Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters.
10,363 Consecutive Snaps
We'll step aside from fantasy for just a moment to mention the incredible streak that was broken on Sunday. Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas has been playing for 11 years and never missed a snap. That's 10,363 in a row, eat your heart out, Brett Favre. Most of us have a hard time getting through a month without checking out of work, so big props go to Joe and his true Ironman streak. This is one that should go down in the books right next to Favre and Cal Ripken, as his streak is probably the toughest one to achieve. Get well soon, Joe, and I hope you can start a new streak next season.
33-0
So far this year, London has been treated to two shutouts over three games after the Rams shellacking of the Cardinals yesterday. If the NFL isn't careful (and if we're lucky), they might not be invited back anymore if we just keep sending them our garbage. Of course, this is the crux of the problem with London games. These games have to be scheduled far in advance, so they can't flex to a better schedule, and the break in routine messes with teams, especially ones that are struggling. If the NFL wants to fix their ratings problems, they need to focus on delivering a better quality product… I'm looking at you, Thursday Night Football.
2 Return TD's
Bears rookie Eddie Jackson provided all the offense needed on Sunday when he returned a Cam Newton fumble 75 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. He added more just for fun in the second when he returned a deflected pass 76 yards for another touchdown. Jackson single-handedly scored more points than the Panthers, Browns, Colts, Falcons, Giants, Cardinals, Broncos and 49ers. This allowed fellow rookie Mitch Trubisky to win with only 4 completions, which I feel must be some sort of achievement you can try for in Madden. 40% of the Bears total offense came on one play, a 70-yard completion to yet another rookie, Tarik Cohen.
8 RB's over 17 Points
The running back position continues to be top-heavy and even more productive than their receiving counterparts. Led by Ezekiel Elliott, there were 8 RB's that put up 17 points or more - 7 of them going for 100 yards or more on the ground. By comparison, the top 8 WR's only had 2 guys go over 100 yards and scored 3.3 points less per player. The WR's were helped out by the reappearance of Amari Cooper, more on him below. The RB's are propping up some weaker QB performances, the TD:INT ratio this week was only 37:19, reminiscent of weeks 1 and 2 when the NFL saw a rather flat offensive start.
33 Fantasy Points
Amari Cooper put up a huge 33 points on Thursday Night Football, showing me that not all football on Thursday night is automatically bad. Cooper had only 8.4 points total over his last 5 games - 3 of those games he had less than 1 point. A player who was drafted to be a WR1, he was only started by 69% of Yahoo teams last week, so if you're kicking yourself for not starting him, at least you aren't the only one. His 19 targets are tied with Antonio Brown for the most on the season for all players. Derek Carr is also back, putting up by far his best game of the season - he scored 31.5% of his total points this season by putting up 417 yards and tossing 3 TD's, including the little touchdown that could at the end of the game.
Please wait...
