A running back gains 40 yards on a carry, but someone else on their team is penalized 10 yards. After the game stats are given “<running back> gained xx yards on xx carries”. Would those stats reflect the 10 yards penalty? What if the RB was the one penalized? How about the QB, are penalties subtracted from his # of yards thrown stats?
How are QB yardage stats affected by interceptions? For instance, if a QB throws an int and its returned 50 yards, are those 50 yards subtracted from the QB’s stats? Are they added to the other teams rushing yards?
Also, when a quarterback passes the ball, his passing yards don’t reflect “after the catch” yards, just from the spot of the throw to the spot of the reception, right?
The “normal” yardage stats don’t reflect penalties. For example, if a run goes for 40 yards, and then the running back gets an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for 15 yards, his yardage for the play is still 40. Having said that, most of the time when a penalty is accepted, it wipes out the actual play, so no yardage from the play is counted. If a run goes for 4 yards, but the defense gets a 5 yard offside penalty, then the 4 yard run is wiped out by the penalty, and the RB doesn’t get credited with the 4 yards.
There’s a separate penalty yardage stat that includes all the accepted penalties, so at the end of the game all the yardage changes are accounted for.
Interceptions aren’t counted against a QB’s yardage. They also aren’t counted for the defensive team’s rushing yards, but for their return yardage, although that stat is not a major one.
QB passing yardage does include the yards after the catch. It’s fairly commonplace for a little two-yard throw to end up as many more yards on the QB’s stats, after the receiver turns it into a long gain.
This covers situations in which the penalty is after the play or the penalty is assessed from the “previous spot” more commonly known as the line of scrimmage so no play is recorded. (And I believe penalties assessed behind the line of scrimmage). However, if a player rushes for 30 yards, but a clip or hold occurs 10 yards into the run, the rusher is credited with 10 yards rushed.
I am confused. Total Yards don’t reflect penalties, unless the penalty completely wipes out the yards?
So if a player rushed for 30 yards, then a penalty on his team was called for 10 yards, the rushers stats would have 20 yards added? What if it was a hold by the defense, would 40 yards be added to the players total stats?
I was describing the most common case when a penalty is accepted: the play where the penalty occurred is wiped out, and none of the stats from that play are counted. OldGuy was describing a different situation: some penalties are enforced at the spot of the foul, so the play is considered to end at that point, and the penalty yardage is applied from that spot.
Say an RB runs for 25 yards, so normally he’d get credit for 25 yards. But a player on his team gets a holding penalty 22 yards into the run. The penalty is enforced at that point, so the runner gets credit for 22 yards, and then the ball is moved back 10 yards from there for the penalty. The end result is 22 rushing yards, 10 penalty yards against, and the next play starts 12 yards up the field from the previous spot.
