How to Find Total Net Yardage

When reporting on a football game there are a multitude of stats recorded that are used to compare a team's effectiveness with another team both offensively and defensively. The Total Net Yardage stat, also referred to sometimes as Net Yardage, is a complete measure of a team's offensive production through the air and on the ground, with penalty yardage excluded. Because of the way passing stats are recorded, finding Total Net Yardage is more complex than simply adding rushing and passing yards, however it is still easy to find.

Things You'll Need

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Instructions

    • 1

      Add the total passing yardage for all passers on a team if more than one player threw a pass. For example, if the starting quarterback threw for 278 yards and during a trick play a running back threw for 17 yards, total passing yards are 295.

    • 2

      Subtract from the passing yards the total yardage lost from all sacks recorded by the opposing defense to find the net passing. For example, if the quarterback in Step 1 was sacked three times for a total of 16 yards, the team's net passing yards would be 279 yards-295 total yards minus 16 yards lost from sacks.

    • 3

      Add the total rushing yardage for all players on a team. For the example team in the previous steps, a starting rusher gains 74 yards, a back-up rusher gains 24 yards and a wide receiver's end around run gains 17 yards, yielding a team total of 115 yards.

    • 4

      Add the total rushing yards and net passing yards to find the total net yardage. The example team in the previous steps gained 394 total net yards.

    • 5

      Repeat the first four steps for the opposing team in the game if you want to compare the total net yardage of both teams.