advance the ball

Verb

advance the ball (third-person singular simple present advances the ball, present participle advancing the ball, simple past and past participle advanced the ball)

1. To move the ball closer to the goal.
   • Osweiler finished the game 22 for 41 for a measly 131 yards. He was sacked just once but spent the evening throwing short, ineffective passes that did little to advance the ball.2016 October 25, Matt Bonesteel, “The Texans have a Brock Osweiler problem”, in The Washington Post, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2019
2. (broadly, figuratively) To make progress towards some shared or ultimate goal.
   • Mr. Horn said he could not be happier these days. "Comfort and trust and stuff like that are important concepts in a work environment," he said. "To the extent there are politics involved in any company it doesn't further advance the ball, the work of the studio. I have maintained that all these...2003 September 7, Dylan Stableford, quoting Alan F. Horn, “Warner Brothers' Chamber of Secrets”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2021
   • And so what we need to do is to deal with this issue comprehensively. We have a broken and lawless system in the United States of America. And the piecemeal approach that majority leader Frist has taken along with the Republican leadership of the Congress isn't going to advance the ball.2006 September 26, 'Day to Day', GOP Looks for Immigration Win Before Elections (radio), spoken by Ken Salazar, via NPR