If a quarterback throws a one-yard pass and the receiver runs it in 80 yards for a touchdown, the QB gets credit for an 81-yard pass play, right?
But does the receiver get credit for 80 yards or 81?
81 yards. They both get credit for the 81 yards. the QB as a pass completed and passing yards, and the WR as receiving yards.
To be slightly more clear, receivers are credited with the total yards gained from the line of scrimmage, regardless of where the ball was actually caught. Thus, a Hail Mary would be statted the same way as a screen pass taken all the way.
Nitpick: Provided they caught the ball FORWARD of where it was thrown from.
Now that the OP has been answered, I have a little question of my own that I was thinking about on my way to work yesterday (prompted, I’m sure, by countless hours spent the past week playing Madden 08.)
If an offense calls a flea-flicker, the QB hands off to the HB, who then tosses the ball back to the QB, and a pass rusher tackles him, does that count as a sack or just a tackle? I was trying to figure out if I’d ever seen it happen, but with the flicker being pretty rare, I couldn’t think of an example. When it happened to me in Madden, I wasn’t thinking about it and failed to look at the stats after the game.
Tackle.
Uh, don’t think so. That would be a sack. Ask Joe Theismann. Or Lawrence Taylor.
This scenario just happens to represent what is perhaps the most famous play in NFL history.
The “him” is a little unclear IMO. If the “him” is the QB it is a sack. Anytime a QB is tackled behind the line of scrimmage it is a sack. If the “him” is the RB it is a tackle.
That’s what I thought but I just wanted to confirm. Thanks.
Even if the QB threw a pass that was batted down on back to the QB, who caught it(it’s technically a 0-yard complete pass). If the QB gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage, is it still a sack?
Sorry, I should have been more clear with my wording. The “him” I meant was the quarterback. After he hands off to the HB, and the HB tosses back to the QB, the QB is tackled (behind the line of scrimmage, natch.)
Well, if the ball is caught behind where it was thrown from it is not a reception but a rushing attempt, statistically identical to a pitch.
In pro football, a sack can be registered against any offensive player who is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage on a play in which (scorer’s judgment) he intended to throw a forward pass. If the RB were stuffed on a flea-flicker, before he was able to lateral back to the QB, that wouldn’t be a sack because the RB didn’t intend to pass. But RB’s can and have been sacked on halfback-pass plays.
I stand (sit, actually) corrected.
Is this purely for practical reasons, because pre-instant-replay the point of the catch would be a rough guess in many cases?
No, it’s more because people have viewed the passing game as an organic whole, with little desire to separate it into a quarterback share and a receiver share. After all, if the QB finds a wide-open receiver, or hits a receiver in stride so that he can keep running, he’s equally to be credited for the Yards After Catch.
I hear announcers prattle sometimes about Yards After Catch, and there may be people keeping track of it unofficially, but I haven’t heard of any movement to add this as an official statistic.
Yes, I’ve never heard of any efforts to make YAC an official stat. It tends to be used as an unofficial measure of the receiver’s effort and/or skill.
Thank you all for the answers regarding the sack question. My mind certainly would have next gone to the RB-as-passer situation, so special thanks for that answer.