Process Guide: Understanding Points After Touchdown (PAT) Attempts in Scoring Plays

This article explains how SportsDataIO handles football Points After Touchdown (PAT), also known as Try After Touchdown, in its box score and play-by-play (PBP) feeds.

Note that while the NFL contains both box scores and PBP, college football only has box scores.

We will explain how to derive a PAT and its outcome from box score data for both sports, but in the case of NFL we highly recommend using our PBP feeds for this purpose, therefore we will start with that.

Play-by-Play (Available for NFL Only)

For NFL games, Play-by-Play (PBP) data provides a more detailed and explicit view of each play, including PAT attempts.

1. Find the Relevant Play:

   • Search for the touchdown in the PBP data.
     • In this case the play will have a ScoringPlay object; a PlayDescription
     • mentioning the touchdown, and at least one PlayStats record indicating a touchdown credited to a player (e.g. PassingTouchdown would be 1.)
   • Immediately following the touchdown play, you will find the PAT attempt described.
     • This will not be marked as a scoring play but at least one PlayStats object will appear with a statistical outcome associated with the play.
     • For example, if the play description is "Chase McLaughlin made PAT", you will find a PlayStatID record with Chase McLaughlin's ExtraPointsAttempted and ExtraPointsMade set to 1.
     • If on the other hand a Two Point Conversion was tried and failed, you may see TwoPointConversionAttempt set to 1 but TwoPointConversionPasses etc. all set to 0, indicating a failure. The post-touchdown game score would also not update, further indicating failure.

Box Scores (NFL/CFB)

1. Scoring Plays Object: The ScoringPlays object in the box score contains details about each scoring event, but PAT attempts aren’t listed as separate events.

2. Score Changes: To figure out what happened during a PAT attempt, you need to look at how the team’s score changes after a touchdown.

How to Identify PAT Attempts in NFL Box Scores

1. Find the Touchdown:

   • Look for the touchdown play in the ScoringPlays object. Note the team’s score before the touchdown.

2. Check the Score Change:

   • After the touchdown, see how the team’s score changes using the relevant TeamGameobject:
     • Successful PAT: If the score goes up by 1 point, the PAT was good.
     • Two-Point Conversion: If the score increases by 2 points, they successfully executed a two-point conversion.
     • Missed PAT: If the score doesn’t change after the touchdown, the PAT was missed regardless of whether it was a PAT or Two-Point Conversion.

3. Review Player Stats:

   • Check the PlayerGame objects to see which player was credited with the PAT attempt.
     • Kicker: For a standard PAT, look for the kicker’s stats to confirm a successful attempt.
     • Rusher/Receiver: For a two-point conversion, find the player who made the rushing or receiving play.

Example

Let’s say a team scores a touchdown and you observe this:

• Before Touchdown: Team score is 14.
• After Touchdown: Team score goes to 20, then 21.
• What It Means: The score increased by 6 points (touchdown) and then by 1 point (successful PAT).

How to Identify PAT Attempts in CFB Box Scores

• You can follow the guide above but also check the Description of the ScoringPlay, which will read like "Dillon Johnson rushed for 2 yard touchdown (Grady Gross made PAT)".

In closing, we once again recommend using PBP for NFL for this purpose, but for CFB or for box score-only customers, it is possible to use the box score.