Tag: NFL history

Only one QB in NFL history has more game-winning TD passes than Matthew Stafford

Only one QB has more game-winning TD passes than Matthew Stafford, and it’s a guy who’s calling Sunday’s Rams-Bills matchup

Matthew Stafford has long been one of the NFL’s most clutch quarterbacks, even before he got to Los Angeles and helped the Rams win a Super Bowl in his first season. Dating back to his days with the Lions, Stafford had a knack for leading game-winning drives and fourth-quarter comebacks.

At this point in his career, he ranks fifth all-time with 47 game-winning drives and 36 fourth-quarter comebacks, and he’s within striking distance of first place on both of those lists.

When it comes to game-winning touchdown passes, there’s only one guy ahead of Stafford: Tom Brady. According to ESPN Research, as shared by Rams play-by-play announcer J.B. Long, Stafford’s 24 game-winning touchdown passes in the fourth quarter or overtime are only five fewer than Brady’s 29.

Coincidentally, it’ll be Brady calling Stafford’s game on FOX this Sunday when the Rams host the Bills.

Stafford moved past Johnny Unitas for second all-time last week when he hit Puka Nacua for a game-winning touchdown against the Saints with 8:54 left in the fourth quarter. A month earlier, he threw the game-winner to Demarcus Robinson in overtime against the Seahawks, a 39-yard bomb deep down the field.

With how many close games Stafford has played throughout his career, it seems like he comes through in the clutch more often than not. The Rams might need another game-winner in the fourth quarter this weekend against the Bills, a team that’s won seven in a row and currently sits at 10-2 on the year.

The History of Zero Points

Fact – No previous NFL season has ever reached Week 9 without a shutout.

There have been exactly ZERO shutouts in the NFL through Week 11.

You know, that horrific happening when a team plays sixty minutes and yet produces no points to prove they were even there. In fantasy football, you don’t even have to look at the box score to know your player didn’t have a big week. For any offense, shutout is a dirty word.

Fact – No previous NFL season has ever reached Week 8 without a shutout. This is a record setting year.

It’s a brave new world now, but it always includes at least a field goal.

NFL shutouts since the 1970 merger

There were plenty of shutouts over time – 505 since the 1970 merger. But none this season. Here’s also proof how much better offenses are than back in the 1970’s when defenses ruled. The NFL prior to the merger had plenty of shutouts as well, but they played shorter seasons.

Fact – The worst shutouts were  Titans 0, Patriots 59 (2009) and Falcons 0, Rams 59 (1976).

Fact – The lowest total points scored in an NFL game was three, reached in 7 games and most recently 2023 when the Vikings beat the Raiders 3-0.

Most shutouts of an offense since 1970

Ths contains teams by their city, so there are more than 32. The AFC East had three of the Top-7 offenses that were shut out. These are over 54 years.

Most shutouts by a defense since 1970

Interesting that over the 54 years, most of the best defenses at shutting out an opponent are still among the top defenses.

Statistics courtesy of stathead.com, a part of Pro Football Reference

No NFL team had ever done this before the Lions pulled it off in their Week 10 comeback

No NFL team had ever done this before the Lions pulled it off in their Week 10 comeback

The Detroit Lions were playing one of their worst games of the last two-plus seasons on Sunday night. Thanks to some self-inflicted wounds, poor execution from the offense and facing a good opponent in Houston, the Lions trailed the Texans 23-7 at the half.

And then it happened. Fueled by two interceptions from cornerback Carlton Davis and the offense awakening and adjusting to the Texans speedy, playmaking defense, Detroit pulled off the mother of all comebacks.

How rare was the Lions comeback? Consider this tidbit from The 33rd Team:

The Lions became the first team since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 to overcome a deficit of at least 15 points while throwing five or more interceptions.

No team has ever shot itself in the feet so badly and still come back to win a game, not since at least five years before Dan Campbell or Brad Holmes were even born.

Dennis Allen and Derek Carr make unfortunate history together

Dennis Allen and Derek Carr made unfortunate history together. Allen is the first NFL coach to be fired by two teams with the same starting quarterback:

There are many head coaches who have been fired from multiple teams. Dennis Allen is the first head coach in NFL history, however, to be fired from two teams with the same quarterback at the helm.

Derek Carr was with Allen with the Oakland Raiders for a year and has been a part of of the New Orleans Saints since 2023. You may wonder why Allen would partner up with Carr again if the first attempt ended so badly.

In Allen’s defense, it wouldn’t be fair to point to Carr as the reason he was fired in Oakland. Allen lasted just four games into Carr’s rookie season. Not only is a player not truly developed as a rookie, the partnership lasted less than a handful of games. The issues in Oakland went further back than Carr’s tenure.

Allen handpicked the veteran version of Carr as the quarterback who was supposed to solve the issues. That didn’t happen. Unlike in Oakland, Carr played a big role in this firing.

Long stint or less than a season, veteran or rookie. The fact each time Dennis Allen lost his job as head coach Derek Carr was the quarterback is a very unfortunate piece of history that likely won’t be replicated any time soon

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WATCH: Bucs WR Mike Evans scores his 100th career receiving TD

It took Mike Evans less than five minutes into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 7 matchup to enter the history books.

It took Mike Evans less than five minutes into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 7 matchup vs the Baltimore Ravens for Baker Mayfield and Evans to connect on a 25-yard touchdown catch.

Already moving up in history to the Top 30 in all-time receiving yards in Week 5, Evans moves up another all-time ladder as Evans hits the century mark with 100 career receiving touchdowns and is now tied with Hall of Famers Steve Largent and Tim Brown with the ninth-most in NFL history. Evans is the only active player with 100 career touchdown catches.

The next hurdle is TE Tony Gonzalez—oh look, another Hall of Famer—who has 111 career touchdowns. While Jerry Rice’s 197 touchdowns are likely one of those records that will never could, however, be broken, Evan finds himself moving towards the Top 5 all-time over the next couple of seasons.

4. Cris Carter (Hall of Fame) – 130 TDs

5. Marvin Harrison (Hall of Fame) – 128 TDs

6. Larry Fitzgerald – 121 TDs

7. Antonio Gates – 116 TDs

8. Tony Gonzalez (Hall of Fame) -111 TDs

As Evans ascends up the receiving mountain, he’s becoming surrounded by more Hall of Fame players, whether they have been inducted already or will be, such as WR Larry Fitzgerald and TE Antonio Gates.

Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, and Marvin Harrison are the only four players in NFL history who have reached 100 receiving touchdowns faster than Evans, the 18th receiver in history to eclipse 12,000 yards with a single team.

Kerby Joseph doing things no safety since Ed Reed has done

Lions safety Kerby Joseph doing things no safety since Hall of Famer Ed Reed has done

Ed Reed is one of the best defensive players of the 21st century. Reed is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame after an illustrious career, primarily with the great Baltimore Ravens defenses. The safety was one of the best playmakers in NFL history at his position.

So when Lions safety Kerby Joseph does something that no player aside for Ed Reed has done in the last few decades, it’s notable. And that’s what Joseph did when he picked off Dak Prescott in Detroit’s Week 6 win in Dallas.

The interception was Joseph’s fourth on the season, matching the total No. 31 picked off in each of his first two seasons. That put him in the rarefied air.

From the Lions postgame press release,

He’s the NFL’s first safety to record at least four interceptions in each of the first three seasons of a player’s career since S Ed Reed in 2002-04.

Reed picked off a total of 21 passes in his first three years, so Joseph still has a way to go to match Reed’s total accomplishment. The Lions safety is off to a very good start in taking the ball away–better than any safety since Reed over 20 years ago.

Bucs K Chase McLaughlin makes history in first quarter against Falcons

In the first quarter of the Bucs matchup between them and the Falcons, kicker Chase McLaughlin made history for himself.

With 1:22 remaining in the first quarter of the Week 5 Thursday Night Football showdown between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons Week 5, kicker Chase McLaughlin hit a 53-yard field goal to put the Bucs up 10-7.

McLaughlin’s kicking efficiency came on the heels of Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo missing two kicks, one of which didn’t count due to a penalty. The Falcons kicker proved last week to be consistent from over 50+ yards when he won the ball game for the Falcons, but he is not nearly as good as McLaughlin has been from that distance, as history tells us.

The successful field goal attempt gives McLaughlin 28 successful attempts in 33 tries, making the six-year veteran the most accurate kicker in NFL history from beyond 50 yards, with a minimum of 20 attempts.

Adding another successful field goal to his resume, McLaughin extends his Bucs franchise record with 26 consecutively made field goals and moves into 21st all-time, surpassing running back Errict Rhett.

Rivalry at stake when Falcons host the Saints in Week 4

History is at stake when the Atlanta Falcons host the New Orleans Saints in Atlanta on Sunday

In 1967, the Atlanta Falcons lost a 27-24 road matchup against the New Orleans Saints. That was the last time the Saints held the series lead between the two rival franchises.

The Falcons won 10 of the next 12 games, including nine straight victories over their rivals. Atlanta bested that nine-game run again by winning 10 straight games over New Orleans from 1995 to 1999.

However, the Saints have dominated the rivalry in the new millennium, going 31-17 against the Falcons over the last 23 seasons. If you take away that five-year run where Atlanta rattled off 10 straight wins, the rivalry has been fairly one-sided since 1983.

The series is tied at 55 wins each entering Sunday’s NFC South battle at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. If the Falcons can’t take care of business, they will have lost their series lead over the Saints for the first time in 56 years.

Thus far in 2024, New Orleans has been one of the NFL’s most surprising teams. The Saints started the season off 2-0 before suffering a three-point loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3. Atlanta is coming off a five-point loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Falcons cannot afford to start the season 1-3, plus giving the Saints control of the series would add insult to injury. As we look ahead to Week 4, the Falcons are favored by less than a field goal. Atlanta is 0-2 at home this season but perhaps the red throwback helmets will help remind the team of what’s at stake on Sunday.

The game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  Check out the Falcons’ latest depth chart, injury report, and 53-man roster going into Week 4.

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The Seahawks defense is off to a historic start in 2024

The Seahawks defense is off to a historic start in 2024

For years now, the Seattle Seahawks have fielded some truly abysmal defenses. In 2020 and 2021, Seattle was on pace to being one of the worst units in the history of football. While they turned it around just enough in both years to avoid such a dubious distinction, Seattle still finished with a bottom-tier unit. Things may not have been on track for historic failure in 2022 and 2023, but Seattle still had the 31st ranked defense to end those seasons.

The Seahawks’ inability to truly fix their defense led to the team moving on from Pete Carroll in favor of Mike Macdonald. So far through three games, the decision appears to be paying off for Seattle. The Seahawks’ defense, which has helped fuel their 3-0 start, is back to making NFL history… but in the way fans would want it. Macdonald’s team has accomplished something not seen in 45 years:

https://twitter.com/DanteKopFlem/status/1837993397556322602

Anytime you find yourself in the same conversation with the Steel Curtain, and you’re the only one standing beside them, you’re clearly doing something right.

Critics of the Seahawks will say this is a result of playing a handful of tomato cans to start the season. While it is true that Bo Nix, Jacoby Brissett, Skylar Thompson and Tim Boyle aren’t going to be confused for Pro Bowlers any time soon, Seattle’s defense is doing exactly what they should be doing against quarterbacks of their caliber. If the Seahawks were 3-0, but they were winning offensive shootouts against these water-gun offenses, we would be having an entirely different conversation.

Still, the teams Seattle has faced to start the year aren’t likely to be legitimately in the playoff hunt by the time December roles around. The first true test the Seahawks will face is coming Monday night against the Detroit Lions. Jared Goff is lightyears ahead of those four quarterbacks I’ve mentioned, and Seattle will have to face several other far more talented signal callers in the coming weeks. We will have a much better idea of how good this Seahawks defense is soon enough.

(Side note: the 1979 Steelers did go on to win the Super Bowl…)

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Broncos poised to start Riley Moss (a white cornerback) this season

“He gets a lot of flak for being one of the only white corners in the league,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said of cornerback Riley Moss.

The Denver Broncos went into training camp this summer with Riley Moss and Damarri Mathis competing for the team’s No. 2 cornerback spot across from star Pat Surtain. Moss seemed to be leading the competition going into the final week of preseason, then Mathis suffered an ankle injury that landed him on injured reserve.

So while the Broncos have not officially announced it yet — an updated depth chart should be released next week — Moss is expected to start this season. He will be the only white starting cornerback in the NFL.

“He’s an extremely athletic player, you know, he gets a lot of flak for being one of the only white corners in the league, I get it,” Denver coach Sean Payton said during an interview with Kay Adams two weeks ago.

Moss was picked by the Broncos in the third round of last year’s NFL draft out of Iowa. After undergoing core muscle surgery in the offseason, he was limited to mostly special teams duties as a rookie. Now entering his second season, Moss is poised to start across from Surtain.

“Obviously, I think he’s got a little chip on his shoulder,” Surtain told Adams. “Because there’s a motto out there saying that there’s only three white corners in the NFL, so everybody’s going to be like, ‘Oh, man, let’s see what he got.”

https://twitter.com/heykayadams/status/1824189213216215444

The NFL’s last white cornerback to start consistently was Jason Sehorn, who overlapped with Payton while the coach was a QBs coach and later an offensive coordinator with the New York Giants from 1999-2002.

“Jason, uniquely, was different,” Payton said after drafting Moss in 2023. “Jason played safety in college. That’s an unusual conversion, regardless of who you are and where you’re from. He moved from safety to corner.

“He was a fantastic athlete. The closer to the receiver, the better for him. It’s too easy to say does [Moss] remind you of Jason. I would say there’s other corners we compare him to.”

Sehorn spent nine seasons in the NFL, starting 76 games. Moss is poised to make his first NFL start against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1 on Sept. 8. Let’s see what he got.

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