The Great Pro-Football Reference Play Index Rollout: Part IV
Posted by Neil Paine on Friday, August 28, 2009
I know what you're thinking: after a week of daily bombardment with new site features, what could we possibly have left in store for you today? Well, last but certainly not least, it's time to unveil what is perhaps our favorite new tool: the Player Touchdown Finder.
Utilizing a database of every touchdown (regular season & playoffs) in the NFL, AFL, and AAFC since 1940 (!!), the groundbreaking new Player TD Finder lets you customize a dazzling array of queries: most career TD passes when trailing by a TD or less in the 4th quarter... longest rushing TDs of the 1970s... most 20+ yard TD receptions in a game... most TD passes of 5 yards or less in a season... 4th quarter/OT interception-return TDs... I could go on, but you get the picture.
The PTDF lets you search in four different ways -- by single TDs that match the criteria, by all TDs in a single game that match, by matching TDs in a season, and by total matching TDs in a span of seasons. And the criteria are incredibly detailed: again you can choose teams and opponents, regular season or playoffs, game number, game location, and game result, but you can also specify the type of touchdown you're looking for (we have 11 to choose from, essentially every possible way to score a TD), the distance of the score, when the TD occurred (by quarter), the point differential at the time of the score, and you can even specify if it was a game-tying or go-ahead TD. You can also set parameters based on the scorer's age/status and that of the passer, if it's aerial assaults you're after. Speaking of which, you can even search for passer-receiver combos by choosing how you want to group passing touchdowns in the drop-down menu.
With the addition of the Touchdown Finder, as well as the other exciting new features we've debuted this week, we hope we've delivered an unstoppable combination of tools that will provide hours of entertainment for you, as well as a powerful weapon to help you settle those pesky bar-room discussions once and for all. As always, if you have questions or comments, let us know, and hopefully we can continue to raise the bar ever higher as your go-to source for pro football stats.
More PI Rollout Posts:
The PTDF lets you search in four different ways -- by single TDs that match the criteria, by all TDs in a single game that match, by matching TDs in a season, and by total matching TDs in a span of seasons. And the criteria are incredibly detailed: again you can choose teams and opponents, regular season or playoffs, game number, game location, and game result, but you can also specify the type of touchdown you're looking for (we have 11 to choose from, essentially every possible way to score a TD), the distance of the score, when the TD occurred (by quarter), the point differential at the time of the score, and you can even specify if it was a game-tying or go-ahead TD. You can also set parameters based on the scorer's age/status and that of the passer, if it's aerial assaults you're after. Speaking of which, you can even search for passer-receiver combos by choosing how you want to group passing touchdowns in the drop-down menu.
With the addition of the Touchdown Finder, as well as the other exciting new features we've debuted this week, we hope we've delivered an unstoppable combination of tools that will provide hours of entertainment for you, as well as a powerful weapon to help you settle those pesky bar-room discussions once and for all. As always, if you have questions or comments, let us know, and hopefully we can continue to raise the bar ever higher as your go-to source for pro football stats.
More PI Rollout Posts:
This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 6:32 AM and filed under Play Index, Site Features. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
Under most TD passes in 4th quarter while trailing by 7 or fewer, I'm really surprised to see Steve Bartkowski (my boyhood hero) at #11. Ditto Jon Kitna at #14. I guess it's a function of having been trailing in the 4th a lot.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 7:47 am | PermalinkDidn't Hester from the Bears have a bunch (more than one) field goal return for TDs
He's only listed once under misc. doesn't seem right
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 8:23 am | Permalink(Dave: there is a category for field goal returns at the bottom of the list.)
So if I search for touchdowns
From 1940 to 2008, playing for the Denver Broncos, versus the Cleveland Browns, all touchdowns, between the 4th and OT quarters, point differential between -7 and 0 points, sorted by most touchdowns matching criteria.
it will tell me who scored the touchdowns and in what years, and include links to the Denver Franchise page and the player page, but will not give me more information than that on the touchdowns. In a case like this, maybe a link to the game's boxscore would be helpful.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 8:47 am | Permalinkda Hook, the date is a link to the box score. Post a tiny url if it isn't on there.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 10:09 am | PermalinkReally?
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 10:16 am | Permalinkhttp://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/2zdLY
There's an OT period in the Super Bowl?
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/pMi5R
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 10:26 am | PermalinkMy guess on the FG returns is that the recent ones have been listed under Miscellaneous, and need to be re-categorized. Also, there have been no lateral TD's in the last 10 years per the TD finder, and I'm guessing that's because they are in the miscellaneous category.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 11:12 am | PermalinkDave D wrote:
There's an OT period in the Super Bowl?
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/pMi5R
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 12:14 pm | PermalinkThat's obviously a database error. Paging Dr. Drinen...
Very awesome
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/fQiHA
sloppy "garbage time TD" count
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 12:36 pm | PermalinkHmm...I'd heard once that Brett Favre has never won a game where his team trailed by 14 or more points. I wanted to see just how many TDs he'd thrown under those conditions.
So, ignoring his Jets year, I tried searching for Single (passing) TDs by the Green Bay Packers from 1992 to 2007, point differential between -14 and -50 and got a null result:
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/B146P
What am I missing? I tried point differential from 0 to -50, just in case he never threw a TD pass when down 14, but I got the same result.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 1:26 pm | PermalinkJason,
You need to swap the -14 and -50. That makes it read all games where the Packers were "trailing by no more than 14 and but no fewer than 50." If you switch it, you get the following link, which shows three Packers games that Favre won (including one playoff game) when his team trailed by two TDs:
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/CoAWh
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 1:34 pm | PermalinkJason,
you need to put the -50 first and the -14 second.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/9oy8S
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 1:40 pm | PermalinkA great utility!
~~~
"passing touchdowns ... in the 4th quarter, point differential between -7 and -1 points"
#1 John Unitas
#2 Dan Marino
#3 Vinny Testeverde !!
...
#9 John Elway
...
#12 Dave Krieg
#13 Peyton Manning
=#14 John Kitna
=#14 Joe Montana
...
As I wrote in an earlier thread -- the number of career "4th quarter come from behind" TD passes is primarily a function of "number of games played" x "random distribution".
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 2:03 pm | PermalinkJason, the stat is actually more than 14 pts (15+) where he's never won. It makes sense too, because of his turnovers. You need someone that will be efficient drive after drive to get that kind of comeback done.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 2:05 pm | Permalink19 pick 6's in OT
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/JYG5P
I believe Scott Mitchell is the only QB to do it twice. How fitting.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 2:24 pm | PermalinkOr wait, I think there may be a mistake here.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 2:26 pm | PermalinkThis game http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199112150min.htm showed up in that list, but in the boxscore it says the pick 6 was in the 4th QT in a non-OT game.
Wow!
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 3:08 pm | Permalink.
Chuck Foreman had a record of 20-1 when he reached or exceeded 100 rushing yards.
.
Tony Dorsett's record was an astounding 43-3. One of the losses was the game on his 99-yard TD run vs. Minnesota.
.
Viking and Cowboy media guides contain same info, but they don't typically count playoff games.
.
Now I can search on other players W-L-T records - Marino 300-yd games, Rice 100-yds, etc. Cool.
Regarding the point differentials, I added code to swap the minimum and maximum if they are entered in the wrong order. So, putting either -14/-50 or -50/-14 should work now.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 6:04 pm | Permalinktest
test
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 6:57 pm | PermalinkCheck out game #18 on this list.
How is that O.T. anyway?
the game didn't even go to OT according to the box score!
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/tiny/8gsT1
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 7:56 pm | PermalinkAs Justin mentioned, there are some definite database errors regarding OT. I will investigate.
Posted on 28-Aug-09 at 8:10 pm | PermalinkI can now access the box score from the date, but I can no longer sort by the number of such touchdowns.
Starting from scratch, I was able to repeat the search at including all of Cleveland's opponents; when the list is sorted by number of touchdowns, there are links to the player and the team, but not the games. Dates are given only in years.
Posted on 29-Aug-09 at 3:30 pm | Permalinkda Hook,
Can you tell us what questions you are trying to answer. It may be that it isn't appropriate to show the box scores for the queries you want to run.
Posted on 30-Aug-09 at 12:01 pm | PermalinkThanks guys! And you're right, Scott, setting the differential to -50/-15 (or -15/-50) gives me no wins.
Posted on 30-Aug-09 at 2:08 pm | Permalinkhttp://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200709160det.htm
Posted on 01-Sep-09 at 1:05 am | PermalinkThere's a game where the OT period doesn't show up. Lions win on a FG.
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199001070nyg.htm
Posted on 03-Sep-09 at 3:07 am | PermalinkThere's a playoff game missing OT
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200711250chi.htm
Posted on 04-Sep-09 at 7:53 am | Permalink" "
http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/197511300rai.htm
Posted on 07-Sep-09 at 10:04 am | Permalink" "
If anybody is still comes around here, maybe they can do some extra research on the following bits:
Since 1940, there have been 10 TDs scored in the 16th game of the season with the score tied during the 4th quarter or OT while played on the road.
So 16th game of the season played on the road and a TD is scored in the 4th quarter or OT with the score tied.
The only team (franchise) to have 2 of those TDs:
The Steelers
Here's a creepy stat:
Even though that situation doesn't happen very often, it did occur 2 times in the span of 2 days in 1986 (12/21 and 12/22 of 1986)
Here's another creepy stat:
Posted on 13-Oct-09 at 9:22 am | PermalinkThe most recent 2 TDs of that criteria occurred on the first day and the last day of 2006 (1/1/2006 and 12/31/2006)
Any way the college of the scorer can be included as a searchable field? ex. how many touchdowns were scored by graduates of Notre Dame from 1960-1990...
Posted on 05-Nov-09 at 10:10 am | Permalink