During a kick-off return, a player on Team B returned the kickoff and fumbled the ball, and Team A recovered it. Why was the defensive team of Team A given credit for a fumble recovery?
Even though the defensive team for Team A was not on the field, they are given credit for a fumble recovery. This reason is as follows: Team stats (as per the NFL) are defined as those generated by the entire team. Since most team stats can easily be attributed to one of the sub-teams (OT, DT, or ST), this is not typically an issue. For example, Punt Return TDs is always associated with the ST. However, in the case of fumbles, this is not nearly as clearly defined. All sub-teams (OT, DT, or ST) can fumble and recover a fumble. As a result, the stats generated by the NFL only list the fumble stats for the entire team and do not list the fumbles of the sub-teams. So, a fumble recovery will always be credited to the defensive team, no matter if the fumble occurred on the OT or ST, since the NFL does not break down fumbles into ST fumbles, OT fumbles, and DT fumbles. EXAMPLE: In week 14 of 2003, Brandon Bennett of Cincinnati received a kickoff by Baltimore. Bennett then fumbled the ball, a
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