Tag Archives: Packers

Joe Morgan: Bang for the touch

If you’re a frequenter of this site, you know I’m always on the lookout for the oddball game — the “snowflake.” Saints wide receiver Joe Morgan had one of the all timers Monday night against the Ravens.

Here’s what Morgan did the first time he touched the ball:

And here’s what he did the second time he touched the ball: That’s it. There was no third time he touched the ball. He finished with one rush for 67 yards and one reception for 62. Do the math and you get 129 yards from scrimmage — again, on two touches. That’s insane. It’s also something no one else has done since at least 1960.

In fact, only eight other players in that period have had even a 20-yard gain both rushing and receiving, never mind a 60-yarder, in a two-touch game. It’s just really unusual. (Note: I’ve excluded anybody who might have returned a punt or kickoff in the same game. I’m being strict about this: two touches — period.)

ONE RUSH FOR 20+ YARDS, ONE RECEPTION FOR 20+ YARDS IN A GAME

Date	Player, Team	Opponent	Rush	Catch	Total
11-24-14	WR Joe Morgan,Saints	Ravens	67	62	129
12-12-71	WR Mel Gray, Cardinals	Eagles	38	80*	118
9-3-95	WR Leslie Shepherd, Redskins	Cardinals	26	73*	99
10-1-00	WR Eddie Kennison, Bears	Packers	52	21	73
12-17-60	RB Nyle McFarlane, Raiders	Broncos	23	49*	72
11-2-03	WR Donald Driver, Packers	Vikings	45	26	71
11-15-09	WR Robert Meachem, Saints	Rams	41	27*	68
11-10-96	WR Rocket Ismail, Panthers	Giants	35	30	65
11-2-80	WR Leonard Thompson, Lions	49ers	30	30	60

*touchdown

(In a 1981 game against the Saints, the Cardinals’ Roy Green had one rush for 44 yards, one reception for 28 and one interception for 29. A performance like that certainly deserves mention, even if the pick disqualifies him from this list.)

What makes Morgan’s night all the sweeter is that touches have been so rare for him in his two NFL seasons. He’s had just 14 — 12 catches, 2 rushes. But he’s gotten a lot of yardage out of those opportunities, including 10 gains of more than 25 yards. Average gain on receptions and rushes combined: 36.9 yards (14/516).

Nobody does that. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joe Morgan.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The Saints’ Joe Morgan doing what he does best, making big plays.

A touchdown a quarter

Everybody’s in love with the Jonas Gray story this week, and who can blame them? Few things are more fun than seeing a guy who’s worked his way up from the practice squad — in his case, multiple practice squads — have a breakout game on a national stage. And Gray’s 201-yard, four-touchdown performance in the Patriots’ 42-20 erasure of the Colts was certainly a stunner. (It made you grateful for names on the backs of jerseys, just so you could keep reminding yourself who was doing all this damage.)

A performance like that tends to produce a bunch of cool stats. Here’s one: Gray scored a TD in every quarter, making him one of just a dozen players to do that since the 1970 merger. (Note: In the chart below, the numbers represent yards, R = run and P = pass reception.)

PLAYERS WHO SCORED A TD IN EVERY QUARTER OF A GAME SINCE 1970

Date	Player, Team	Opponent	1st Q	2nd Q	3rd Q	4th Q
11-16-14	RB Jonas Gray, Patriots	Colts	4R	2R	2R	1R
10-29-06	RB Larry Johnson, Chiefs	Seahawks	3R	9P	2R	3R
12-14-03	WR Joe Horn, Saints	Giants	50P	13P	7P	18P
12-7-03	RB Clinton Portis, Broncos	Chiefs	11R	1R	59R	28R, 53R
12-18-00	RB Marshall Faulk, Rams	Bucs	2R	16R	27P	9R
10-29-00	RB Marshall Faulk, Rams	49ers	1R	1R	19P	16P
9-4-95	RB Emmitt Smith, Cowboys	Giants	60R	1R	1R	1R
11-24-94	WR Sterling Sharpe, Packers	Cowboys	1P	36P	30P	5P
10-14-90	WR Jerry Rice, 49ers	Falcons	24P, 25P	19P	13P	15P
9-7-80	WR Earnest Gray, Giants	Cardinals	10P	37P	42P	20P
9-16-79	RB Clarence Williams, Chargers	Bills	5R	1R	55R	2R
10-23-77	RB Wayne Morris, Cardinals	Saints	2R	9R	1R	12R

Would you look at Marshall Faulk? He did it twice in six games. (He missed two after his first four-touchdown day.) And really, who can get enough Clarence Williams in these charts? I know I can’t. I just wish it was the same Clarence Williams who played Linc on Mod Squad.

By the way, you know who else accomplished the feat — before the merger? Cowboys running back Dan Reeves.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Jonas Gray, the Patriots’ off-the-practice-squad rookie, got to do this in every quarter Monday night.

Here’s the kicker

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.

A brief summary of his travels:

● 2010 – Ravens (cut before season), Giants (1 game), Patriots (8).

● 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.

Too much, too fast?

The stories said Aaron Rodgers threw six touchdown passes in the first half Sunday night to tie the NFL/AFL record. Actually, it was better than that — or worse, depending on your point of view.

If you want to be exact about it, Rodgers threw for six scores in 20 minutes, 59 seconds in the Packers’ 55-14 blowout of the Bears. That’s quite a bit less than a half. It went like this:

1. 6:13 left, first quarter: 1-yard TD to TE Brandon Bostick.

2. 3:53, first quarter: 4-yard TD to TE Andrew Quarless.

3. 14:48, second quarter: 73-yard TD to WR Jordy Nelson.

4. 12:09, second quarter: 40-yard TD to Nelson.

5. 4:48, second quarter: 56-yard TD to RB Eddie Lacy.

6. 0:14, second quarter: 18-yard TD to WR Randall Cobb.

Consider: The record for a game is seven, and it’s been done only seven times. But Rodgers threw six in barely a third of a game. I know the Bears played atrocious defense, but is this a really good thing? Is it good that the rules are now so pro-passer that a QB can toss six touchdown passes in a tick less than 21 minutes?

After all, earlier in the day, Peyton Manning had thrown five in just 16:43 in the Broncos’ 41-17 scrimmage against the Raiders. His timeline looked like this:

1. 2:44 left, second quarter: 51-yard TD to RB C.J. Anderson.

2. 0:28, second quarter: 32-yard TD to WR Emmanuel Sanders.

3. 12:43, third quarter: 10-yard TD to TE Julius Thomas.

4. 6:52, third quarter: 32-yard TD to Thomas.

5. 1:01, third quarter: 15-yard TD to Sanders.

Granted, the Raiders, like the Bears, have one of the worst defenses in the league, but this is still a bit much. The game has gotten out of whack, if you ask me. And the way things are going, it’s only going to get out-of-whacker.

My favorite stat might be this: Together, Rodgers and Manning threw for 11 scores in 37:42. Now that’s what I’m looking forward to — the 11-TD game.

The only other quarterback to toss six touchdown passes in a half is the Raiders’ Daryle “The Mad Bomber” Lamonica in this battering of the Bills in 1969, the last year of the AFL. According to the Oakland Tribune, four of Lamonica’s TDs came in just six offensive plays during an eight-minute stretch of the second quarter.

“The [Buffalo] turnovers were coming so rapidly that [wide receiver] Warren Wells dashed onto the field without his helmet, so anxious was he to get in on the fun,” the Tribune said. “He was stopped by an official, more than Buffalo could do to him.”

Lamonica’s first half numbers: 24 attempts, 17 completions, 275 yards, 6 touchdowns. That’s awfully close to Rodgers’ 24-18-315-6 line.

The timeline of The Mad Bomber’s scoring tosses:

1. 12:53 left, first quarter: 53-yard TD to TE Billy Cannon.

2. 0:46, first quarter: 10-yard TD to RB Pete Banaszak.

3. 12:54, second quarter: 1-yard TD to Banaszak.

4. 12:17, second quarter: 13-yard TD to Wells.

5. 9:04, second quarter: 16-yard TD to WR Fred Biletnikoff.

6. 4:33, second quarter: 23-yard TD to Biletnikoff.

For those of you scoring at home, that’s six touchdown passes in 23:20 (to Rodgers’ 20:59).

But get this: Lamonica came close to throwing seven in the first half. The Tribune said he “fell six yards short of equaling the pro record of seven in a game when [wide receiver] Drew Buie was carried out of bounds short of the end zone on a 37-yard completion on the last play before the half.”

There was a funny sidelight to The Mad Bomber’s big day, by the way. The backstory: The year before, a crucial game between the Raiders and Jets had run long, and NBC made the infamous decision to cut away from it in the final minutes so it could begin airing the children’s movie Heidi on time. It was a public relations disaster for the network, even though it returned to the game before it was over (after being swamped with phone calls from irate fans).

Anyway, NBC had planned to follow the Raiders-Bills game with Heidi again, but there was no way it was going to make the same mistake twice. When the game spilled over into the next time slot — by eight minutes — the network stuck with it until the end. Only then was Heidi allowed to prance across the television screen.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The Bears exhume the Rochester Jeffersons

Any day’s a good day when the Rochester Jeffersons get resurrected. The Bears did that Sunday when they lost to the Packers, 55-14 — after getting pasted in their previous outing by the Patriots, 51-23. This made them the first team since the 1923 Jeffersons to give up 50 points in consecutive games. How’s that for an accomplishment?

There isn’t much to remember about the NFL’s Rochester franchise. Though a charter member of the league in 1920, it lasted only six seasons and didn’t win a game in its last four, going 0-21-2. The low point was those back-to-back shellackings in the first two games of ’23 – 60-0 to the Chicago Cardinals and 56-0 to the Rock Island (Ill.) Independents. The man who managed (and sometimes coached) the Jeffersons, a paint manufacturer named Leo Lyons, simply didn’t have the money or material to compete with most clubs.

There’s an interesting connection between the Bears and Jeffs, as they were called. Before George Halas hooked up with the Staley Starch Co. in Decatur, Ill., and launched the Bears (originally the Decatur Staleys), he inquired about playing for the Rochester team. As Lyons told The Associated Press in 1960: “He asked for $75 a game. I didn’t know anything about him, and besides, I had two good ends. The league rule was that no club could have more than 18 players.”

So George made history someplace else.

“It was rough going,” Lyons said. “I hung on until 1925, but I lost everything and had to go back to my business. In 1921 I wrote to John McGraw of the New York [baseball] Giants and Ed Barrow of the Yankees – both teams were using the Polo Grounds then – trying to interest them in transferring the Jeffs to New York. They replied that professional football would never be a success there, and they were going to stop college teams from using the Polo Grounds as the cleats tore up the turf.”

The Football Giants, of course, called the Polo Grounds home for years (1925-55) before moving to Yankee Stadium and later the Meadowlands.

Here’s the headline from The Davenport Democrat and Leader after Rock Island ran over Rochester:

From the sound of things, the game was a lot like the one between the Bears and Packers. The Independents unleashed a dazzling passing attack and threw “the wind-filled bag” all over the lot (which was hardly the norm in those conservative days). Indeed, if they hadn’t eased up a bit and run the ball in the third quarter — which was scoreless — their point total might have been in the 70s. According to the newspaper story, “The Independents didn’t have to boot [punt] the ball during the entire game.”

Lyons never lost his love for pro football, even if he did lose his house at one point trying to keep the Jeffersons afloat. In later years, the New York license plate on his car read: “NFL 1.” “Never in my wildest dreams did I think the game would grow to what it is today,” he said in 1972.

He probably wouldn’t have believed, either, that one Sunday in 2014, the club founded by an end who once asked him for a job would bring the Rochester Jeffersons back to life.

Runnin’ Russell Wilson

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

Tobin Rote demonstrates the stiff arm.

Cunningham in this game.

Rote might not have been a great quarterback, but he’s a fascinating one. In 1956, for instance, his first Pro Bowl season, he threw for 18 touchdowns (most in the league by six) and ran for 11 (second only to Bears fullback Rick Casares, who had 12). In all, he accounted for 29 of Green Bay’s 34 offensive TDs. That’s outrageous.

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.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Former NFL quarterbacks as head coaches

The rumblings are getting louder that Jim Harbaugh is on the way out in San Francisco. Jerry Rice is the most recent member of the Niners Family to pipe up. “I have heard some complaints from some players that he likes to try to coach with the collegiate mentality,” the Hall of Fame wideout told Newsday’s Bob Glauber, “and that’s just not going to work in the NFL.”

Boy, that’s a tough crowd in the Bay Area. Harbaugh takes over a team that has missed the playoffs eight years running, guides it to three straight NFC title games and one Super Bowl, and folks are starting to dump on him because (a.) the 49ers are off to a 4-4 start, and (b.) his coaching style is unorthodox by NFL standards.

His “collegiate mentality” has worked just fine up to now — unless you’re going to argue that it was his “collegiate mentality” that caused Kyle Williams to mishandle punts in the 2011

Jim Harbaugh in full throat.

conference championship game, or that it was his “collegiate mentality” that kept his offense from putting the ball in the end zone late in Super Bowl 47, or that it was his “collegiate mentality” that prevented the Niners from winning a fourth consecutive game on the road at the end of last season (formidable Arizona to finish the regular season, then Green Bay, Carolina and Seattle in the playoffs).

Yeah, that “collegiate mentality” is just a killer.

But that’s not the subject of this post. It’s just my way of beginning this post. The subject of this post is: former NFL quarterbacks who become head coaches in the league — and how Harbaugh is one of the few who have experienced much success. Going into Sunday’s game, he’s 45-18-1, postseason included. That’s a .711 winning percentage, far better than most ex-QBs have done.

If there’s anything we’ve learned over the years, it’s that former NFL QBs — despite their inherent genius, sixth sense, Pattonesque leadership ability and whatever other bouquets were tossed their way during their playing days — have no Special Insight into the game. They’re just as capable of turning out losing teams as the next guy, maybe more so.

Check out the regular-season records of the five modern Hall of Fame quarterbacks who have become head coaches in the league:

HALL OF FAME NFL QUARTERBACKS AS HEAD COACHES

Quarterback, Played For*	Coached	W-L-T	Pct
Sammy Baugh, Redskins	1960-61 N.Y Titans, ’64 Oilers	18-24-0	.429
Bob Waterfield, Rams	1960-62 Rams	9-24-1	.279
Norm Van Brocklin, Rams	1961-66 Vikings, ’68-74 Falcons	66-100-7	.402
Otto Graham, Browns	1966-68 Redskins	17-22-3	.440
Bart Starr, Packers	1975-83 Packers	52-76-3	.408

*Team he played for longest.

I’ll say it for you: Yikes. Of these five, only Starr coached a club to the playoffs – in the nine-game ’82 strike season.

Lesser-known quarterbacks, it turns out, have done a lot better on the sideline — though, again, none has been Vince Lombardi. Their regular-season records look like this:

HOW OTHER FORMER NFL QUARTERBACKS HAVE FARED AS HEAD COACHES

Quarterback, Played For*	Coached	W-L-T	Pct
Jim Harbaugh, Bears	2011-14 49ers	40-15-1	.723
John Rauch, N.Y. Bulldogs	1966-68 Raiders, ’69-70 Bills	40-28-2	.586
Frankie Albert, 49ers	1956-58 49ers	19-16-1	.542
Jason Garrett, Cowboys	2010-14 Cowboys	35-30-0	.538
Tom Flores, Raiders	1979-87 Raiders, ’92-94 Seahawks	97-87-0	.527
Allie Sherman, Eagles	1961-68 Giants	57-51-4	.527
Ted Marchibroda, Steelers	1975-79/’92-95 Colts,’96-98 Ravens	87-98-1	.470
Gary Kubiak, Broncos	2006-13 Texans	61-64-0	.488
Sam Wyche, Bengals	1984-91 Bengals, ’92-95 Bucs	84-107-0	.440
Harry Gilmer, Redskins	1965-66 Lions	10-16-2	.393
June Jones, Falcons	1994-96 Falcons, ’98 Chargers	22-36-0	.379
Steve Spurrier, 49ers	2002-03 Redskins	12-20-0	.375
Jim Zorn, Seahawks	2008-09 Redskins	12-20-0	.375
Kay Stephenson, Bills	1983-85 Bills	10-26-0	.278
Frank Filchock, Redskins	1960-61 Broncos	7-20-1	.268

*Team he played for longest.

If you want to add the Saints’ Sean Payton (77-43, .642), a replacement quarterback during the ’87 strike, to this list, be my guest. To me, he was a pseudo-NFL QB, but . . . whatever.

Anyway, this group at least has had its moments. Flores won two Super Bowls (1980/’83), Rauch (’67) and Wyche (’88) led teams to the Super Bowl, Sherman’s Giants went to three straight NFL title games (1961-63) and Marchibroda came within a Hail Mary of getting to the Super Bowl with the ’95 Colts (with — you’ve gotta love this — Harbaugh throwing the pass).

Obviously, this is a small sample size. Most former NFL quarterbacks, after all, don’t become coaches, don’t want to deal with the aggravation. They’d much rather pontificate about the game from a broadcast booth or TV studio — or cash in on their celebrity in the business world. And who’s to say that doesn’t make them smarter than the ones who so willingly hurl themselves back into the arena?

Still, Harbaugh, “collegiate mentality” and all, might be the best the league has seen. Does anybody really think, if he leaves the 49ers after this season to coach at his alma mater, Michigan, that pro football will be better for it?

Source: pro-football-reference.com

Harbaugh gets ready to uncork one for the Colts.

Streak-struck

There are two kinds of streaks in sports: the real kind, which go on without interruption, and the regular-season kind, which are suspended for the playoffs and resume — the player hopes — the next year. In Sunday’s 43-21 loss to the Patriots, the Broncos’ Peyton Manning threw two touchdown passes for the 14^th straight regular-season game to set an NFL record.

“Going into the game,” The Associated Press reported, “Manning had two 13-game streaks with at least two touchdown passes, and Tom Brady of the Patriots and Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers each had one.”

Of course, if postseason games were included, then that paragraph would have read differently. Brady (2010-11) and Rodgers (the same two seasons) have both had 14-game streaks counting the playoffs – and Manning’s current run of 14 games would only be eight games (since he threw for just one TD in the Super Bowl against the Broncos).

I’m not trying to bust anybody’s chops here. I totally get why the NFL separates the regular season from the postseason for record-keeping purposes. In the playoffs, after all, you’re going up against the best teams every week. They’re not Typical Games.

But I do wish the league paid as much attention to Real Streaks as it does Regular-Season Streaks. I mean, what’s the harm? All it would cost is a few extra pages in the record book. And the benefit is obvious: You’d be acknowledging some performances that might otherwise be overlooked. Better still, you’d be letting the fans decide for themselves whether one streak is better than another.

My reason for bringing this up is that Johnny Unitas threw two touchdown passes or more in 13 consecutive games in 1959 — the Colts’ 12 regular-season games, plus the title game against the Giants. That’s as long as any Real Streak Manning has had. (Peyton had a 13-gamer to start 2004, when he tossed 49 TD passes.)

You know who else had a 13-gamer? Dandy Don Meredith with the Cowboys in 1965 (the last nine games) and ’66 (the first four). I’m still not sure why Meredith was left out of AP’s story. His was strictly a regular-season streak, unlike Johnny U.’s.

Here are the game-by-game breakdowns for Unitas’ and Meredith’s streaks. Given the times — and the less-passer-friendly rules — who’s to say their runs weren’t greater those of Manning, Brady and Rodgers?

UNITAS’ 13-GAME STREAK (1959)

Opponent	TD
Lions	2
Bears	3
Lions	3
Bears	2
Packers	3
Browns	4
Redskins	2
Packers	3
49ers	2
Rams	2
49ers	3
Rams	3
Giants*	2
Total	34

*championship game

MEREDITH’S 13-GAME STREAK (1965-66)

Opponent	TD
Browns	2
Steelers	2
49ers	2
Steelers	2
Browns	2
Redskins	2
Eagles	2
Cardinals	3
Giants	3
Giants	5
Vikings	2
Falcons	2
Eagles	5
Total	34

Note that each threw for exactly 34 scores during the streak. Unitas’ 32 TD passes in the regular season broke the NFL record of 28 set by the Bears’ Sid Luckman in 1943. Johnny U.’s Colts, by the way, won the title that year, and Meredith quarterbacked the Cowboys to the championship game in ’66.

There’s little chance the NFL and its record-keepers will ever come around on this issue, but that won’t stop me from bugging them about it from time to time. That said, something tells me Unitas, were he alive today, probably wouldn’t care much about such a record, being an old schooler and all. In fact, if you ever brought the matter up to him, he’d probably give you a look like this:

Source: pro-football-reference.com

College vs. pro

Someday I’ll write a post about Things College Football Players Can Do That Pro Players Can’t (such as throw for 734 yards in a game — only 180 more than Norm Van Brocklin’s 63-year-old record).

The idea dawned on me yesterday while reading about Oklahoma’s 59-14 steamrolling of Iowa State. One of the Sooners’ more impressive stats was this: “Trevor Knight became the first FBS player this season to throw three TD passes and rush for three touchdowns in a game.”*

This got me wondering about whether any NFL quarterbacks had accomplished such a feat. Had Michael Vick ever had a day like that? Randall Cunningham? Bobby Douglass?

A quick trip to pro-football-reference.com brought me the answer: No. Since 1960, at least, no QB has done that. More than a few have come close — 14 have passed for three scores and rushed for two (last: the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers vs. the Broncos in 2011), and two have passed for two and rushed for three (last: the Raiders’ Daunte Culpepper vs. the Dolphins in ’07), but there have been no 3/3 Guys.

Undeterred, I began spot-checking some running quarterbacks from earlier years. Tobin Rote? No. Bobby Layne? No. Otto Graham? Ah-hah. And here’s the kicker: The Browns’ Hall of Famer did it in the 1954 championship game against Layne’s Lions. Otto threw for TDs of 35, 8 and 31 yards and ran for scores of 1, 5 and 1 as Cleveland clobbered Detroit, 56-10.

This is from Chuck Heaton’s game story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (Heaton, by the way, was the father of Patricia Heaton, who played Ray Romano’s wife on “Everybody Loves Raymond.”)

Graham, who expects to wind up his grid activity with the Hula and Pro Bowl games next month, re-established himself as the No. 1 man at his position with his passing and running. Otto, an insurance man and part owner of a commercial sales business in the off-season, ran with all the enthusiasm of his collegiate days at Northwestern on his three scoring bursts.

The 33-year-old T-master sneaked a foot for Cleveland’s third touchdown, went five yards around his own right end on a bootleg for the fourth. He opened the second-half scoring with another plunge from the one-foot line, which killed off any slight hope remaining for the sizable Detroit aggregation on hand to see the Lions bid for an unprecedented third straight pro title.

That’s the other thing. This was supposed to be Graham’s last game. He’d already announced his intention to retire. But he changed his mind the following summer and led the Browns to one last title. In that championship game, against the Rams, he only passed for three touchdowns and rushed for two.

Anyway, it’s comforting to know an NFL quarterback has matched Knight’s feat, even if it was 60 years ago.

*Amazingly, by the end of the day, Notre Dame’s Everett Golson had done the same thing against Navy.

Source: pro-football-reference.com

The shelf life of a QB

Tom Brady broached the subject a few days before the Patriots’ season opener. Asked when he planned to retire, he told a Boston radio station, WEEI: “When I suck. . . . But I don’t plan on sucking for a long time.”

And make no mistake, when Brady starts to suck, he’ll be the first to admit it — like he did after his no-touchdown, two-pick performance in the 2011 AFC title game:

Brady’s remark resonated with Peyton Manning. “That’s a pretty good line,” he said. “I’m kind of the same feel. I don’t have a set number. . . . Yeah, right until you suck — I think that’s a pretty good rule right there.”

With the Patriots and Broncos meeting in Foxboro on Sunday — Brady and Manning’s 16^th get-together — it might be a good time to explore the idea of, well, quarterbacks sucking. Bill Simmons touched on it toward the end of his column the other day for Grantland.

“Could a quarterback really play at an All-Pro level at 40 and beyond?” he wrote. “Seems insane. Absolutely insane.

“But with the current rules, why not? Why couldn’t Manning AND Brady knock down that 40-and-over door?”

Actually, the 40-and-over door has already been knocked down. Five years ago, Brett Favre turned 40 in Week 5 and went on to lead the Vikings to the NFC championship game. In fact, he went on to lead them to overtime of the NFC championship game. That’s how close he came to the Super Bowl. It was arguably his greatest season, one that saw him throw 33 touchdown passes, a career-low seven interceptions and post a career-high 107.2 passer rating. And Favre, I’ll just remind you, was the most high-mileage 40-year-old quarterback in history. He’d never missed a start.

So for Manning, 38, and Brady, 37, the bar has already been set. And good luck to both of them trying to match those numbers, should they still be ambulatory at that age. Here’s the short list of quarterbacks who’ve had 30 TD passes, fewer than 10 picks and a 100 rating in a season.

Before Favre there was Warren Moon. In 1997 with the Seahawks, at the ages of 40/41, Moon threw for 25 touchdowns — fifth in the league — in 15 starts and was voted MVP of the Pro Bowl. He was four years older than anybody else in the game.

And let’s not forget the Geezer To End All Geezers. George Blanda was 43 when he put the Raiders on his back for five weeks in 1970 and carried them to four wins and tie — yes, ties

George Blanda, armed and dangerous.

mattered in those days — with his passing and kicking. Granted, he wasn’t the regular quarterback, but three times he came off the bench and threw for crucial TDs. His heroics earned him the Bert Bell Award as the NFL’s Player of the Year.

(When he won POY award, by the way, George said he planned to continue playing “as long as I can contribute to the Raiders’ success and meet with the approval of coaches.” That was the ’70s version, I guess, of “until I suck.”)

Anyway, there you have it: Blanda, Moon, Favre. The “40-and-over door” has already ripped off its hinges. The only question is whether Brady and Manning can outperform these ageless wonders. (And even if they do, George can always say, “Yeah, but did either of them boot a 52-yard field goal with three seconds left to give his team the victory?”)

It is true, though, that, up to now, very few NFL quarterbacks have thrown a pass in their 40s — a mere 17. And just six of them have thrown as many as 100 (Favre, Moon, Vinny Testaverde, Vince Evans, Sonny Jurgensen and Len Dawson). So if Brady and/or Manning manage to have several productive seasons in their 40s, they’ll be breaking new ground.

Indeed, only 10 QBs have thrown as many as 100 passes at the age of 39. Here’s that list. (Note I said “at the age of 39,” not the year “the year they turned 39.” For some guys, “the age of 39” straddles two seasons.)

MOST PASSES THROWN AT THE AGE OF 39

Year(s)	Quarterback, Team(s)	Att	Comp	Pct	Yds	TD	Int	Rating
2008-09	Brett Favre, Jets/Vikings	523	341	65.2	3,374	18	19	79.6
1995-96	Warren Moon, Vikings	469	277	59.1	3,389	23	14	85.3
2001	Doug Flutie, Chargers	345	191	55.4	2,155	9	15	64.8
1974	Len Dawson, Chiefs	235	138	58.7	1,573	7	13	65.8
1993	Steve DeBerg, Bucs/Dolphins	227	136	59.9	1,707	7	10	75.3
1966-67	George Blanda, Oilers/Raiders	219	95	43.4	1,463	13	19	49.7
2002-03	Vinny Testaverde, Jets	199	124	62.3	1,399	7	2	90.8
1972	Johnny Unitas, Colts	157	88	56.1	1,111	4	6	70.8
1960-61	Charlie Conerly, Giants	155	75	48.4	1,029	8	9	63.1
1973	Sonny Jurgensen, Redskins	145	87	60.0	904	6	5	77.5

Manning, of course, will be 39 next season. Brady is two years away. It’s hard to believe, the way they’ve been playing, that they’ll suck by then. It’s more an issue of: Will they still be upright? In the NFL, even with all the safety measures in place, there are no guarantees.

PRO FOOTBALL DALY

The whole 100 yards — and sometimes the end zones, too.

Tag Archives: Packers

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Here’s the kicker

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MEREDITH’S 13-GAME STREAK (1965-66)

College vs. pro

The shelf life of a QB

MOST PASSES THROWN AT THE AGE OF 39