How to score Patriots fumble (and recovery)? (1 Viewer)

[jason_boris]

In last night's game, Tom Brady threw a pass that was intercepted by San Diego's Marlon McCree......

....As McCree was running, wide receiver Troy Brown forced a fumble, which was the recovered by wide receiver Reche Caldwell, thus giving the New England offense the ball back.

Now, here is my scoring dilemma/question?

Does the New England Patriots "team defense" get creditted with a forced fumble and fumble recovery? Once the ball changes possession, does the other team's "offensive players" become defensive during the subsequent run back?

My playoff league scoring system credits team defenses with 1 point for a forced fumble and 2 points for a fumble recovery. In this situation, does the New England DEFENSE get 3 points OR 0 points???

Any help would be greatly appreciated. It just so happens that I am the League Commissioner (who also happens to own the Patriots defense.....lol). Your thoughts???

Thanks guys!

 

[jason_boris]

From the NFL rulebook Rule 3, Section 35, Article 1: "Whenever a team is in possession, it is the Offense and, at such time, its opponent is the Defense." The rule, along with Rule 3, Section 35, Article 2, states: "The team that puts the ball in play is Team A, and its opponent is Team B. For brevity, a player on Team A is referred to as A1 and his teammates as A2, A3, etc… Opponents are B1, B2, etc… The rule goes on state through notation: "A team becomes Team A when it has been designated to put ball in play, and it remains Team A until a down ends, even though there might be one or more changes of possession during the down. This is in contrast with the terms Offense and Defense. Team A is the offense when the down starts, but becomes the defense if and when B secures possession during the down, and vice versa for each change of possession."

THEREFORE, IT SEEMS THE THE NEW ENGLAND TEAM DEFENSE DOES GET CREDIT WITH A FORCED FUMBLE AND FUMBLE RECOVERY.

Anyone disagree or have another interpretation on the matter?

 

[Spartans Rule]

Ah, shades of Keenan McCardell in 2003.

Your answer is somewhere in this old, long FBG thread. Actually, I think you could find mountains of support for either side in there.

I think you have it right already though.

 

[Family Matters]

From a fantasy perspective, it would ruled as a D/ST fumble recovery. The reason is that as soon as the INT took place, The NE offense becomes the defense. Therefore any recovery/TD is credited as a D/ST recovery/TD. This is how MFL has handled it in the past.

 

[randall146]

If the answer was as simple as "once the defense gets the ball, they are the offense", there would be no such thing as defensive/ST touchdowns.

 

[inca911]

Depends on your league rules. In our league, the NE DST would not get any points per the following rules. Also, the SD DST would get a net zero points due to losing the fumble back to NE.

RULES:

Offensive Scoring (includes Kickers):

Note that Offensive Scoring includes all offensive positions (e.g., a Kicker can be credited for a passing TD from a fake field goal). Yardage from any Offensive player lateral is considered rushing yardage, as is yardage gained after an Offensive player fumble recovery. A player can complete a pass to himself and gets credit for both passing and receiving stats as a result (1998 Brad Johnson Rule). Special Teams play is not counted as Offensive Scoring for any individual player, and fake punts and field goals are not considered part of Special Teams scoring, only regular Offensive Scoring.

Note that “Defense” and “Offense” are based on ball possession at the start of the play and do not change during a play as a result of change in possession (e.g., the Bears Offense fumbles, the Falcons Defense recovers, the Falcons Defense re-fumbles, the Bears Offense recovers).

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Fumble recovery from opponent offense, then lost back to opponent offense (2003 Keenan McCardell Rule) = -2 points (this acts to zero out the points awarded for a fumble recovery, that is then lost again)