Unusual football stats this year

The Game Room
21

The Browns 6 - bills 3 game where Derek Anderson (Browns QB) completed 2 passes out of 17 (11.8% completion rate) in a win was unbelievable.

Jamarcus Russell’s stats before week 6 were amazing too. Kordell Stewart could make a comeback if teams tolerate that kind of performance in their starting QB. Iirc, he was hovering around a 30% QB rating.

I’m also stupified by Denver’s success, mainly because it’s Kyle Orton at QB. I can understand Cinci because at least they have Chad and Carson, but Denver has possibly the worst starting QB in the NFL other than Oakland. The WR’s can’t catch any passes because he doesn’t have the arm strength to pass over 10 yards.

Oh, and while some people would find the Steeler’s offense surprising, to fans it was due. :slight_smile: Ben is the real deal, and he’s in the top tier of today’s QB’s, definitely.

Re: Immaculate reception: they did a study, and they were able to prove conclusively that the ball hit Tatum, making it a legal play for the rules at the time:

In 2004 John Fetkovich, an emeritus professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon University, analyzed the NFL Films clip of the play. He came to the conclusion, based on the trajectory of the bounced ball and conservation of momentum, that the ball must have bounced off of Tatum, who was running upfield at the time, rather than Fuqua, who was running across and down the field.[22] Fetkovich also performed experiments by throwing a football against a brick wall at a velocity greater than 60 feet per second, twice the speed that Fetkovich calculated that Bradshaw’s pass was traveling when it reached Tatum and Fuqua. Fetkovitch achieved a maximum rebound of 10 feet when the ball hit point first, and 15 feet when the ball hit belly first, both less than the 24 feet that the ball actually rebounded during the play. Timothy Gay, a physics professor and a longtime fan of the Raiders,[23] cited Fetkovich’s work with approval in his book The Physics of Football, and concluded that “the referees made the right call in the Immaculate Reception.”

Basically, for the ball to bounce that far, it had to bounce off someone coming downfield (Tatum), not going across the field (Fuqua.)

But, whether the ball hit the ground first before Franco Harris caught it is a completely different story. :slight_smile:

22

My favorite stat concerning Collin’s -7 yards, as mentioned in the Week 6 thread is that Vince Young was 0/2 for 0 yards (obviously) and was therefore his team’s leading passer.

23

The CFL West has some strange standings right now. With three games left in the regular season the standings are:

Team W-L-T-Pts (Like hockey used to be 2pts for each win, 1 pt for a tie, no pts for a loss.)
Calgary 8-6-1-17
Saskatchewan 8-6-1-17
British Columbia 8-7-0-16
Edmonton 7-8-0-14.

Now that’s a tight race!

24

QB against the Detroit Lions 74.2 percent completions and 118.7 QB rating.

25

This week’s Bills-Jets game was a bit weird. It’s not often that a team rushes for 309 yards and their defense allows just 13 points in regulation that that team loses. It’s rare enough that a team rushes for 300+ yards and loses period, combined with the low opponent score it’s especially surprising. I wonder what the lowest number of points scored for teams who rush for 300+ yards in history is, 13 points has to be close to the mark.

26

Imho, all kinds of crazy stuff happen to losing teams, like the Collins/Young example, so I don’t really pay attention.

The example I like to use is before Singletary went to SF, Patrick Willis was averaging 10 tackles per game in his rookie season (174 tackles in his rookie year). It’s not that he was some kind of tackling machine, but the SF offense was so horrible that the defense was on the field over 75% of the game.

Regarding rushing, you are probably right, as usually losing teams switch to the air attack in the 2nd half, which is why Clinton Portis, Jamal Lewis, Steven Jackson, LT, Larry Johnson, and many more haven’t had decent seasons in years, and Matt Schaub, Kurt Warner, and others put up ridiculous passing numbers.

27

Also interesting about that game is that it was Delaware State’s 2nd loss that day. They had a previous commitment to play a conference game that same day. But they chose to forfeit that game and take the Michigan payday.

28

Is this a whoosh?

Portis rushed for 1487 yards last year despite a bunch of injuries which limited him to ~3 yards per carry during the last 5 weeks of the season.

LaDanian Tomlinson ran for 1,100 yards last year and added another 400+ receiving yards- pedestrian numbers by his standards, but I can assure you that 80% of NFL teams would love to have a back who can rush for 1,100 yards and catch 50 passes. He also ran for a hair under 1,500 yards in 2007.

Larry Johnson’s numbers have been limited by injury as much as giving up on the run. He only played in 8 games in 2007 due to injury but was on pace for 300+ carries, and is on pace for nearly 350 this year.

Jamal Lewis’ numbers don’t suck because the Browns are always behind; it’s because he’s old.

Steven Jackson’s numbers are a bit misleading because he’s missed games each of the last two years; in 2007 and 2008 he projects out to 1,400 yards over a full 16-game schedule.

29

Navy plays an entire game without a pass attempt.

30

The Stamps-Riders game that resulted in a tie game and a tie in the standings came about two weekends ago when the Riders were down 30-22 in the dying minutes. They put together a drive, got the TD, and then a two-point conversion to make the game 30-30, and on to overtime.

This week’s game, the Riders were down 30-22 to the BC Lions in the dying minutes. They put together a drive, got the TD, and then a two-point conversion to make the game 30-30, and on to overtime. Only difference was that they won the game in overtime.

31

St Louis Rams RB, Stephen Jackson, has rushed for more than 100 yards in 3 of the Rams 7 losses so far. Generally, when the featured back rushes for >100 yards, the team wins.

32

I don’t think it’s that weird a stat. He’s doing most of his damage in the second half, when the Rams are usually down big and their opponents are playing max zone defenses.

What’s weird is that the Rams have a featured back who they leave on the field when they need to pass. Whether that speaks to Jackson’s talent or the utter dearth of other talent on their roster, I couldn’t say.

33

Jackson is an above average pass-catching back, so there’s that.

34

This from Peter King…

True or false: The Saints’ running game is ranked higher in the NFL than the Saints’ passing game. True. New Orleans is second in the league with 154.5 rushing yards per game. The Saints are sixth in passing yards.