Tom Neville, rusher

[Jay Z]

I hope this topic has not been covered on the forum before.

Tom Neville, rusher, or the case of the Giants Bears broadcast from 1967 inspiring a Stathead quest.

Early in that Giants/Bears game, the Giants have the ball on the Bears one yard line. Tarkenton takes the snap, dances around for a bit, then throws a lateral to... guard Darrell Dess, who runs in for the touchdown!

Is that even legal? Yes! Handoffs can only go to eligible receivers, but any player can catch and advance a backwards pass. For the game and for his career Dess was credited with one yard rushing, one touchdown rushing, in ZERO attempts.

Why Dess didn't receive a rushing attempt is unclear. I have not listened to the whole game nor do I have a game book. Tarkenton had one rushing attempt for minus one yard in the game. Tarkenton's rushing attempt could have come later, and why would he be credited with minus one yard rushing on that play. The play gained one yard and Dess gets that yard, Tarkenton doesn't need to be counted.

Later in the season Tarkenton ran for 12 yards, then lateraled to the other Giants guard, Pete Case, who ran for 16 more. In that case Tarkenton received a rushing attempt and Case had 16 yards in zero attempts.

Now let's get to Tom Neville. I wondered who had the most and fewest yards rushing with zero attempts for a career. Tom Neville has the fewest, minus 8 rushing yards in zero attempts. He got those negative yards in what I would call a hot potato play. The QB is trapped and laterals to anybody in desperation. There was one of these in the 1957 NFL Championship. Milt Plum of the Browns is trapped way behind the line, 16 yards or so, laterals to Jimmy Brown who goes nowhere. Brown gets the loss. Killed Brown's average for the game. Sometimes this play can work, Ralph Neely gained 10 yards for the Cowboys in a 1972 game. Neely is credited with a rushing attempt though.

So Neville was actually credited in the game book and box score as having a rushing attempt. But in the end of season stats he's at zero attempts. So what happened? Is Plunkett given an attempt? Is it considered a sack? Neither. The play is not counted as anything. It disappeared. The Pats had 25 rushing attempts in the game book, now they have 24, sacks still zero. A missing play.

[TodMaher]

Dess didn't get a rushing attempt because of the Tarkenton "dances around a bit."

Plunkett probably should have a sack for 8 yards and Neville should have no rushing stats at all.
But you have to realize there all kinds of errors in the official stats in the days before the stats were digitally generated off the play-by-play and NFL has zero interest in going back and fixing these things.

[Jay Z]

Dess didn't get a rushing attempt because of the Tarkenton "dances around a bit."

Plunkett probably should have a sack for 8 yards and Neville should have no rushing stats at all.
But you have to realize there all kinds of errors in the official stats in the days before the stats were digitally generated off the play-by-play and NFL has zero interest in going back and fixing these things.

In the Dess game Tarkenton is credited with one carry for minus one yard. I haven't gone through the whole game. But it can't be that play, they are at the one yard line so why credit Tarkenton with minus one yard? The play gained a yard.

I think Dess should have been handled like Neely because he made it past the line of scrimmage. Tarkenton shouldn't get it, and it shouldn't go to nobody.

The sack is a judgment call and sometimes sacks have been issued to non-QBs. I guess it depends if you think the lateral is a continuation of the passing play or an end of it. Neville can't throw a pass so how can he be sacked? Jimmy Brown could but there was no attempt to do so. I agree that if Plunkett keeps the ball and runs around without passing the line it's a sack and not rushing. But they should have decided one way or another. I do wonder who decided to take the rushing attempt away from Neville.