Fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives

A 4th Quarter Comeback (4QC) must involve these:

  • team must end up with a win or tie
  • team must, at some point, have an offensive scoring drive while trailing in 4th quarter or OT
  • the drive must conclude in the 4th quarter or OT. It can begin in the 3rd quarter so long as scrimmage plays that are part of the drive are run in the 4th quarter. This means you can't kick a FG on 1st play of 4th quarter to tie or take lead and have it count as 4QC.
  • the scoring play to put the tying/winning points on the board must be the result of an offensive drive

A Game-Winning Drive (GWD) must involve these:

  • team must win game
  • team must, at some point, have possession of the ball tied or down by one score (1-8 points) in 4th quarter or OT
  • the offensive scoring drive must conclude in the 4th quarter or OT. It can begin in the 3rd quarter so long as scrimmage plays that are part of the drive are run in the 4th quarter. This means you can't kick a FG on 1st play of 4th quarter to take lead and have it count as GWD.
  • the scoring play to put the winning points on the board must be the result of an offensive drive

Some games can be both 4QCs and GWDs. Others can be 4QCs, but not GWDs. And yet others can be GWDs, but not 4QCs.

Unique Situations

This framework was developed by Scott Kacsmar. You can read his original posts on this topic at these archive links: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3