Splash Play

By Deane Barker • January 7, 2024 •

I couldn’t find an official definition of this, but it seems to mean a “big play” in NFL football.

Are there specific definitions of what a “big play” is? All I could find were various opinions:

It was most often used to refer to defense – a defensive splash play might be a sack, an interception, or a tackle for a loss
On offense, a splash play might be a gain of 20 yards or more
On special teams, might be a blocked punt or field goal

Again, there’s nothing official here. I suspect this term came out of fantasy football leagues, which assign some point value to these play results.

I did find an article on a Steelers fan site which says:

“Splash plays” for the purpose of this statistic are sacks, interceptions, passes defensed, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. Simply put, good things happen when a defense does these things, and when a defense does these things, good things happen.

But, again, this is idiosyncratic to this particular article and fan.

Why I Looked It Up

In an article about the Raiders’ chances to make the playoffs:

Crosby is tied for first in the league in defensive splash plays…

This seems odd because it makes it sound like there’s an official stat for this.