use strict;
my $str = 'Greg Zuerlein kicks off 65 yards returned by Jaydon Mickens for 20 yards (tackle by Jayron Kearse)';
my $regex = qr/^.+returned by.+ for ([0-9]+).*/mp;
my $subst = '$1';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html