Category Archives: 2000s

Running roughshod over Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger was sacked three times for 16 yards Monday night in the Steelers’ 30-23 win over the Texans. In other words, it was a perfectly normal week for Roethlisberger, whose per-game average over 11 NFL seasons is 2.7 sacks for 17.7 yards, give or take an ammonia capsule.

Big Ben’s 406 career sackings are the 10th most since 1982, when the league began tracking the statistic. But if his 6-foot-5, 240-pound frame can withstand the pounding, he should eventually overtake Packers legend Brett Favre, who’s first with 525 (in more than twice as many games — 302 to Ben’s 150).

This made me wonder: How many first-round quarterbacks have had fewer passing yards, all told, than Roethisberger has sack yards (2,650)? There’s gotta be a few, right?

Actually, I count 29 — not including some young quarterbacks, like the current rookie crop, who haven’t played enough to be considered. Imagine: Ben has gone backward farther than these guys have gone forward (in terms of throwing the ball, anyway).

1st-Round QBs with Fewer Career Passing Yards than Big Ben Has Sack Yards (2,650)

[table width=”400px”]

Quarterback\, First Team,Pick\, Year,Pass Yds

Art Schlichter\, Colts,4th\, 1982,1\,006

Andre Ware\, Lions,7th\, 1990,1\,112

Todd Marinovich\, Raiders,24th\, 1991,1\,345

Akili Smith\, Bengals,3rd\, 1999,2\,212

Kelly Stouffer\, Seahawks*,6th\, 1987,2\,333

Tim Tebow\, Broncos,25th\, 2010,2\,422

[/table]

*Was drafted by the Cardinals, then traded.

Obviously, this is just a sampling. There are many more. And look who’s coming up on Roethlisberger’s radar screen:

[table width=”400px”]

Quarterback\, First Team,Pick\, Year,Pass Yds

Cade McNown\, Bears,12th\, 1999, 3\,111

Ryan Leaf\, Chargers,2nd\, 1998,3\,666

Heath Shuler\, Redskins,3rd\, 1994,3\,691

Matt Leinart\, Cardinals,10th\, 2006,4\,065

JaMarcus Russell\, Raiders,1st\, 2007,4\,083

[/table]

Leinart and Russell might be a bit out of reach for Big Ben, but the other three are certainly catchable.

If Roethlisberger does break Favre’s sack mark, by the way, I can hardly wait to see how the Steelers commemorate the occasion. Maybe they’ll give him Free MRIs for Life.

The Broncos' Von Miller corrals Big Ben

The Broncos’ Von Miller corrals Big Ben

Or maybe the offensive line — all in good fun, of course — will “open the gate” for the record-breaking sack. That’s a football term for letting the defense through unimpeded, something the line usually does only if it’s trying to, uh, communicate something to the quarterback.

Speaking of which, I heard a funny story once about the Packers opening the gate way back when on Curly Lambeau. In his younger days, Lambeau was their single-wing tailback and signal caller, but by this time — 1929, I think — he was essentially a full-time coach. Anyway, one afternoon at Comiskey Park, the Packers offense was struggling mightily against the Chicago Cardinals, and Curly put himself in the game to show these whippersnappers how it was done.

The whippersnappers weren’t amused. On the next play, they made like toreadors while the Cardinals flooded through and planted Curly in the infield dirt. The coach got the message and went back to being a coach.

Years later, the Packers were in Chicago to play the Cards again, and a bunch of players decided to go to Comiskey the day before to watch the White Sox game. In the umpiring crew was Cal Hubbard, one of the Green Bay linemen who’d opened the gate on Lambeau.

With his former teammates watching, Hubbard walked over to the spot between first and second base where Curly met his demise and drew a big X with his cleat. The Packers howled.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Yet another Dynamic Debut by a Redskins QB

The Redskins haven’t exactly been synonymous with quality quarterbacking in the past two decades. Oh, some guys have had their moments — Gus Frerotte, Trent Green, Brad Johnson, Mark Brunell and, most recently, Robert Griffin III, to name a handful — but they never seem to last very long on the job.

For some reason, though, the Redskins have had quite a few quarterbacks — an amazing number, really — who’ve played exceptionally well their first time out of the box, either as a starter or in long relief. (Note the word “long,” as opposed to late-game mop-up duty.) It happened again Sunday, when Colt McCoy came off the bench in the second half to replace struggling Kirk Cousins and rallied Washington to a 19-17 win over Tennessee.

Actually, the trend goes back even farther – to the mid-’80s, with Jay Schroeder, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien. It’s a phenomenon that’s hard to explain, but it’s definitely real. Is there another NFL team that can boast a dozen QB debuts like these in recent decades?

12 TERRIFIC DEBUTS BY REDSKINS QUARTERBACKS IN THE LAST 30 YEARS

Date Quarterback Opponent Att Comp Yds TD Int Rating Result
11-18-85 Jay Schroeder* Giants 20 13 221 1 0 119.0 W, 23-21
9-13-87 Doug Williams* Eagles 27 17 272 2 0 121.2 W, 34-24
9-25-88 Mark Rypien Cardinals 41 26 303 3 1 99.9 L, 30-21
10-23-94 Gus Frerotte Colts 32 17 226 2 0 96.6 W, 41-27
9-6-98 Trent Green* Giants 25 17 208 2 0 120.1 L, 31-24
9-12-99 Brad Johnson Cowboys 33 20 382 2 0 121.0 L, 41-35
10-6-02 Patrick Ramsey* Titans 34 20 268 2 0 103.6 W, 31-14
12-6-07 Todd Collins* Bears 20 15 224 2 0 144.6 W, 24-16
12-19-10 Rex Grossman Cowboys 43 25 322 4 2 93.4 L, 33-30
9-9-12 Robert Griffin III Saints 26 19 320 2 0 139.9 W, 40-32
12-16-12 Kirk Cousins Browns 37 26 329 2 1 104.4 W, 38-21
10-19-14 Colt McCoy* Titans 12 11 128 1 0 138.9 W, 19-17
Totals 350 226 3203 25 4 113.1 Won 8, Lost 4

*Came off the bench.

Note: Seven of the quarterbacks (Rypien, Frerotte, Johnson, Ramsey, Collins, Griffin, McCoy) had never thrown a pass for the Redskins before, and two others (Williams, Green) had thrown only one. The remaining three (Schroeder 8, Grossman 7, Cousins 11) had thrown a few more, but not many. In other words, there’s no fudging here. It was the first significant playing time for all 12.

And yet they pulled five games out of the fire in relief appearances, posted a group passer rating of 113.1 and had all sorts of other fine-looking stats. If the Redskins had had quarterbacking anywhere near this good in this period, they’d probably have more than three Lombardi Trophies on display.

Not all of their quarterbacks, of course, have made first impressions like these. For every Schroeder, there’s been a John Beck, for every McCoy a Jeff George. But still . . . .

Maybe the answer for the Redskins is to just sign a bunch of journeyman QBs every year, plug each of them in for a game, then throw ’em away and sign a bunch more. There never seems to be any shortage of them.

Wait, I just had another idea. Maybe the Redskins could get that guy in Office Space to hypnotize their quarterbacks into believing it’s their First Game as a Redskin every week.

Just a thought. Like they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

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What once was Sammy’s is now Peyton’s

Tracing the history of an NFL record can be more fun than a barrel of Statue of Liberty plays. That was certainly the case when I researched the mark Peyton Manning broke Sunday night for career touchdown passes.

The Broncos legend — who’s at 510 and counting — is the eighth quarterback to hold the record since 1943, when the Redskins’ Sammy Baugh took possession of it. All eight — Baugh, Bobby Layne, Y.A. Tittle, Johnny Unitas, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Marino, Brett Favre and now Peyton — are either in the Hall of Fame or guaranteed to get there. The NFL isn’t as stats-driven as baseball, but this mark is probably the closest it comes to the home run record in baseball. (Once upon a time, the Holy Grail was the career rushing record, but that was before rule changes reduced the running game to a quaint sideshow.)

The year Baugh broke the mark, statistics-keeping was much less exacting than it is now. In fact, the league didn’t even know who held the record, much less how many TD passes he’d thrown. As proof, I offer page 43 of the 1943 Record and Roster Manual. As you can see, the Top 3 under “Most Touchdown Passes” at the start of that season are Cecil Isbell with 59, Baugh with 56 and Arnie Herber with 51. (Isbell and Herber, two former Packers, had retired, though the latter would make a comeback in 1944.)

1943 NFL Record Book

Unfortunately, the figures aren’t accurate. Subsequent research revealed that Herber was No. 1 with 66 (not 59), followed by Isbell with 61 (not 59) and Baugh with 57 (not 56). Also, Arnie was actually tied with Benny Friedman, who’d thrown 56 of his 66 TD passes from 1927 to ’31, before “official” records were kept. (Or unkept. As I said, there were lots of mistakes that weren’t caught until later.)

Anyway, when Baugh tossed No. 67, there was no mention of the record in the newspapers. Instead, sportswriters gushed about another mark he broke that afternoon — by throwing for six scores in a 48-10 bludgeoning of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Thus, the headline in the next day’s Brooklyn Eagle looked like this:

Brooklyn Eagle headline

“All the stunned crowd could see,” the Eagle’s Harold C. Burr wrote, “was Bob Seymour, Andy Farkas, Wilbur Moore and [Joe] Aguirre . . . taking all sorts of passes — long, short, high and low, leisurely and hurried from the sharpshooter behind the Redskin[s] line, who calmly looked over the field and picked out the man in the clear. Once they gathered in the leather, over their head, waist high or off their shoetops, on the gallop or standing waiting, the receivers whirled away from the Dodger[s] secondary like autumn leaves.”

As terrific as Manning was against the 49ers — and he carved them up to the tune of 318 yards and four touchdowns — he didn’t match Baugh’s 376 yards and six TDs against the Dodgers. So far, nobody who’s broken the record has had a game like that.

By 1962, when the Steelers’ Layne passed Baugh’s mark of 187 by throwing his 188th and 189th in a 30-28 win over the Cowboys, there was a little more awareness of these career achievements. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s headline:

Layne P-G headline

“Layne and the immortal Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins had been tied for most TD passes at 187,” Jack Sell reported. “Slingin’ Sam finished his career in 1952.

“The tiebreaker came on a beautiful 38-yard play with Buddy Dial on the receiving end. It not only smashed the record but put Rooney U. ahead to stay in the second quarter.”

There wasn’t much exulting on Layne’s part, though. He’d had to leave the game briefly in the first quarter after he “got slugged,” he said, but didn’t offer any other details about the incident. [At 36 — and playing his final season — Bobby still didn’t wear a facemask.] It should have been one of his more satisfying moments, coming as it did in Dallas, where he’d played his high school ball. The game was even stopped so he could be presented with the ball. But his basic reaction was: “It warn’t nothing. . . . It didn’t feel a damn bit different from any other touchdown pass I’ve thrown.”

(Yes, he said “warn’t.”)

Less than 15 months later, in December 1963, the Giants’ Tittle went shooting by Layne’s mark of 197. He, too, did it against the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl. (Meaning Dallas coach Tom Landry bore witness to both Layne and Tittle breaking the record. Bet he was thrilled.)

The game took place just nine days after the Kennedy Assassination. (How weird must it have been to play in Dallas that close to the tragedy?) TD No. 198 — a 17-yarder to Del Shofner with five minutes left — gave the Giants the victory, 34-27. The pass was released, The Associated Press noted dramatically, “just as the old boy was being slammed to the ground.”

Here’s what’s really funny: The New York Times was so nonchalant about the mark that reporter William N. Wallace didn’t mention it until the seventh paragraph of his story. And when he did mention it, it was only after mentioning first that “Don Chandler . . . kicked a 53-yard field goal for New York today. It was the longest in Giant[s] history and tied the third-longest kick listed in the NFL record book. [Chandler’s] kicking was a major contribution to the Giant[s] victory. So were two touchdown passes by Y.A. Tittle, who thereby set a record. The 37-year-old quarterback has thrown more touchdown passes than anyone else in the 43-year-old league — 197. Bobby Layne held the old mark of 196.”

Talk about burying the lead.

But then, there was something unusual about most of these history-making performances. For instance, when the Colts’ Unitas topped Tittle’s mark of 212 in 1966, the opposing quarterback was the Vikings’ Tarkenton — who in ’75 would break Johnny U.’s record of 290. What are the odds of that?

And when the Dolphins’ Marino blew by Scramblin’ Fran’s mark of 342 in 1995, the opposing quarterback was the Colts’ Jim Harbaugh — the same Jim Harbaugh who, as coach of the 49ers, got to admire Manning’s handiwork up close Sunday night. When he wasn’t gnashing his teeth, that is.

(A couple of other things also made Marino’s feat unusual. One, he had the same coach Unitas did in ’66: Don Shula. And two, he was the only one of the eight QBs who didn’t come away with a victory. Despite his four touchdown passes, which rallied his team from a 24-0 deficit, Miami lost, 36-28.)

Only Favre’s record day was utterly ordinary, devoid of strangeness or coincidence. When the Packers icon threw for his 421st TD to overtake Marino in 2007, it was simply a case of catching the Vikings in a blitz and whipping a 16-yard pass to Greg Jennings on a slant. The middle had been vacated by the safety. Jennings, covered by the nickel back, had no trouble getting open. It couldn’t have been much easier.

And now we have Manning replacing Favre (508) atop the all-time list, firing for one, two, three, four scores to lead Denver to a 42-17 win. You may have noticed, too, that there was plenty of build-up before the game, exhaustive discussion of the record during it and the requisite amount of whoopee when the mark finally fell.

The NFL has come a long way from 1943 — from the days when Sammy Baugh, its most famous player, could break a major record and no one would be aware of it. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game story in Monday’s Denver Post mentioned Manning’s accomplishment before the seventh paragraph.

Unitas photo throwing TD pass

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Russell Wilson, making some history

In today’s 28-26 loss to the Rams, the Seahawks’ Russell Wilson became the first NFL quarterback to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 in the same game. Pretty cool (except for the defeat, of course).

You know what’s almost as cool? The QB who came closest before Wilson was Browns Hall of Famer Otto Graham, and the game Graham nearly did it in was the 1950 title game. Check out the box score for yourself. Otto had 298 yards passing and 99 rushing, which left him just 3 yards short.

This is from Harry Jones’ story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer the next day:

At a locker nearby, Graham was stripping off his jersey. It was plain to see that he had taken a physical beating from the huge Los Angeles linemen who had knocked him down repeatedly. His face displayed cuts and bruises, and he limped on a twisted knee.

“Somebody hit me in the back toward the end of the first half,” Otto said. “I thought I was going to fold up right there. My knee buckled, but luckily it didn’t stiffen up. It’s just getting stiff now. It’ll probably be plenty sore tomorrow.”

If you’re interested in a visual, here’s Graham scrambling for a 22-yard gain to the Rams 31:

Just a tremendous player — as is Wilson.

QBS WHO CAME CLOSEST TO 300 YARDS PASSING, 100 RUSHING IN SAME GAME

Date Quarterback, Team Opponent Pass Rush Missed By
12-24-50 Otto Graham, Browns Rams 298 99 3
12-18-89 Randall Cunningham, Eagles* Saints 306 92 8
10-9-11 Michael Vick, Eagles* Bills 315 90 10
12-9-12 Cam Newton, Panthers Falcons 287 116 13
10-8-00 Rich Gannon, Raiders 49ers 310 85 15
10-12-14 Cam Newton, Panthers Bengals 284 107 16
10-20-13 Robert Griffin III, Redskins Bears 298 84 18
11-3-13 Terrell Pryor, Raiders* Eagles 288 94 18
11-15-10 Michael Vick, Eagles Redskins 333 80 20

*Lost game.

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NFL punters: To infinity and beyond

Since they just let Ray Guy into the Hall of Fame — and since the name of the game, after all, is football — why don’t we kick around the subject of punting for a while? So much has been made in recent years about the increasing infallibility of kickers, but punters, in my mind, have become just as proficient. It just doesn’t show up, in bright lights, on the scoreboard.

What steered me onto this topic was my growing awareness of Tress Way, the Redskins’ undrafted rookie from Oklahoma, who has been booting the bejabbers out of the ball. Through

Rookie Tress Way

Rookie Tress Way

six games, Way is averaging a league-leading 51.2 yards with a 41.9 net. That first figure, if it holds up, would be second best in NFL history, behind only Sammy Baugh’s 51.4 in 1940 (which was inflated by a fair number of quick kicks).

Way, moreover, has been remarkably consistent, averaging 47 yards or better in each of the first six games. Only three other punters since 1960 have done that — Shane Lechler (twice), Donnie Jones and Mat McBriar.

It’s stunning, really, how the performance of punters has improved in the past decade. The 2007 season was the turning point. That was the first time a punter had a net average of 40 yards for a full season — Lechler and Andy Lee both did, in fact — and seven that year had a gross average of 45 or more. Since then, the numbers have just gone up and up.

Consider: From 1940 (when the league first started keeping the stat) to 2006, an NFL/AFL punter averaged 45 yards gross for a season exactly 100 times (minimum: 20 punts). In the seven-year stretch from 2007 to 2013, it happened almost as often: 95 times. Two seasons ago, 21 punters averaged 45 yards gross and 15 averaged 40 yards net. That’s ridiculous — as the following chart shows.

NFL PUNTING PERFORMANCE, 1940-2013

Years 45 Gross 40 Net
1940-49         9 NA
1950-59         8 NA
1960-69         25 NA
1970-79         5 NA
1980-89         6 NA
1990-99         30 1*
2000-09         45 13
2010-13         67 42
2014         14 13

*Punted for only seven games. Note: Net average wasn’t computed until 1991.

Heck, the Colts’ Pat McAfee is netting 44.8 yards this season. If that were merely his gross average, It would be good enough to lead the league every year from 1974 to 1980.

There are all sorts of reasons why punters are kicking the ball to the moon these days. For one thing, some of them are bigger than their predecessors. (Let’s not forget: 5-foot-9, 168-pound quarterback Eddie LeBaron doubled as a punter for the Redskins in the ’50s.)

As Danny Smith, the Steelers’ special teams coach, once told me, “When you’ve got a big, strong guy, their misses aren’t [usually] terrible punts. They don’t kill you. Sometimes, if you have little guys — and everybody misses ’em — their misses can hurt you, field position-wise.”

There’s also been an influx of Australian punters, guys like McBriar and Darren Bennett, both of whom made the Pro Bowl, as well as Sav Rocca and others. “That [Australian rules] game is a kicking game,” Smith said. “You’ve got guys kicking on the run, booting the ball from weird positions, kicking under pressure . . . and developing tremendous leg strength. Then they get over here, of course, and it’s all about perfect drops and [staying] stationary, that kind of thing.”

Then, too, coaches seem increasingly inclined to let punters boot the ball as far as they can, instead of focusing on hang time or trying to angle it one way or another. Throw in refinements in technique, which are always being made, and you have Tress Way, a punter who averaged 44 yards for his college career, averaging 51.2 in his first six games as a pro — and nobody blinking an eye.

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, NFL.com.

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An old(er) back learns some new tricks

Ahmad Bradshaw’s days as a 1,000-yard rusher are probably behind him. He’s what you might call a complementary back now, rotating with Trent Richardson and giving the Colts, at the age of 28, A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That. It’s the Little Bit of That we’ll be discussing today.

Suddenly, Bradshaw, never much of a receiving threat before, has started catching touchdown passes. He had three TD receptions in his first seven NFL seasons; he has five in the first six games of 2014. That’s as many as any running back has had through six games since 1960. In fact, it’s been 31 years since a back got off to this good a start (Joe Cribbs, Bills). Two of the other backs since ’60 with five TD catches in the first six games: Hall of Famers Gale Sayers (1965) and Lenny Moore (1961).

Clearly, Andrew Luck has faith in Bradshaw as a receiver, because he keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone. (The five touchdowns have measured 1, 7, 6, 15 and 5 yards.) And if Luck keeps throwing him the ball in the red zone, Ahmad might well break the modern record for TD catches in a season by a running back — 9, shared by four players.

MOST TOUCHDOWN CATCHES IN A SEASON BY A RUNNING BACK SINCE 1932

Year Running Back,Team Rec Yds Avg TD
1991 Leroy Hoard, Browns 48 567 11.8 9
1975 Chuck Foreman, Vikings 73 691 9.5 9
1964 Bill Brown, Vikings 48 703 14.6 9
1961 Billy Cannon, Oilers (AFL) 43 586 13.6 9
1960 Lenny Moore, Colts 45 936 20.8 9
2000 Marshall Faulk, Rams 81 830 10.2 8
1986 Gary Anderson, Chargers 80 871 10.9 8
1966 Dan Reeves, Cowboys 41 557 13.6 8
1949 Gene Roberts, Giants 35 711 20.3 8

Always fun to see Dan Reeves’ name pop up in a chart, isn’t it? “Choo-Choo” Roberts, by the way, had one of the great forgotten seasons in ’49 for a 6-6 Giants team. He finished fourth in the league in both rushing yards (634) and receiving yards (711, including two 200-yard games) and scored 17 touchdowns, one shy of Steve Van Buren’s mark (since erased).

I said “modern record” earlier because Hall of Famer Johnny Blood caught 10 for the Packers in 1931, the year before they began keeping Official Statistics. Blood was a hybrid back like Lenny Moore — or, more recently, the Seahawks’ Percy Harvin. He’d line up either in the backfield or on the flank (where his speed could be put to optimum use). Just a dangerous, dangerous receiver. Indeed, he had four scoring grabs of 40 yards or longer that year.

Let’s see Ahmad Bradshaw top that.

Postscript: There are a million Blood stories. Some are even true. He was one of pro football’s all-time characters, the kind of guy who didn’t waste a minute of his life. If you want to read more about him, check out this classic piece Gerald Holland wrote for Sports Illustrated in 1963.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Instant-impact receivers

Free agency can be such a monumental crapshoot. So I’m pleased to report that, through Week 6, four of the NFL’s Top 10 in receiving yards are wideouts who changed jerseys during the offseason. They are:

Rank Receiver, Team Old Team Yards
5th Steve Smith, Ravens Panthers 573
T6th Golden Tate, Lions Seahawks 495
9th DeSean Jackson, Redskins Eagles 479
10th Emmanuel Sanders, Broncos Steelers 473

Granted, there’s plenty of football to be played, but these guys have made a terrific first impression with their new clubs. Smith’s yardage total projects to 1,528 over 16 games. Sanders’ projects to 1514 (because Denver has played only five games). Tate (1,320) and Jackson (1,277) also are on pace for big years. So far, these free-agent dollars have been well spent – and hurray for that.  Too often they aren’t.

Smith, in fact, has a chance to become the first receiver in NFL history to have a 1,500-yard season with two different teams. Only a handful of wideouts have had even a 1,200-yard season with different two teams. The list:

RECEIVERS WHO’VE HAD A 1,200-YARD SEASON WITH TWO DIFFERENT CLUBS
Randy Moss 1,632, ’03 Vikings 1,493 ’07 Patriots
Henry Ellard 1,414, ’88 Rams 1,397, ’94 Redskins
Terrell Owens* 1,451, ’00 49ers 1,355, ’07 Cowboys
Brandon Marshall 1,508, ’12 Bears 1,325, ’07 Broncos
Irving Fryar 1,316, ’97 Eagles 1,270, ’94 Dolphins
Jerry Rice 1,848, ’95 49ers 1,211, ’02 Raiders
Laveranues Coles 1,264, ’02 Jets 1,204, ’03 Redskins

*Also had a 1,200-yard season with the Eagles in 2004.

(Note: If a receiver had multiple 1,200-yard seasons with a team, I listed his best season. Also, as you can see, Coles is the only one to do it in consecutive years. That’s what Jackson is trying to do this year. He had 1,332 receiving yards with the Eagles in 2013.)

Just missed:
Anquan Boldin 1,402, ’05 Cardinals 1,179, ’13 49ers
Keenan McCardell 1,207, ’00 Jaguars 1,174, ’03 Bucs
Keyshawn Johnson 1,266, ’01 Bucs 1,170, ’99 Jets

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The eternal John Riggins

Thirty years ago today, at the age of 35, John Riggins carried 32 times for 165 yards as the Redskins whipped the Cowboys, 34-14. Three decades later, his yardage total is still the highest for a 35-or-older back — by 21. Indeed, it’s reasonable to wonder whether his age-group records will ever be broken.

After all, it’s been a decade since a back that old rushed for even 100 yards in a game (the Cardinals’ Emmitt Smith, 106 vs. the Seahawks in 2004). In fact, since Riggins retired after the 1985 season, only Smith (twice) and Marcus Allen (also twice) have topped 100 after turning 35.

It’s so rare for a back to last that long — that is, and still be in decent working order. Tony Richardson played fullback for the Jets until he was 39, but he was a blocker, not a runner. Riggins at 35 was still a franchise back, spry enough to rush for 1,239 yards — almost all of them between the tackles — and to carry 20 times a game (327 in all).

Maybe it was the sabbatical year he took in 1980, when he held out for money and didn’t get it. Maybe that’s why Riggo was so good at such an advanced age. Or maybe it was just genes, an innate Kansas Farm Boy Indestructibility. Whatever the reason, we may never see his like again. So I thought I’d give him a shout-out on the 30th anniversary of one of his greatest games.

Since 1960, there have been only 14 100-yard rushing games by backs 35 or older. Riggins has eight of them. Nobody else has more than two. He was amazing then, and he’s amazing now.

MOST RUSHING YARDS IN A GAME BY A BACK 35 OR OLDER SINCE 1960

Date Running Back (Age),Team Opponent Att Yds TD
10-14-84 John Riggins (35), Redskins Cowboys 32 165 0
10-1-78 McArthur Lane (36), Chiefs Bills 17 144 0
9-23-84 John Riggins (35), Redskins Patriots 33 140 1
10-3-04 Emmitt Smith (35), Cardinals Saints 21 127 1
12-3-95 Marcus Allen (35), Chiefs Raiders 21 124 1
10-22-95 Marcus Allen (35), Chiefs Broncos 21 121 1
10-13-85 John Riggins (36), Redskins Lions 21 114 3
10-27-85 John Riggins (36), Redskins Browns 30 112 1
12-9-84 John Riggins (35), Redskins Cowboys 24 111 1
10-24-04 Emmitt Smith (35), Cardinals Seahawks 26 106 1

FYI: Riggins’ 1,239 rushing yards in ’84 are the most by a 35-or-older back by 302. (Next: Smith, ’04 Cardinals, 937.) And his 327 carries that season are the most by a 35-or-older back by 60. (Next: Smith, ’04 Cardinals, 267.)

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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DeMarco Murray and the Triple Crown

Every NFL season seems to produce a Statistical Phenomenon or two. So far in 2014, the Cowboys’ DeMarco Murray is That Guy. Let’s pray to the grid god that Murray gets to finish what he’s started, because what he’s started is pretty impressive.

Two weeks ago, when I first wrote about him, it was because he’d rushed for 100 yards in each of his first four games — something that had been done only six other times since 1960. Well, now he’s rushed for 100 yards in each of his first six games. No other back has done that since ’60.

Murray also is continuing to shoulder a heavy load. Through Week 4, he was on pace for 396 rushing attempts, which would be the seventh-highest total all time. But his 29 carries Sunday in Dallas’ 30-23 road shocker over the Seahawks put him on a 424 pace. That’s eight more the record of 416, set by the Chiefs’ Larry Johnson in 2006.

In addition, Murray has had 180 touches (rushing attempts plus receptions) in his first six games. Only three backs since ’60 have had more. The Top 5:

MOST TOUCHES BY A RUNNING BACK IN THE FIRST 6 GAMES SINCE 1960

Year Running Back, Team Rush Rec Total
2000 Eddie George, Titans 165 20 185
2000 Ricky Williams, Dolphins 155 27 182
2002 Priest Holmes, Chiefs 143 38 181
2014 DeMarco Murray, Cowboys 159 21 180
1985 James Wilder, Bucs 144 35 179

Wilder, by the way, holds the mark for touches in a season: a superhuman 492 in 1984. Murray projects to 480 (an average of 30 a game). That would be the second-best total in NFL history. As I’ve said before, though, high-volume seasons like that aren’t usually conducive to long-term productivity. Dallas coach Jason Garrett needs to be mindful of the Burnout Factor.

Still, it would nice to see Murray take a run at the Triple Crown — leading the league (or tying for the lead) in rushing yards, per-carry average and rushing touchdowns. It’s a feat that’s been accomplished by just six modern backs, five of whom are in the Hall of Fame. The short list:

RUNNING BACK TRIPLE CROWNS SINCE WORLD WAR II

Year Running Back, Team Rush Yds Avg TD
1998 Terrell Davis, Broncos    2,008 5.1 21
1980 Earl Campbell*, Houston Oilers    1,934 5.2 13
1977 Walter Payton*, Bears    1,852 5.5 14
1975 O.J. Simpson*, Bills    1,817 5.5 16
1967 Leroy Kelly*, Browns    1,205 5.1 11
1963 Jim Brown*, Browns    1,863 6.4 12

(Brown led by a comfortable margin in each category – in rushing by 845 yards, in average by 1.4 and in TDs by 3.)

* Hall of Famer

Murray leads NFL rushers with 785 yards and six TDs, but he has some work to do on his 4.9-yard average. The No. 1 guy in that department through six games, the Ravens’ Justin Forsett, is averaging 6.4 on 64 carries.

A Triple Crown is just incredibly hard to pull off. Consider: Seven backs have rushed for 2,000 yards in a season, but only one of them – Davis – won the Triple Crown. LaDainian Tomlinson couldn’t do it in a year (2006) he led the league in rushing (1,815) and scored a record 32 touchdowns, 28 on the ground (2006). Brown couldn’t do it in a year (1958) he broke the season rushing mark by 381 yards (with 1,527), ran for nearly twice as many scores as anybody else in the league (17 to the runner-up’s 9) and had a per-carry average of 5.9 (which ranked a mere fourth).

What makes it even more difficult is that quarterbacks have led the league in rushing average three of the past four seasons (Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III) and seven times in the 2000s. Let’s face it, quarterback yards are different from running back yards. For one thing, QBs have more room to roam.

Still, some running back someday will have a monster year and become the seventh member of the Triple Crown Club. And if it doesn’t happen to be Murray, he’ll have plenty of illustrious backs to keep him company.

Note: The Chargers’ Paul Lowe also had a Triple Crown in the pre-Super Bowl AFL: 1,121 rushing yards, 6 touchdowns (tie) and a 5-yard average (edging the Chiefs’ Mack Lee Hill by .03) in 1965. If you want to count that, too, be my guest. I’m inclined to exclude those years, even though the NFL record book doesn’t. The two leagues just weren’t comparable — yet.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Paul Hornung’s forgotten streak

On this day in 1961, Paul Hornung did something that hasn’t been done since — and probably won’t be done again. The Hall of Fame running back, who doubled as a kicker, scored the Packers’ first 31 points in a 45-7 beatdown of the Colts. The highlights of his epic performance:

That was from a ’70s game show, by the way, hosted by Dick Enberg called “Sports Challenge.” The episode you were watching pitted three Packers (Hornung, offensive guard Jerry Kramer and Hall of Fame defensive end Willie Davis) against a team of Dallas Cowboys (quarterbacks Don Meredith and Eddie LeBaron and receiver Frank Clarke). All of them were retired by then (1972, I’m guessing).

Many of the questions were easy — nobody wanted to make the contestants look bad — but it was still funny to see how little some of them knew about the history of their own sports, never mind other sports. (Even recent history . . . like the previous season.)

But getting back to Hornung, he was one of the last of a breed: an offensive star who also kicked. There were a plenty of them in pro football’s first few decades, when rosters were smaller and players had to multitask. By the late ’50s, though, you started to see more and more kicking specialists, guys who did nothing else (except maybe punt, like the 49ers’ Tommy Davis). Paul managed to hold out as a two-way threat through the 1964 season, at which point coach Vince Lombardi replaced him with Don Chandler.

As you saw in the clip, Hornung could do it all — run, catch, kick and, because he’d been a quarterback at Notre Dame, even throw the occasional option pass. (That was the “run-pass option” Enberg referred to on the last touchdown, when Paul decided to run.) As a result, he scored tons of points for those great Packers teams — a record 176 in 12 games in 1960 (since topped only by LaDainian Tomlinson’s 186 in 16 games for the Chargers in 2006), 146 the next season (also in 12 games) and 31 straight that afternoon against the Colts (whose defense, let’s not forget, featured Hall of Fame linemen Gino Marchetti and Art Donovan).

Hornung’s consecutive-points streak was actually 32, because he’d booted the PAT after Green Bay’s final score the previous week. Think about it: What would it take for somebody to do that today? Answer: Kick 11 field goals — with no intervening touchdowns or safeties. It’s possible, certainly, but nobody has come close to pulling it off. In 2007, for instance, the Bengals’ Shayne Graham booted seven field goals to score all of his team’s points in a 21-7 win over the Ravens. But that was pretty much the extent of his streak (22, counting a point-after the game before).

Indeed, I’ve come across just five examples since World War II of players scoring 20 or more points in a game and having it be all the points their club scored. The list:

PLAYERS WHO SCORED ALL OF THEIR TEAM’S POINTS IN A GAME (20+)*

Date Player, Team Opponent Pts How he scored
11-19-50 RB Doak Walker, Lions Packers 24 3 TD catches, 3 PAT, 1 FG
11-11-07 K Shayne Graham, Bengals Ravens 21 7 field goals
11-18-96 K Chris Boniol, Cowboys Packers 21 7 field goals
12-8-62 FB Cookie Gilchrist, Bills (AFL) N.Y. Titans 20 2 TD runs, 2 PAT, 2 FG
12-1-46 FB Ted Fritsch, Packers Redskins 20 3 TD runs, 2 PAT

*Since World War II.

(People forget what a talent Gilchrist was. Besides leading the league in rushing that season with 1,096 yards, he kicked eight field goals and 14 extra points.)

Still, the record for most consecutive points doesn’t belong to Hornung. No, it’s the property of another Hall of Famer, Chicago Cardinals back Ernie Nevers, who scored 59 straight over five days (Sunday/Thanksgiving Day) in 1929 — 19 vs. the Dayton Triangles and 40 vs. the Bears. (The latter, incidentally, remains the mark for points in a game.

Several other consecutive-points streaks in the ’20s also were longer than Hornung’s. Nevers had another lengthy streak — 47 points — in 1926, Hall of Famer Paddy Driscoll of the Cardinals Nevers' 40-point game storyscored at least 44 straight (there’s some uncertainty) in ’23 and Hank Gillo of the Racine (Wis.) Legion had a 43-point run in ’24.

Then there’s the streak put together by Ralph Kercheval of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934 and ’35. That one might be the most remarkable of all. Over a span of eight games in those two seasons, Kercheval, a running back-kicker, scored every one of the Dodgers’ points — all, uh, 34. (Brooklyn didn’t exactly have a dynamic offense.) He extended his run to 40 the next week with two field goals, but then teammate Red Franklin ended it with a rushing touchdown. Hard as it is to believe — even for those low-scoring times — Kercheval’s streak (three touchdowns, six field goals, 4 PATs) lasted almost a year. It began Oct. 28, 1934 and ended Oct. 6, 1935.

It’s easy to cast aspersions on the early NFL. It was, after all, a much different game. But there’s one thing players did back then that today’s heroes will never match: score large numbers of points consecutively.

Hey, it’s something. One last screengrab:

Walker's 24-point day, 1950

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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