Indeed, the Bucs, now in their 39th year, have never reeled off seven victories in a row, not even the season they won the Super Bowl. The Browns, meanwhile, haven’t had a seven-gamer since ’68, and the Bengals (‘73) and Cardinals (’74) haven’t put one together in nearly as long.
I point this out because the Patriots are on their annual seven-game roll. Well, maybe not annual, but they’ve certainly been Frequent Streakers in the Belichick-Brady Era. This is their seventh run of seven games or more; a couple of times, they didn’t stop until they reached 21 and 18.
The only other team in the 2000s that’s had more than four such streaks is Peyton Manning’s team. Manning had five with the Colts, and has added a sixth — a 17-gamer — with the Broncos.
A look at the Patriots’ streaks (which become even more impressive when you realize that no other club in the AFC East has had even one in the 2000s):
PATRIOTS’ REGULAR-SEASON WINNING STREAKS OF 7 OR MORE SINCE 2000
Teams that haven’t had a seven-game streak in the 2000s: Bengals, Bills, Browns, Bucs, Cardinals, Dolphins, Jaguars, Jets, Raiders.
How do the Patriots stack up against other teams over the decades led by Hall of Fame quarterbacks? Pretty favorably — keeping in mind, of course, that Brady is in his 13th full season as a starter (Roger Staubach was the Cowboys’ QB of record for just nine) and that schedules are now 16 games (Sid Luckman never played more than 12).
MOST WINNING STREAKS OF 7 GAMES OR MORE, REGULAR SEASON
Years
Quarterback, Team
7+ Streaks
2001-14
Tom Brady’s Patriots
7
1999-10
Peyton Manning’s Colts
6
1980-90
Joe Montana’s 49ers
6
1946-55
Otto Graham’s Browns
6*
1992-07
Brett Favre’s Packers
4
1991-99
Steve Young’s 49ers
4
1983-98
John Elway’s Broncos
4
1970-82
Terry Bradshaw’s Steelers
4
1971-79
Roger Staubach’s Cowboys
4
1967-80
Bob Griese’s Dolphins
4
1956-72
Johnny Unitas’ Colts
4
1939-50
Sid Luckman’s Bears
4
*Includes years in the All-America Conference (1946-49).
Note: “Years” denotes the span of seasons the quarterback was the team’s starter. Obviously, a QB didn’t get credit for a streak unless he started all or virtually all of the games. (Backup Earl Morrall, for instance, filled in for the injured Unitas when the Colts won eight straight in ’68 – and did likewise for Griese when the Dolphins went undefeated in ’72.)
In case you were wondering, Bart Starr’s Packers had a mere two runs of seven games or longer during the Lombardi years (1959-67) — which just shows how much more competitive the NFL was back then. We’re talking, after all, about arguably the greatest dynasty in pro football history.
For starters, Cleveland back Dub Jones scored six touchdowns, tying the record he now shares with Ernie Nevers (1929) and Gale Sayers (1965). Even more amazing: He scored the last five times he touched the ball. While Jones was running amok, though, the teams were racking up a combined 37 penalties for 374 yards, two more records. The normally disciplined Browns were hit with 209 yards (yet another mark that has since been broken), the typically rowdy Bears 165. Sounds like the guys might have gotten a little, uh, vindictive.
It is merely in strict adherence to good reporting, not the intention to question the officiating, to record that the Browns were assessed 299 [sic] yards for 21 “infractions.”
In one series of downs with the Bears on the offensive, the Browns three times were charged with 15 yards for a personal foul. Two of them nullified intercepted passes, the second of which was returned 94 yards to an apparent touchdown by Don Shula.
Wait, that’s a third thing of historical significance that happened in the game. Shula had a 94-yard TD wiped out that, had it stood, would have been the only score of his NFL career.
No wonder his Colts and Dolphins clubs were so penalty-averse.
The NFL has moved the Bills-Jets game to Detroit this week because the show, of course, must go on. Even when the president of the United States gets assassinated, the show must go on in pro football. In the current case, it’s due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Mother Nature, who dumped six feet of snow on Orchard Park and forced the Bills to find another venue. So the game will be played Monday night, not Sunday afternoon, and the site will be Ford Field, not Ralph Wilson Stadium.
It wasn’t always thus. In the days before TV mega-contracts, postponements and even cancellations were hardly unheard of. Sometimes all it took was slow sales ticket sales or the threat of bad weather to get owners to reschedule — or to bag the game entirely. Why don’t we revisit some of these episodes so you can get a better feel for The Way Things Were?
We begin with a couple of games in New York that were snowed out Dec. 5, 1926 — one between the Giants and Bears at the Polo Grounds, the other between the Brooklyn Horsemen and Duluth Eskimos at Ebbets Field. (And yes, I’m as surprised as anybody that a game involving the Eskimos could be snowed out.) Here’s how The New York Times reported it:
What’s interesting about the first game is that it was the second of back-to-backers for the Bears. They’d lost the day before to the Frankford Yellow Jackets in Philadelphia — their only loss of the season, it would turn out, and one that would leave them second behind the Yellow Jackets in the final standings. (This was before the league staged a title game to determine its champion.)
I’m kind of amazed George Halas, their owner/coach/end, didn’t insist that the game be played at a later date — for the New York payday as much as for the potential W. But as you can see from the Bears’ 1926 results, it was just canceled (though they did play twice more before calling it a season).
Then there was the time in 1936 the Eagles and Pirates (as the Steelers were called then) got the brilliant idea to move one of their games to Johnstown, Pa. Naturally, there was a flood that caused a postponement. Well, almost a flood. The Pittsburgh Press put it this way:
Two years later, Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney caused a stir by putting off a game against the Cleveland Rams because — brace yourself — he had too many players banged up. The Rams were none to pleased about it, as you can see in this Press story:
What’s interesting about this tempest in a leather helmet is that the teams wound up playing the game in December in New Orleans. It was the first NFL game ever played in the Big Easy. (Why New Orleans, you ask? Answer: During the Depression, clubs that didn’t draw well at home would play anywhere they could get a decent guarantee. The next year, the Rams played their season finale against the Eagles in Colorado Springs.
Moving along, in 1954 the Browns pushed their Oct. 3 home game against the Lions back to Dec. 19 because they weren’t sure if the Indians would need Cleveland Stadium for a World Series game against the New York Giants. (The Indians didn’t. The Giants completed their shocking sweep the day before.)
This created a bizarre situation. When the Browns and Lions finally did meet, all the other teams had completed their schedules — and Browns and Lions had already wrapped up their conference titles. So they played on consecutive Sundays in Cleveland . . . with the whole pro football world watching. The Lions won the first game 14-10, and the Browns won the one that really mattered 56-10. What’s that, a 50-point swing in the space of a week?
I could go on, but I’ll finish with the infamous Bills-Patriots postponement in 1961. The game was supposed to be played on a Friday night in Boston but, with Hurricane Gerda looming, was held over to Sunday. Almost predictably, Gerda ended up being the Brian Bosworth of storms — dozens of area high school contests went on as planned that night — and Buffalo coach Buster Ramsay was convinced the delay was “a deliberate attempt to upset my team. . . . A bush-league trick.”
The Patriots actually had to get the city council approval to reschedule to Sunday. They were using Boston University’s Field, you see, and BU didn’t have a permit for games on the Sabbath, according to The Boston Globe.
When the Bills and Pats finally did play, the weather — 35 degrees with 25-to-30 mph winds — was far worse than it had been Friday night. A mere 9,398 showed up to shiver, and Ramsey’s worst fears were realized: His club came out flat and fell behind 45-0 in a 52-21 loss.
At least we know Buffalo’s postponement this weekend wasn’t “a deliberate attempt to upset” the Jets. There’s real snow on the ground — alps of it. And it’s nice nobody had to go to the Detroit city council to get them to OK a Sunday game. Now Rex Ryan’s bunch just has to keep the Bills from running off to a 45-0 lead.
First off, I’d like to thank NFL statisticians for making this post possible. On Monday morning it wasn’t — because, at that point, the Patriots’ Jonas Gray was credited with 38 carries for 199 yards in the 42-20 whupping of the Colts. On further review, however, Gray’s numbers were revised to 37 carries for 201 yards. This raises the question (since it happened with Jonas): How many times has a back’s first 100-yard rushing game been a 200-yard game?
I would have guessed a couple. To my shock, I came across eight other instances, including one in the Super Bowl.
BACKS WHOSE FIRST 100-YARD RUSHING GAME WAS A 200-YARD GAME
Not all of these backs were rookies, by the way. Word was in his second year and Johnson and Riggs in their third. (Word’s big game came after he’d served prison time for cocaine distribution, which caused him to miss the previous season.)
I turned up several near misses, too — guys who rushed for 200-plus yards the second time they hit triple figures. That group includes such household names as Jim Brown, Tony Dorsett, James Wilder, Priest Holmes and Arian Foster.
In fact, Brown’s 237 yards set a single -game NFL rushing record. The same goes for Wilson, whose 223-yard day came in the ’56 season finale. “Touchdown Tommy,” as he was called, was such an obscure rookie — and reporters paid so much less attention to these things — that the Los Angeles Times didn’t even mention his feat until the fifth paragraph of its game story.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram, meanwhile, touched on it at the end of the fourth graph, but didn’t provide any details until the 11th. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:
A running back breaks the single-game rushing mark, and we’re 300 words into the story before the reporter tells us how many yards he gained. That should be in the record book, too.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
The Redskins’ Timmy Smith keeps the Broncos’ Tony Lilly at arm’s length in Super Bowl 22.
The yards have never come easier in the NFL. They’re up to 705.4 a game this season, which would be an all-time high if it holds. And yet the record for most yards by both teams in one contest, 1,133, was set in 1950 — on this very day, in fact — and has somehow survived all the rule changes favoring the offense and even the institution of overtime. Go figure.
Of course, the clubs involved, the Los Angeles Rams and New York Yanks, had the two most explosive attacks in the league. Indeed, that Rams team, with its two Hall of Fame quarterbacks (Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin) and two Hall of Fame receivers (Crazylegs Hirsch and Tom Fears) has never been given its proper due. Just last year a major website told its readers that Waterfield made it to Canton “possibly because he had the good sense to wife up to Jane Russell, the Megan Fox of her day.”
It would be a great line if it were true, but it doesn’t even come close. Waterfield, you see, wasn’t just a QB, he was one of the most multi-talented players in NFL history. Check out his 1946 season:
● Threw 17 touchdown passes (tying him for the league lead).
● Made 6 of 9 field-goal tries (giving him the highest success rate — 66.7 percent — and tying him for second in field goals).
● Averaged 44.7 yards a punt (third in the league).
● As a defensive back, intercepted 5 passes (tying him for fourth in the league).
That’s why Waterfield was in just the third class to be inducted into the Hall. The fact that his wife was a screen siren had nothing to do with it (though it made for great photo ops). So it
Jane Russell at her sultry best.
goes, alas, for players of that vintage. Their feats are often dismissed by the young Plutarchs of today, even though the competition in the 12-team era was probably fiercer than it is now.
The ’50 Rams scored 466 points in a 12-game season, an average of 38.8. That’s more than the Broncos averaged last year (37.9) when they totaled a record 606 in 16 games. The Rams racked up 70 against the Baltimore Colts, 65 against the Lions, 51 against the Packers — they were a veritable force of nature. They also came within a last-minute field goal of winning the title (which they won the next season).
The ’50 Yanks didn’t have nearly the star power — save for Buddy Young, their Hall of Fame running back. QB George Ratterman did top the league with 22 TD passes, though, and end Dan Edwards was fifth with 775 receiving yards.
Anyway, when the teams met at Yankee Stadium on Nov. 19, 1950, they put on a show — 1,133 yards’ worth (Rams 636, Yanks 497) — as the Rams won 43-35. The Brooklyn Eagle’s headline read thusly:
Both teams scored five TDs, which made the three field goals booted by the versatile Waterfield the difference. Individually, nobody went too wild, though two receivers (L.A.’s Hirsch and New York’s Art Weiner) and one running back (the Rams’ Dick Hoerner) went over 100 yards.
“The crowd of 43,673 had difficulty keeping track of the pigskins the Rams tossed in the air in the first half — 32 in all, “ the Eagle reported. “But after the intermission they varied their attack, dusting off the old Statue of Liberty play successfully twice.”
Yanks coach Red Strader, meanwhile, called the Rams “a tough team to play against. Speed on the gridiron is always hard to beat — one mistake and they’re away.”
In the 64 years since, only 13 NFL games have come within 50 yards of that 1,133-yard figure. The most serious challenge to the record came in the 2011 season finale between the Packers and Lions, who combined for 1,125. Logic tells you that, the way things are going, the mark is bound to fall at some point. But amazingly, it has endured for more than six decades — and could well last a few more.
Spent the better part of the morning trying to put together sets of Triplets — quarterback, running back, receiver — who share the same last name (even if they didn’t play on the same club or in the same era). There was no fudging allowed, either. For instance, you couldn’t try to team Kerry Collins with Cris Collinsworth or Trent Green with BenJarvus Green-Ellis or, heaven forbid, Rob Gronkowski with Bruce Gradkowski. The receiver could, however, be a wideout or a tight end. The rules weren’t totally inflexible.
Anyway, it was harder than I thought it would be. There just aren’t many surnames that are very common in NFL/AFL history. I almost hurled my laptop, Frisbee style, when I was two-thirds of the way to paydirt with Jim and Leroy Kelly — Hall of Famers both — but couldn’t come up with a receiver any better than Reggie, the underwhelming tight end for the Bengals and Falcons.
Smith is another one. You’d think that would be a gimmie — Emmitt at running back, Jerry (or Jimmy or Steve or Rod or Jerry) at receiver and . . . good luck finding a quarterback worth a darn.
If you work at it, though, you can dig up some nice threesomes. Here are my nominees for:
Only a few of these guys didn’t make at least one Pro Bowl or — in the case of pre-Pro Bowl players — all-pro team. Flipper Anderson didn’t, for example, but, hey, he holds the record for receiving yards in a game (336). In fact, he’s held it for 25 years, which is pretty remarkable considering how long receiving marks tend to last. And granted, Scott Mitchell was nothing special as a quarterback, but he did throw 32 touchdown passes one year for the Lions.
The first three listed are my gold, silver and bronze medalists. As for the others, you can order them however you like. I’m not sure it makes much difference. It’s kind of cool, by the way, that
Spec Sanders
Dub and Bert Jones are a father-son pairing. Dub, of course, is one of three NFL players to score six TDs in a game.
One last thing: I was fibbing about the no-fudging rule. Spec Sanders wasn’t technically a quarterback; he was a single-wing tailback for the New York Yankees of the All-America Conference in the ’40s. (He did play one season in the NFL, however, and intercepted 13 passes as a DB to lead the league.)
I included Spec because in 1947 he had one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time, throwing for 1,442 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushing for 1,432 yards and 18 TDs. (In his spare time, he ran a kickoff back 92 yards for another score.)
One day I spent a couple of hours on the phone with him, reminiscing about his playing days. He was utterly self-effacing, not the least bit impressed with his football feats. Just makes me want to keep his name alive.
In an eye blink Sunday, Cardinals fans went from dreaming about winning a Super Bowl on their home field to wondering whether there might be room for them on the Arizona State bandwagon. That’s the usual reaction, gloom and doom, when a starting quarterback goes down, especially the quarterback of an NFL-best 8-1 team.
The Cardinals weren’t a lock to take the title, but the way Carson Palmer was playing — he was 12-2 in his previous 14 starts before blowing out his knee against the Rams — they were definitely on the short list. Their defense, after all, has allowed more than 20 points only once (and all but won the last game by scoring two touchdowns). But now they have to look to Drew Stanton for salvation, the 30-year-old QB who has thrown 280 career passes.
Wonders never cease in these situations, though, and that’s not just a phrase. It’s truly amazing how often a backup quarterback has either led a team to the NFL title or kept his club in contention until the starter returned to finish the job (or at least come close). We’re not talking about a miracle here and a miracle there. We’re talking one, two, three . . . a slew of examples.
Almost every decade has a story like this — beginning with 1934, the NFL’s third championship game, which was won by a backup quarterback wearing sneakers on the frozen turf. That would
Ed Danowski
be Ed Danowski, a rookie (and New York kid) who’d done more running than passing before the No. 1 QB, Harry Newman, got hurt with three games left in the season.
The Giants were so panicked by the loss of Newman that they arranged to borrow Warren Heller from Pittsburgh, which had completed its schedule. (Crazy, isn’t it? The Giants still had three games to play, and the Pirates, as they were called then, were already done.) But the league disallowed the transaction after some owners squawked, leaving the Giants’ fate in the hands of Danowski. He wound up leading them to a key win over the second-place Boston Redskins in his first start, and was one of the heroes of the victory over the Bears in the legendary Sneakers Game, throwing for one touchdown and running for another.
And that’s just one for-instance. Here are 11 others that come to mind:
● Tobin Rote, 1957 Lions — Rote had been splitting time with Bobby Layne when Layne broke his ankle in the next-to-last game. With Rote under center, Detroit caught fire in the postseason, overcoming a 20-point deficit to beat the 49ers and obliterating the Browns 59-14 in the championship game (the last of the Lions’ three titles in the ’50s).
● Earl Morrall, 1968 Colts — Ol’ Flattop stepped in for Johnny Unitas, who missed virtually all of the season with an elbow injury, and guided Baltimore to a 13-1 record and the NFL championship, winning the MVP award in the process. Alas, the feel-good story had a horrible ending: a 16-7 loss to the AFL’s Jets in the Super Bowl, due in large measure to three interceptions thrown by Morrall.
● Mike Livingston, 1969 Chiefs — Livingston didn’t exactly tear it up after Len Dawson was sidelined with a partially torn ACL, but he did win all six of his starts to help Kansas City get in the playoffs. By this time Dawson was operational again, and he quarterbacked the Chiefs to victories over the Jets and Raiders to win the AFL crown and the NFL’s Vikings to capture the Super Bowl.
● Earl Morrall, 1972 Dolphins — Ol’ Flattop was four years older, 38, when he did for the ’72 Dolphins what he’d done for the ’68 Colts. He didn’t just hold the fort until Bob Griese recovered from a fractured leg, he won 10 straight starts, including the playoff opener over the Browns. Then Griese came off the bench in the AFC title game against the Steelers, rallied Miami to a 21-17 victory and remained the QB in the Super Bowl, which the Dolphins also won to cap their perfect 17-0 season. But without Morrall, it might never have happened.
● Mike Kruczek, 1976 Steelers — Kruczek was the Eddie Danowski of ’76, a rookie quarterback who was suddenly thrust into a starting role because of injuries to Terry Bradshaw. He didn’t need to shoulder that much of the load because Pittsburgh’s defense was nigh impenetrable that year, pitching five shutouts, and running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier both topped 1,000 yards. Still, he went 6-0 during Bradshaw’s absence, putting the Steelers in position for a record-tying third consecutive championship. They might have won it, too, if Harris (bruised ribs) and Bleier (sprained toe) hadn’t been sidelined for the AFC title game.
● Vince Ferragamo, 1979 Rams — A third-year QB, Ferragamo got his big chance when Pat Haden broke his finger in Week 10. He responded by winning six of seven starts, leaning heavily on a staunch defense, as the Rams advanced to their first Super Bowl. They even led the heavily favored Steelers in the fourth quarter, 19-17, but then Bradshaw and John Stallworth burst their bubble with this famous play:
● Jim Plunkett, 1980 Raiders — The 32-year-old former No. 1 overall pick had fallen completely off the radar until Dan Pastorini broke his leg in the fifth game. But with a better supporting cast than he had in New England, Plunkett became the quarterback he was always supposed to be, leading Oakland to the championship that year (and again in ’83). Say this for the guy: He was a finisher. In the AFC title game and Super Bowl, he posted passer ratings of 155.8 and 145
● Jeff Hostetler, 1990 Giants — Phil Simms’ late-season foot injury opened the door for Hostetler, who was pushing 30 and had spent nearly six years as an understudy. He made the most of the opportunity, playing steady, interception-free ball in the last five games, all victories, including memorable postseason stare downs of the 49ers (15-13) and Bills (20-19 in the Super Bowl). His mobility (200 rushing yards, two touchdowns) brought a new dimension to the Giants offense.
● Erik Kramer, 1991 Lions — Undrafted coming out of North Carolina State, this one-time CFLer took over for Rodney Peete (torn Achilles) halfway through the season and guided Detroit to seven wins in a row, the last a 38-6 horse-collaring of the Cowboys in the second round of the playoffs. On that one he completed 29 of 38 for 341 yards and three TDs, with no picks. The NFC championship game against the Redskins didn’t go quite as well, but it was still a heck of a run. (And of course, the Lions haven’t gotten that far since.)
● Kurt Warner, 1999 Rams — We might never see another season like Warner’s. He was like Bill Murray in Caddyshack (except he really did win the Masters — or the Super Bowl, at least).
It still seems incredible, all these years later. Warner, a product of the Arena League and NFL Europe, was slated to play behind Trent Green that season. But then the Chargers’ Rodney Harrison bent Green’s knee the wrong way in a preseason game, and Kurt proceeded to toss 41 touchdown passes, win both the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP awards and take his first steps toward Canton (I’m guessing).
● Tom Brady, 2001 Patriots — Brady, the 199th pick in the previous year’s draft, had hardly set foot on the field when Jets linebacker Mo Lewis knocked Drew Bledsoe out of the lineup in Week 2 with this crushing hit:
That was the last game Bledsoe started in New England. Brady took the job and ran with it, winning an improbable ring that year — thanks to a couple of last-second field goals by Adam Vinatieri — and two more in 2003 and ’04.
And now we have Stanton trying to add his name to the list. He doesn’t have the crunching ground game Kruczek had at his disposal, the offensive talent that glittered around Warner (and others) or a Hall of Fame coach running the show (as Livingston, Morrall, Kruczek, Hostetler and, almost certainly, Brady did). But as we’ve seen over the decades, from Danowski on down, there are more championship quarterbacks in the NFL than we think. All they need, some of them, is a break — of a leg, an ankle or some other part of their competition’s anatomy.
In fact, here are two of them. The first is Stephen Gostkowski, who went over 100 points for the season in the Patriots’ ninth game. He’s only the second pure kicker in NFL/AFL history to get to 100 points — 101, actually — that fast. The other is Lawrence Tynes with the Giants two years ago (102).
But . . . three running backs and four multitaskers — guys who played an offensive position and doubled as kickers — also have accomplished the feat. Two of the seven did it twice. The details:
NFL/AFL PLAYERS WHO HAVE SCORED 100 POINTS IN THE FIRST NINE GAMES
Year
Player, Team
TD
FG
PAT
Pts (Final Total*)
2014
K Stephen Gostkowski, Patriots
0
34
29
101 (TBD)
2012
K Lawrence Tynes, Giants
0
26
24
102 (145)
2006
RB LaDainian Tomlinson, Chargers
18
0
0
108 (186*)
2005
RB Shaun Alexander, Seahawks
17
0
0
102 (168*)
1962
WR-K Gino Cappelletti, Patriots (AFL)
4
16
28
100 (128)
1962
RB-K Gene Mingo, Broncos (AFL)
4
18
23
101 (137*)
1961
RB-K Paul Hornung, Packers
10
12
34
130 (146*)
1961
WR-K Gino Cappelletti, Patriots (AFL)
7
12
32
110 (147*)
1960
RB-K Paul Hornung, Packers
11
11
30
129 (176*)
1958
RB Jim Brown, Browns
17
0
0
102 (108*)
1942
WR-K Don Hutson, Packers
15
0
29
119 (138*)
*led league
Notes: Hornung reached 100 in just seven games in 1960 (100 exactly) and again in 1961 (101). Cappelletti had 100 through eight games in ’61, and Hutson had 104 through eight in ’42. . . . Hornung missed two games in ‘61 because of a military commitment.
Anyway, that’s a pretty impressive bunch. Hornung, Brown and Hutson are in the Hall of Fame, and Tomlinson figures to join them soon enough.
The second kicker I wanted to call to your attention is Shayne Graham, currently with the Saints. I say “currently” because Graham has certainly been making the rounds lately. Since he left the Bengals as a free agent in 2010, he’s been with 10 different teams and played at least one regular season game with five of them.
● 2011 – Redskins (cut in camp), Cowboys (cut before season), Dolphins (2 games), Ravens (1).
● 2012 – Texans (16 games).
● 2013 – Browns (cut in camp), Steelers (on their roster for a game but wasn’t active), Saints (2).
● 2014 – Saints (9 games and counting).
How do ya like them frequent-flyer miles? But here’s the thing: Despite his job tenuousness, Graham has kicked the ball very well. In fact, in these five seasons — or parts thereof — he hasn’t missed a field goal try under 40 yards. The breakdown:
SHAYNE GRAHAM’S FIELD GOAL KICKING BY DISTANCE, 2010-14
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50+
Made
Missed
%
2-2
22-22
22-22
18-14
10-5
65
9
87.2
(Numbers below distances are field goals attempted and made.)
To live out of a suitcase — well, practically — for five years and still perform at this level is . . . the definition of a pro. A guy like that deserves to kick in a dome at this stage of his career. He’s earned it.
Source: pro-football-reference.com
Much-traveled Shayne Graham has made 14 of 15 field goal tries for the Saints this season.
For a while Sunday, as the fourth quarter wound down, the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson was sitting with 100 rushing yards in 10 carries. And I’m thinking: Oh, great. He’s going to kneel down on the last play or two and lose his 100-yard game.
You have to understand: This wasn’t just any 100-yard rushing game. It was his third 100-yard rushing game of the season, which is as many as any NFL quarterback has ever had in one year.
My fears, as it turned out were unfounded. Wilson kept going (mostly) forward and finished with 107 in 14 attempts in Seattle’s 38-17 win. This enabled him to join Michael Vick atop the following list:
MOST 100-YARD RUSHING GAMES BY A QUARTERBACK IN A SEASON
Year
Quarterback, Team
Rushing Yards (Opponent)
No.
2014
Russell Wilson, Seahawks
122 (Redskins), 106 (Rams), 107 (Giants)
3
2006
Michael Vick, Falcons
127 (Bucs), 101 (Cardinals), 166 (Saints)
3
2004
Michael Vick, Falcons
109 (Rams), 115 (Broncos), 104 (Giants)
3
2013
Terrelle Pryor, Raiders
112 (Colts), 106 (Steelers)
2
2010
Michael Vick, Eagles
103 (Packers), 130 (Giants)
2
2002
Donovan McNabb, Eagles
100 (Jaguars), 107 (Giants)
2
1972
Bobby Douglass, Bears
117 (Browns), 127 (Raiders)
2
1951
Tobin Rote, Packers
150 (Bears), 131 (Lions)
2
And, of course, Wilson still has seven games left, so he’s got a real shot at the record.
Only one of these quarterbacks, by the way, had back-to-back 100-yard rushing games. Any guesses? Answer: Rote. He did it, moreover, in the space of five days — against the Bears on Sunday and against the Lions on Thanksgiving. (Don’t count on another quarterback rushing for 281 yards in five days again. It’s one of those quirky marks that just might last forever.)
According to reports, Packers coach Gene Ronzani had Rote run out of a spread offense that was probably similar to what teams use today. An excerpt from the Milwaukee Journal story on the Bears game:
Rote had an even better game on Turkey Day. This is from the Journal again:
So Rote rushed for 131 yards against Detroit and threw for three touchdowns. Only two other quarterbacks have done that in the 63 years since: Vick in this game and the Eagles’ Randall
So what did the Packers do? They traded him to the Lions, one of their conference rivals, for three offensive linemen and a running back. “He is a great competitor — a great football player,” coach Lisle Blackbourn said, “but we need linemen if we are to have a chance.”
When Bobby Layne broke his ankle in the next-to-last game of ’57, Rote, who had been sharing the position with him, took over and led the Lions to an improbable NFL title. Six years later, he quarterbacked the Chargers to the AFL championship. Total points scored by his team in those two games: 110 (59 vs. the Browns and 51 vs. the Patriots).
Anyway, that’s the ghost Russell Wilson is chasing as he tries to become the second quarterback to rush for 100 yards in consecutive games in a season. The other QB in his sites, Vick, is — at last report — still up and running with the Jets.
The Cowboys played the Jaguars in London today, but the NFL wasn’t always this big.
Consider: On this day in 1958, the Colts lost to the Giants at Yankee Stadium, 24-21 – a preview of their overtime thriller later that year in the title game. Afterward, their Hall of Fame receiver, Raymond Berry, went to CBS’s studios in New York and had a panel of celebrities try to guess his occupation on the game show What’s My Line?
Except for a pair of glasses — which were no disguise (he needed them) — Berry did nothing to hide his identity. He even signed in, with wonderful penmanship, as “Raymond Berry” — instead of, say, R. Emmett Berry or R. E. Berry, which would have been trickier.
But again, this was 1958. So even though Berry had led the NFL in receiving yards the year before — and would lead it in receptions and receiving touchdowns in that ’58 season — he wasn’t immediately recognized. The panelists were very observant, though, noticed his athletic physique and ramrod-straight posture, and quickly figured him for a jock.
The exchange between Bennett Cerf, the publisher/humorist, and Berry was just priceless:
Cerf: You’re playing at the present time on some professional outfit. Is that correct?
Berry: Yes, sir.
Cerf: Is it a football team?
Berry: Yes, sir.
Cerf: Is it a football team in the National Football League?
Berry: Yes, sir.
Cerf:: Did you play today in that fantastically exciting game up at the Yankee Stadium?
Berry: Yes, I did.
Cerf: Well, then, you’re a football player on either the Colts or the Giants. . . . Uh, Berry, . . . Raymond Berry. . . . You’re the end who almost caught a pass in the last quarter that would have beaten the Giants. You’re an end for the Baltimore Colts.
Berry: That’s right, sir.
Here’s the whole clip:
Did you notice, by the way, how Cerf pronounced Johnny Unitas’ last name as “YOU-knee-toss”? (Unitas had missed the game with broken ribs, and backup George Shaw had thrown three TD passes, including a 23-yarder to Berry.) Yes, it was a different world in 1958 — before London games and the NFL Network. But you have to remember: In those days, the Colts-Giants game would have been blacked out in New York. The only way Cerf or anybody on the panel could have seen it is if they had a ticket — unless, that is, they wanted to drive to Connecticut, outside the Blackout Zone, and rent a hotel room.
