I was thinking about how dumb it is that the CFL seems to tag kickers with a “missed” field goal stat when the field goal is blocked. Then I got to thinking about player stats the league should track but doesn’t, to my knowledge.
Tackle depth. If a guy has 10 tackles in a game, I want to know where they occurred on the field. Tackles for loss (TFL) addresses this a bit, but it only tells part of the story. If a DB is making tons of tackles at shallow route depth, it’s a positive stat. If he’s making tackles downfield after a receiver made a big catch, not so much.
Penalties drawn. How many times does a player draw a penalty from the other team? Granted, you can’t always measure this, but it would be nice to know how many holding calls, for example, a defensive lineman draws from the other team. Same for receivers and PI or illegal contact.
You need to go through the play by play to sort that out unfortunately.
More of the issue is just that - how the stats are presented. If raw data was available and searchable it would make it easy to track whatever stat you want.
But their proprietary presentation of data makes any use of data we are given difficult and almost impossible to track all but the stats they want to.
And that’s if they even provide the play-by-play stats to begin with! The data from before 2023 are not available at all, so you can’t even do that to look up current players’ progressions.
Could I please add one very important stat that is never compiled: REAL penalty yards…not just the 5,10,15, but add the yards gained that are wiped out. ie. If a play goes for 20 yards, but is wiped out by a 5-yard offside, the penalty (lost) yards is 25. Or a kick return for a TD, of 85 yards, is wiped out by an illegal block which was nowhere near the returner, should be a 95-yard stat.
I was just giving that as an example. I would want to know lost yards regardless of whether it was near, or affected, the play, or not. More often than not, the penalty does not affect the play. Think illegal contact on a guy that is not near the play, holding on a lineman who was not near the pursuit, offside on a receiver on the other side of the field from where the ball was thrown, etc. Even if it did affect the play, I still want those stats. It helps to “tell the game story.”
You can be sure that coaches observe those stats when ragging on players for stupid penalties. I know my coaches did. IF you gave a little tug on a receiver who wasn’t even getting the ball, and got called, you received some bench time. Too many players take really stupid penalties. At the pro level, when they reach a certain level, it gets you a bus ticket out of town.
No porky, I wasn’t looking for a determination re: impact on play…just yards “called back.” If you have, say, 350 yards total, but lost 100 yards by penalty, and another 150 called back, I want to know that. It tells me how well/poorly the O is doing.
and another rule that drives me crazy…uh…not quite, as it is now walking distance: getting the ball at the 40 after a FG. NO GIFTS…earn it. A team could drive the ball 90 yards in 10 plays, and stall at the 4-yard line, and settle for a FG. Their opponent completes two short passes for 20 yards or so, and “gets the 3 points back.” RIDICULOUS!
How do you give a 95 yard penalty if the player blocked could have made the tackle back on the 15 yard line for example. If every penalty was graded that way you’d have such big #'s they are apt to become meaningless. I’m not sure of what use this data is when you start measuring cancelled plays. If a receiver drops a 50 yd bomb, should this be measured as minus YAC’s & deducted from the WR’s YAC?
Sheeesh. I didn’t think it was so complicated. I just want a separate stat for yards gained, which were taken back. ie. 10 penalties for 95 yards. Separate column: 150 MORE yards gained, which were wiped out. I don’t care if the play was affected by penalty or not. I was not trying to equate the two stats, or link them in any way. I just want to know. OK? And BTW, we already have, sort of, a stat for dropped balls: targets vs. catches…which, of course, is not the same as dropped balls, as the passes could have been off target, or knocked down. But, ya, I would like to know dropped balls too, as it would tell the story about a guy like McInnis. Riders shouldn’t have let him go, obviously. However, in Riderville, he dropped a number of passes, which contributed to his departure…much more reliable now.
BTW, pantsof, you are right that if those yards are combined they become meaningless. But coaches are aware of those numbers, as I posted earlier. When I helped a high school coach, I was asked to track, from the spotter’s box, all kinds of stats that you would never see in a game summary. This kind of minutiae may seem irrelevant to the average fan, but I am not an average fan, have been a keen student of the game for several decades. I love the Xs and Os. If you go to 3dnation, look at Ben Grant’s game analysis: compelling reading for fans who really want to get a handle on the nuances of the game.
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