Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger are on fire. Arian Foster is reeling in DeMarco Murray. Michael Floyd and Steve Smith are slowing. These are but a few of the topics that Ray Flowers will address in his weekly look inside the numbers.
THROWERS
Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger are on fire. Arian Foster is reeling in DeMarco Murray. Michael Floyd and Steve Smith are slowing. These are but a few of the topics that Ray Flowers will address in his weekly look inside the numbers.
1: The number of interceptions that Carson Palmer has thrown this season in 154 attempts. His 0.6 percent interception rate leads football. Two others are also under 1.0 - Tom Brady (0.7) and Brian Hoyer (0.9).
8.7: The percentage of passes that go for a score when Peyton Manning is chucking the football, the best mark in the game (he has 22 scores on 252 passing attempts). Let's round out the top-5: Aaron Rodgers (7.6), Philip Rivers (7.4) Tom Brady (6.4) and... Kyle Orton (6.4).
23: The league leading number of passes of 25-yards that have been completed by Ben Roethlisberger. That's the same total as Aaron Rodgers (12) and Drew Brees (11).
116.4: The best QB Rating in football for a signal caller on the road. It belongs to Kyle Orton.
Tom Brady the last four games. I will just let the numbers speak: 1,268 yards, 14 scores, zero interceptions.
Joe Flacco has 14 scores in eight games putting him on pace for 28 scores which would be a career best (previous high is 25). However, remove his five score game against the Bucs and he's thrown for nine scores in seven games, a 16 game pace of 21 scores.
Nick Foles, per game last season, averaged 2.1 TD passes and 222 passing yards a game. This season he's jacked up the yardage to 291 a week but he's also averaging just 1.71 scores a week. Worse yet his completion percentage has dropped from 64.0 to 59.2 percent while his yards per attempt mark has shrunk from 9.1 to just 6.8. If not for the massive increase in pass attempts, he has 299 attempt in seven starts this season versus just 317 in 13 outings last year, then he would be a huge disappointment.
Eli Manning has 14 touchdown passes. That's two more than Nick Foles and three more than Colin Kaepernick, Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson.
Colt McCoy isn't long for the Redskins starting job but give him credit. He completed 25 of 30 passes on MNF for an 83.3 completion percentage. That's the best ever by a QB who attempted at least 30 passes in a game in Redskins history. The only other two QBs to throw 30 passes and complete 83 percent of them this season are Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
Ben Roethlisberger threw for 522 yards, the second 500-yard game of his career (he is the first to ever have two games of 500-yards). The effort made him just the second pass tosser to go for 500 yards, six touchdowns and no picks in a game in NFL history. The other to pull off the feat was Y.A. Tittle in 1962 for the Giants. Oh, and by the by... Big Ben had more passing yards and the combined total of Peyton Manning (286) and Joe Flacco (195) in Week 8. Heck, Aaron Rodgers threw for 203 yards in the first quarter in Week 8. Get on it Joe Flacco.
Matt Ryan stinks. Asks around. Never mind that he's thrown for the 6th most yards per game this season (288.3) putting him on pace for 4,613 yards and 30 touchdowns. How many times has Peyton Manning hit both those numbers in a season by the way? Try all of three times.
Russell Wilson is currently within the top-7 at the quarterback position in the fantasy game (depending on your format of course). How? He's completed 135 passes, 23rd most in football. He's averaging 212.9 passing yards a game, 29th most in football. He has 11 touchdown passes. Thirteen have thrown more and three others are tied with him. So how the elite level scoring? It's all about his legs. Wilson has run for 362 yards, 102 more than the #2 man Colin Kaepernick. Wilson also has three rushing scores, a league leading total. Perspective. If you get one point for 10 yards rushing and one point for 20 yards passing... then the 362 yards Wilson has run for equate to 36.2 points. How many yards would you have to pass for to get 36.2 points? Try 734 yards. Add 734 passing yards to his total and he's now averaging 318 passing yards a week. He's living totally off his legs.
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RUNNERS
0: The number of missed tackles forced by Giovani Bernard in Week 8. That effort was the first time since Week 8 of last season that he failed to make at least once defender miss. He ended the game in Week 8 with a mere 1.3 yards after contact mark.
2: The number of runners averaging 100-yards a game on the ground - DeMarco Murray (131.8) and Arian Foster (109.4). Murray has been so great that Jamaal Charles (60.5) and Giovani Bernard (63.7) can't beat Murray per game - as a duo.
5.4: The YPC mark of Jerick McKinnon which just so happens to be the best in football for a runner on artificial turf this season (minimum 50 carries). If we drop the qualifying mark down to 25 carries he still leads the way, that is unless you lump in QB Russell Wilson (7.5 on 25 carries).
6: The amount of rushing scores in October for Arian Foster, the most in football. Truth be told, no other duo of runners in football can better than mark as no other individual runner has run for more than three scores.
6.3: The league leading YPC mark for the month of October. It belongs to Arian Foster who is the only back in football over 5.5 YPC in that time. Moreover, his 6.3 YPC mark is nearly a yard an a half better than DeMarco Murray (4.9).
7.0: The YPC mark of Justin Forsett which is the best in football for a runner on grass who isn't a quarterback (minimum 25 carries). Russell Wilson (9.2), Ryan Tannehill (8.1) and Blake Bortles (7.1) are all better.
24: The number of runs this season in which LeSean McCoy has been "stuffed." No other runner in football has more than 17 (D. Murray). In fact, Arian Foster (10) and Matt Forte (13) have been stuffed one fewer time than McCoy. Shockingly, and I mean that with all sincerity, the most difficult runner to jam up at the line is none other than Shonn Greene who has been stuffed just once on 45 runs.
30: The number of runs of at least 10 yards this season by DeMarco Murray, the lead mark in football. Next on the list is Arian Foster with 20. Shane Vereen, Ahmad Bradshaw and Frank Gore have combined for 30 runs of 10 yards.
130.0: The NFL's league leading rushing total, per game, in the month of October for DeMarco Murray. That’s a mere 0.2 yards more per game than Arian Foster.
Knile Davis (57.3) is rushing for more yards a week than Eddie Lacy (53.5).
Mark Ingram carried the ball 24 times for 172 yards in Week 8. He had more than 100 yards after contact. Chris Ivory (43) and Brandon Oliver (36) ran for a combined 79 yards - before and after contact in Week 8.
DeMarco Murray cannot be stopped. He's run for 100 yards each of the eight games the Cowboys have played. The record for 100-yard games in a row? Try on 14 by Barry Sanders in 1997. Amazing. Murray's also lost an NFL high five fumbles.
Branden Oliver has been a revelation for the Chargers. He's also caught 17 passes in October, tied for 4th in the NFL in the month amongst runners. Double his mark, literally, and you will find the leader, Matt Forte (34 receptions).
Denard Robinson carried the ball 18 times for 108 yards, a second straight 100-yard effort. However, he did run for 45 yards on his first two touches meaning he produced a rather pedestrian 63 yards on the other 16 touches.
RECEIVERS
4: The number of receivers averaging 100-yards a game - Demaryius Thomas (109.6), T.Y. Hilton (108.3), Antonio Brown (106.5) and Golden Tate (100.0). Hilton is on pace for four scores by the way.
4: The number of scores for Emmanuel Sanders the last two weeks after opening up the season with 5-straight games without a score. Sanders has scored 15 times in his career as a pass catcher which means he's produced 27 percent of his career receiving scores in 3.2 percent of his career games the past two weeks.
6: The number of scores that Antonio Gates has in four games in October. He scored four times last season and over the past three years has averaged six scores a season. Wowzahs.
10: The league leading mark in terms of receptions made inside the opponents 20-yard line. We have one runner (Ahmad Bradshaw), one receiver (Demaryius Thomas) and one tight end (Julius Thomas) at that mark. If we move that to receptions inside the 10 yard line the leader becomes Randall Cobb (eight).
18: The touchdown pace of Randall Cobb who has nine scores in eight games this season. He's also scored in seven of eight contests. He's been hot, hot, hot of late as well with 2-straight games of at least 120 receiving yards.
35: The number of fewer passes that Pierre Garcon is on pace to cathc this season (78) compared to his league leading mark of 113 last year. He's also seen his yards per game mark dip from 84.1 per contest to 55.4 this season.
For those of you wanting to pick up John Brown of the Cardinals this week, a word of caution. In October he has 13 receptions for 207 yards. Taylor Gabriel, and admit you have no idea who he is, has 10 receptions for 218 yards for the Browns.
Rob Gronkowski recorded his 13th game with at least two scores (he scored three times in Week 8). Through five seasons only one player has ever had more than that - Jerry Rice (17). Gronk's total of 49 scores since 2010 is the most in football. Gronkowski is also the only tight end in football with more than 255 receiving yards in October. He has 411. In point of fact, Gronkowski's total of 411 yards in four October games is more than the 327 receiving yards that Julius Thomas has this season (seven games).
James Jones is boring. No one ever talks about his. He's on pace for 82 receptions, 971 yards and seven touchdowns. That will play as a WR3, won't it? Compare that to Roddy White: 75-958-7.
Julio Jones hasn't scored in five games and he's failed to hit 70-yards in any of his last three games. Knowledge drop. His season long pace would still equate to 106 receptions and 1,468 yards. Both numbers would be career bests. He has only scored three times putting him on pace for six end zone boogies, but there's plenty of time to improve upon that.
Michael Floyd... not so much. He saw only four targets in Week 8, dropped two passes, and failed to record a grab. Everyone's favorite preseason darling is on pace for 43 receptions, 806.4 yards and 4.6 touchdowns. Miles Austin has more catches (23). Allen Hurns has more yards (354). Malcom Floyd has more scores (three).
Allen Robinson has averaged 5.6 receptions for 70 yards the past three weeks, and he's also scored twice. He's led Jaguars' wideouts in snaps for three straight weeks as well.
Steve Smith, and this Sr. stuff is just stupid, has seen a slowdown. Shocker. In his last four games he's failed to record 40 yards in two games and three times he's been held under 70 yards. He's also scored only once in that time. The last four weeks he's actually, in a PPR setup, scored the 33rd most points at the wide receiver position. Teammate Torrey Smith is 32nd.
Listen to Ray Flowers' show Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear him Sunday nights, 7-10 PM EDT.