# Football stats question: QB sacks **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652 "2000-09-18T20:51:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/1 "2000-09-18T20:51:34Z")
Does anybody know whether yardage lost due to quarterback sacks counts as negative rushing or passing yardage? In whatever passes for “official” stats, I mean. Probably the easiest way to do it would be to count it as rushing yards. No pass was thrown, so the QB was a runner - QED. I think that’s great if you’re more concerned with simplicity of definition than with meaningful numbers. A quarterback gets sacked while _trying_ to pass, so it really seems to me that yardage lost that way is more a reflection on the effectiveness of an offense’s passing game than on its running game. Doing it this way would inject some subjectivity into it - was the QB sacked while trying to pass or was that supposed to be a quarterback draw? For that matter, it opens the can of worms about whether yardage _gained_ when the QB scrambles out of the pocket and salvages some positive yardage should count as rushing or passing. My guess would be that the simpler way would prevail (sack=rush), despite what I see as its obvious problems. Since the statkeepers don’t care what I think, what do they actually do? ---
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/2 "2000-09-18T21:05:23Z")
I’m pretty sure that sacks count against passing yards for the team, but they are not taken away from the QB’s individual passing yards. If you look at the stats following a game, you’ll often see the QB has 300 yards passing but the team passing yards are listed as 275 or so. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/3 "2000-09-18T21:10:43Z")
**BOS** is correct, sack yardage lost goes against _team_ passing stats, but against the QB’s individual _rushing_ stats. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/4 "2000-09-18T21:11:33Z")
If the quarterback leaves the pocket, he becomes a runner and negative yards count as negative rushing yards. If he is in the pocket and gets sacked, the yardage is not recorded, only the fact that a sack happened. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/5 "2000-09-18T21:17:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by brad\_d \* > \*\*Probably the easiest way to do it would be to count it as rushing yards. No pass was thrown, so the QB was a runner - QED. I think that’s great if you’re more concerned with simplicity of definition than with meaningful numbers. > \*\* Until the 70’s, at least in the college game, _all_ quarterback sacks were counted as rushing losses, whether the QB was trying to pass or not. (info from Allen Banks, _That’s Not the Way It Was_) It was probably changed for the reason you suggest, to make the quarterback’s rushing numbers a bit more realistic. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/6 "2000-09-18T21:18:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bottle of Smoke \* > \*\*I’m pretty sure that sacks count against passing yards for the team, but they are not taken away from the QB’s individual passing yards. If you look at the stats following a game, you’ll often see the QB has 300 yards passing but the team passing yards are listed as 275 or so. \*\* I think you’re right, **BoS**. After reading your post, I checked a box score at random - [yesterday’s Atlanta-Carolina game](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/boxscores/2000/09/17/panthers_falcons/). Atlanta as a team had 154 net yards passing. The only person with passing stats was Chris Chandler, who had 174 yards to his credit. Atlanta is also listed as having suffered 2 sacks for total of 20 yards lost. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/7 "2000-09-18T21:40:54Z")
The way the NFL counts sack yardage actually makes a lot of sense to me. To say that a certain QB rushed 8 times for -50 yards is quite deceptive. It implies that the team is very bad at running the ball, which is not the case. What it really tells you is that the team has poor pass protection. Hence, that yardage should come out of the team’s passing yardage. Pass blocking and run blocking are two different skill sets for linemen as are passing and rushing defense. I believe QBs get charged with rushing losses when they kneel down in an attempt to run out the clock, which is fair . ---
**Author:** ![jbird3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@jbird3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jbird3000)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/football-stats-question-qb-sacks/33652/8 "2000-09-19T02:24:45Z")
In the CFL, QB sacks don’t count as either. They count as “team losses” along with penalties, and that, with pass and rushing yards, gives you total yardage.