Get individual passing plays with air yards, YAC and location detail

Get individual passing plays with air yards, YAC and location detail

Usage

cfbd_passing_plays(
  year = NULL,
  team = NULL,
  week = NULL,
  game_id = NULL,
  season_type = NULL,
  offense = NULL,
  defense = NULL,
  conference = NULL,
  passer_id = NULL,
  target_id = NULL,
  outcome = NULL,
  classification = NULL
)

Arguments

year

(Integer required): Year, 4 digit format (YYYY)
Minimum value accepted: 2025

team

(String optional): D-I Team

week

(Integer optional): Week - values range from 1-15, 1-14 for seasons pre-playoff (i.e. 2013 or earlier)

game_id

(Integer optional): Game ID filter for querying a single game

season_type

(String optional): Season type - regular, postseason, both, allstar, spring_regular, spring_postseason

offense

(String optional): Offensive team filter

defense

(String optional): Defensive team filter

conference

(String optional): Conference abbreviation - Select a valid FBS conference

passer_id

(String optional): CFBD athlete id of the passer to filter on.

target_id

(String optional): CFBD athlete id of the targeted receiver to filter on.

outcome

(String optional): Pass outcome - completion, incompletion, interception

classification

(String optional): Division classification - fbs, fcs, ii, ii/iii, iii

Value

cfbd_passing_plays() - A data frame with 39 variables:

col_name	types	description
game_id	integer	Unique game identifier - game_id.
play_id	character	Unique play identifier - play_id.
drive_id	character	Unique drive identifier - drive_id.
season	integer	Four-digit season year (e.g. 2025).
week	integer	Week of the season.
season_type	character	Season type (regular, postseason, ...).
offense_id	integer	Offensive team id.
offense	character	Offensive team name.
offense_conference	character	Offensive team conference name.
defense_id	integer	Defensive team id.
defense	character	Defensive team name.
defense_conference	character	Defensive team conference name.
period	integer	Quarter of the play.
clock_minutes	integer	Minutes remaining on the game clock at the snap.
clock_seconds	integer	Seconds remaining on the game clock at the snap.
down	integer	Down of the play (1-4).
distance	integer	Yards to gain for a first down.
play_text	character	Play description text as published by the source.
passer_id	character	CFBD athlete id of the passer.
passer	character	Passer full name.
target_id	character	CFBD athlete id of the targeted receiver (NA when unparsed).
target	character	Targeted receiver full name (NA when unparsed).
outcome	character	Pass outcome - completion, incompletion or interception.
air_yards	integer	Yards the ball travelled past the line of scrimmage.
pass_depth	character	Depth bucket - short or deep (NA when unparsed).
pass_direction	character	Direction bucket - left, middle or right (NA when unparsed).
pass_location	character	Combined depth + direction bucket, matching the locations_* split (NA when unparsed).
total_yards	integer	Total yards gained on the play.
yards_after_catch	integer	Yards gained after the catch (NA when unparsed or incomplete).
start_yardline	integer	Yard line the play started from, in the offense's frame of reference.
start_yards_to_goal	integer	Yards from the opponent's end zone at the snap.
target_yards_to_goal	integer	Yards from the opponent's end zone at the target point.
is_spike	logical	TRUE when the pass was a clock-stopping spike.
is_throwaway	logical	TRUE when the pass was a deliberate throwaway.
is_intentional_grounding	logical	TRUE when the play was flagged intentional grounding.
parse_status	character	How completely CFBD parsed the play text for this row.
ppa	numeric	Predicted points added on the play.
success	logical	TRUE when the play met the success threshold for its down and distance.
location_analysis_eligible	logical	TRUE when the play is eligible to be counted in a location split.

Check a column before building on it. As of this writing CFBD has not populated play-level air_yards, yards_after_catch, pass_depth, pass_direction or pass_location at all – every value is NA, so R types those columns logical – while target is populated (1,976 of 2,003 week-5 2025 completions) and the SEASON aggregates in cfbd_passing_players_season() do carry air yards. Filter on location_analysis_eligible or parse_status rather than assuming a column holds values.

See also

Other CFBD Passing: cfbd_passing_players_games(), cfbd_passing_players_season(), cfbd_passing_teams_games(), cfbd_passing_teams_season()

Examples

# \donttest{
  try(cfbd_passing_plays(year = 2025, week = 5, team = "Texas"))
#> data frame with 0 columns and 0 rows
# }