Taking a knee (stat question)

Do you count the full yardage lost or not? I thought in the NFL, you give a rush but subtract no yards when the QB kneels at the end of the game.

This comes up because Delhomme took a knee last night and Carolina finished with 299 yards rushing instead of more than 300.

 

Everything has to be accounted for. He took a knee, lost a yard.

 

That is correct ... the only difference between the NFL and college FB, is that the kneel-down play is charged as a "team" rush on the stat sheet, not charged to the individual player. But all yards gained/lost have to be accounted for.

 

Does anyone know for sure if high school rules call for team rush or if the yardage goes to the quarterback?

 

Depends on what state you live in, but I'd almost always give it to the team. No reason to punish the quarterback because the coach doesn't have the balls to run up the score and try and punch it in.

 

From the 2008 NCAA Statisticians' Manual, which is also used by most state high school associations:

12. TEAM STATISTICS—In the fair application of statistical rules, there are
certain situations during which individual losses should be absorbed by
team statistics. In a clarification of previous policies, a team rush should
be charged when a quarterback kneels down in order to run out the
clock. Also, a team pass attempt should be charged when a quarterback
throws a pass into the ground in order to stop the clock. In neither in-
stance should the individual player be charged with the play.

 

Wow, learned something new in regard to spiking. (Texas follows NCAA rules.)

Unfortunately, season is almost over and I can't freak everyone's mind when I say "TEAM 0-1-0 0" in the passing stats.

 

NFL is -1 for the QB.

 

I always thought it was -2 in the NFL. I guess it depends on what they say on second down (second-and-11 or second-and-12).

Another item I chalk up to team stats is minus yardage when a punt is snapped over the punter's head. So sense punishing the punter because his center can't shoot straight.

 

I think that's an accepted thing to do with the punter. However, I had never heard of the "team pass attempt" for the kill-the-clock spike until today. While it does make sense on the same rationale as the team rush, I can't imagine anyone would be able to make sense of "J. Blow 12-19-1-145, team 0-3-0-0" in a box score.

Earlier this year, I saw a "team punt" in a box score after a blocked punt. I'd always just figured you counted the punt as one punt for the punter for zero yards if it doesn't get past the line of scrimmage. (I don't know if that's how it should be, but I've never known anyone else who knows for sure.) I had thought the first time I saw a blocked punt that you could have negative-yard punts if the block caromed backwards. But I thought about it and had never seen anyone charged with a minus-20-yard punt, so I decided on zero yards.

Heck, I have a hard enough time explaining why a receiver has no receptions but does have receiving yards (H. Jablowme 0-15) on a hook-and-(your preferred term here) play. The most common mistake I see on that one is to credit the pass to the receiver as passing yards, then the lateral as rushing yards. Of course, he's also going to credit a reception to the receiver and then a rush to the guy who takes the lateral and probably end up wondering why he has an extra play in his box score versus his play-by-play sheet.

 

You subtract the yardage lost with the kneel down. It's considered a rushing attempt.

It's minus whatever yardage your quarterback gave up to take the knee. If your QB drops back and then decides to fall on himself, he takes the loss of however many yards that was. If he does a little scoot of about three or four yards behind the line of scrimmage before kneeling down, that's how much he loses.

 

it's been minus-1 in the nfl for as long as i can remember. but as i noted for tomorrow's paper, carolina rushed for 301 in my eyes.