an ‘N.’ That eliminated “Giants” and left me with “Saints.”
- Write down all possible answers.
- Count the letters of each answer.
- Compare with the puzzle’s word length.
- Identify intersecting clues.
- Use intersecting letters to eliminate or confirm options.
Fitting it in, “Saints” worked perfectly with the intersecting word. It felt good to finally crack that clue. Sometimes, it’s just about going through the options and using what you know. And that’s how I solved that NFL team clue in my crossword!
