Tag: Badgers in NFL

Jonathan Taylor wins the NFL rushing title

Jonathan Taylor is the first Wisconsin Badgers running back to win the NFL rushing title since Alan Ameche did it in 1955.

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It was a historic sophomore campaign for Indianapolis Colts star running back Jonathan Taylor. The two-time Doak Walker award winner can now add another achievement to his lengthy list of career milestones.

The former Badger finished the regular season having carried the ball 332 times for 1,810 rushing yards, as he took home the NFL rushing title in 2021.

Taylor’s rushing total was good for the 22nd most rushing yards in NFL history for a single season.

Taylor became the first Wisconsin Badgers running back to win the NFL rushing title since Alan Ameche in 1955.

The New Jersey native became the Indianapolis Colts new single-season rushing record holder, surpassing Edgerrin James in a record that stood for over two decades.

Taylor also finished with the most fan-votes among all NFL players for this year’s Pro-Bowl.

In total, the former Badger racked up 2,171 total yards from scrimmage across 17 games.

 

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Jonathan Taylor sets Indianapolis Colts single season rushing record

Jonathan Taylor made Indianapolis Colts history on Sunday

On Sunday, former Wisconsin Badgers running back Jonathan Taylor became the Indianapolis Colts new single-season rushing record holder.

Jonathan Taylor carried the ball 20 times for 108 yards, giving him 1,733 rushing yards for the season.

His new rushing total now puts him in sole possession of the Indianapolis Colts single season rushing title – surpassing the likes of Eric Dickerson  (1, 659), and Edgerrin James (1,709).

Entering today’s game, the Colts were 9-0 in games that Taylor had rushed for 100+ yards, and 0-6 in games he was held under that rushing total.

That finally changed this afternoon when Indianapolis lost 23-20 to the Las Vegas Raiders.

The former two-time Doak Walker award winner has heard his name mentioned in the MVP conversation, and while it’s unlikely that he’ll win, it speaks to how impressive he’s been in his sophomore campaign.

It’s also worth mentioning that Jonathan Taylor was also the leading vote-getter among fans for this year’s Pro Bowl.

The former Wisconsin Badgers superstar is now doing on Sunday’s what he did every Saturday while donning the cardinal and white – and it’s been a pleasure to watch.

 

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J.J. Watt, Juju Smith-Schuster, and others react to T.J. Watt being snubbed for NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year

The former Badger was snubbed at NFL awards

Former Badger star and current Pittsburgh Steelers LB T.J. Watt put together an incredible 2020 campaign. It was a year that was supposed to end in winning the NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year Award. Instead, Watt was snubbed as Los Angeles Rams star Aaron Donald took home the hardware.

How did they compare statistically? Let’s let a different member of the Watt clan answer that:

What were T.J’s immediate thoughts? Let’s just say he is coming back with a vengeance in 2021:

Watt’s Steeler teammates were not having the obvious snub:

WATCH: Jaguars LB Joe Schobert picks off Mitch Trubisky in the end zone

The former Badger comes up with a clutch INT

While the Chicago Bears are looking to shore up a playoff spot, the 1-13 Jacksonville Jaguars are thinking about the No. 1 pick at this stage of the season.

Don’t tell former Wisconsin linebacker Joe Schobert that, though. The Badger alumnus pulled off an athletic interception just before halftime to keep the score knotted at 10. Packer fans will also be happy Schobert is doing what he can to keep the Bears out of the playoffs:

Melvin Gordon to Denver Broncos on 2-year deal

Melvin Gordon has a new team

Melvin Gordon has a new NFL team… but he is staying in the same division.

Gordon is headed to the Mile High City to play for the Denver Broncos. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweeted the news at the end of a very busy week in professional football:

If we do have a 2020 NFL season — and right now, none of us should be making any assumptions whatsoever about the trajectory of coronavirus and our country’s ability to return to some semblance of stability — the two games between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos will be appointment television. Gordon’s relationship with the Chargers was anything but comfortable the past 15 months. The fact that he moved to an AFC West rival makes the division clash between the Chargers and Broncos that much more of a hate-fest.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, Chiefs-Raiders was the ultimate rivalry among the teams in the current AFC West. In the late 1970s, Broncos-Raiders was the hot rivalry in the division, and that rivalry resurfaced in the mid-to-late 1980s. In the early 1980s, Raiders-Chargers was the sexy AFC West clash. In the mid-to-late 1990s, Broncos-Chiefs became the AFC West rivalry which captured national attention.

The height of the Broncos-Chargers rivalry enjoyed two brief periods: One was in the middle of the 2000s, when both teams were Super Bowl threats. Denver made the AFC Championship Game in the 2005 season. The Chargers were 14-2 in 2006 and reached the AFC title game in the 2007 season. The other high point of the Broncos-Chargers rivalry emerged when Peyton Manning played for Denver. He and Philip Rivers met in high-stakes regular season games plus the 2013 divisional playoff game won by the Broncos.

The Kansas City Chiefs are still the Super Bowl champions, and their games with the Chargers have been the most important AFC West games over the past three seasons. However, Melvin Gordon moving to the Rocky Mountains makes Broncos-Chargers an AFC West clash which will be impossible to ignore… once football does return (and we don’t know when that will be).

Drew Lock will face Tyrod Taylor in the quarterback matchup between the Broncos and Chargers, but when these two teams take the field, all eyes will be on the running back for the Broncos, not the two signal-callers.

Melvin Gordon just made the NFL a spicier, more interesting place.