Antmeister71
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Joined: 3/1/2006
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And here is my unofficial reference. Look for Question#5 of this link:
http://www.buccaneers.com/news/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=5013
quote:
Yo answer man
When I was playing on Madden I was asking myself some questions. Like if a quarterback goes down behind the line of scrimmage with the ball, is that always a sack? And which no. of draft pick do we have this year? Thank you oh knowledgeful one.
Answer Man: I haven’t run it yet, but I don’t think “knowledgeful” is going to pass the Spell Check. Still, it was a nice thing to say, Luca.
That being said, I think most NFL fans could answer that first question, and most Buc fans could fill you in on the second. But it’s my job, not theirs, so here goes.
No, it is not a sack every time the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Most of the time, but not always. The determining factor is whether or not it was a designed passing play or not on which the tackle occurred.
If a quarterback drops back to pass and is tackled, then yes, that is a sack. However, if he were to, say, try to sneak it over the middle and get hit two yards behind the line, that would just be a tackle. Or a tackle-for-loss to be specific, though neither is an official NFL statistic, as we discussed at some length in Volume 19 in December of 2004.
That latter play is a running play by the quarterback, and no sack can be awarded on a running play. Also, there are no sacks on aborted plays. That is, if the quarterback fumbles the snap and has to fall on it, and is then touched down by a defender, that is not a sack, even if the play was going to be a pass attempt.
If the quarterback drops back to pass and finds no one open, the starts to scramble around the end to avoid the pass-rushers, that is still a passing play. If a defender gets him down before or at the line of scrimmage, it will be a sack. The only confusion comes when the statistics crew in the press box is unsure whether a play was designed to be a run or a pass.
This comes into play most often when one of the teams has a quarterback who is a gifted runner, like Atlanta’s Michael Vick. The Falcons clearly have designed runs for Vick in the playbook, even some out of the shotgun. On one play during the Falcons’ visit to Tampa last December, Vick took a shotgun snap and a Buccaneer blitzer was allowed to run in unabated from the right side. Vick then ran around left end. The stat crew might have interpreted that as the blitzer forcing Vick to give up on the pass and scramble, but in fact this play was a designed run.
These decisions can be appealed after the game, too. There was a memorable play during the Bucs’ Super Bowl season in which safety John Howell dragged Vick down for a loss on what appeared to be a sack on a perfectly-timed blitz. In fact, however, Vick was about to try to run the ball around the right side (and he would have had a lot of open field had Howell not hung on).
The play looked like a sack and was ruled one by the stat crew in the Buccaneers’ press box. However, the Falcons’ coaching staff alerted the Elias Sports Bureau on Monday that the play was supposed to be a run and thus Howell’s tackle was changed to be just that, a tackle. Elias, the NFL’s official statistics service, doesn’t just take a team’s word for it on these occasions, however. There are a variety of cues that one can look for when watching a play on film to determine whether it was going to be a run or a pass, most notably the early movements of the offensive linemen. If they are dropping back onto their heels and waiting for contact, it was probably going to be a passing play. If they were surging forward at the snap, it was probably going to be a running play.
As to your second question, Luca, the Bucs have the 23rd pick in the first round of this year’s NFL Draft. They are actually tied with four other teams in a grouping of rotating picks, though they start out at the front of that group. In Round Two, the Bucs will drop to the back of that group, at pick number 27. They will then move up to 26th in the third round, 25th in the fourth round, and so on.
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Printable Version
Sack yards are counted against pass in NFL - 
) and I thought everyone knew this rule existed in the NFL. I would find other examples but I will leave that to you guys. I know that Aaron Brooks sometimes gets negative rushing yards on any given play with that poor offensive line. Luckily I have a good memory. 
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