Officially, the statistics from Sunday’s Steelers-Eagles game say the Steelers lost one turnover, a fumble by quarterback Russell Wilson. Anyone who watched the game knows that’s not what happened.
The fumble came when Wilson pitched the ball to running back Najee Harris, who dropped the lateral, couldn’t pick it up, and watched as Philadelphia’s Darius Slay fell on it. The video of the play on the NFL’s YouTube channel is titled, “Najee Harris’ lost fumble ends a promising Steelers’ drive.”
When Harris was told by reporters that the official stats from the game say Wilson lost a fumble and Harris did not, he was shocked.
“I wasn’t? That’s crazy,” Harris said. “You should always be your biggest critic, no matter what they say, you’re always going to be your biggest critic. So the stat sheet may say that. Nobody believes that. That was all on me. I don’t know why they put that on Russ, but that was on me. Doing better the next time is the best thing to do.”
So why was the fumble put on Wilson’s stats? Because that’s the way the NFL’s official record-keeping for statisticians works: Any time an exchange behind the line of scrimmage (handoff, lateral, reverse, etc.) is mishandled, the blame for the fumble is credited to the last player who possessed the ball. Harris dropped Wilson’s lateral, which means Harris never possessed the ball, which means the blame for the fumble goes to Wilson, according to the NFL’s official stats.
It serves as a reminder that the official statistics are far from perfect: Sometimes a player is credited with a fumble even though everyone watching the game can clearly see that the fumble was not that player’s fault. The league prioritizes consistency in its record-keeping and doesn’t want the official statistician to have to make judgment calls about who was to blame for a fumble, so the statistician followed the rules and credited the fumble to Wilson. Even though everyone knows it was on Harris.