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.
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.
19 Touchdowns in 7 Games
Rookie sensation and new favorite in this column, Deshaun Watson, continued to flash greatness in Seattle on Sunday. He now has 19 passing TD's in the first 7 games of his career, which breaks Kurt Warner's record of 18. Watson is now the front-runner for offensive rookie of the year. In the fantasy world, he has the most points among all players, 176.86 in standard leagues. He's topped 34 points 3 times now, all coming over his last 4 games. He's averaging an astounding 28.36 points per game when he starts and has thrown for at least 3 TD's each of the last 4 games. Watson is even leading all QB's in rushing yards, with 269 and has 2 rushing TD's as well. In short, Deshaun Watson has taken the fantasy football world by storm, and is making everyone on his team much, much better.
3 of the Top 5 WR's
Waiver wire alert! This week, three of the top 5 wide receivers are owned in LESS than 50% of Yahoo leagues. JuJu Smith-Schuster, Paul Richardson, and Robby Anderson may be out there looking to be picked up in your league. They are all solid spot starters to fill in for bye weeks or injuries. All 3 guys are seeing decent volume in terms of their workload, all getting at least 6 targets and 100 yards receiving on Sunday. This week they all found paydirt as well, though you can't count on that every week of course. The two guys in the top 5 who ARE owned in a lot of leagues? Why, Deshaun Watson's teammates, of course. DeAndre Hopkins and Will Filler V combined for a cool 52.9 fantasy points.
4 WR's, 4 RB's
Each week, I've been tracking the relative performance of wide receivers vs. running backs. Over the last couple of years, we've noticed that WR's dominated early, but this year that's been backwards. This week, however, it's starting to even out. Out of the top 10 fantasy players so far this week, there is an even split of 4 WR's and 4 RB's represented in that group. This is easily the most favorable position that WR's have had all year. Last week, the top 10 RB's outscored the WR's by over 3 points, but this week the WR's were on top by over 1 point. My colleague Dave Biggs suggested that quarterbacks get much better as the season goes on, and I think I agree and we're seeing that - this week all QB's combined for 30 TD's and only 20 INT's.
482 of 485 Total Offensive Yards
There was only one player who scored more points than Deshaun Watson on Sunday, and that's the winner of the craziest game of the year, Russell Wilson. Wilson was responsible for 99.4% of his team's total offense, between his 452 passing yards and 30 rushing yards. The rest of the team had a net of 3 rushing yards, or about a half foot per attempt. Of course, stuff like this only happens in a crazy game like we saw on Sunday. According to pro-football-reference.com's win probability, the chances each team could win changed an amazing 24 times. The only thing that was missing from this game was Tony Romo doing the color commentary. Why did you let us down, CBS?
13 Runs Scored
On Sunday afternoon, as with most Sunday afternoons, I was texting my father and brother about the Bears game. I jokingly told my dad that it would be nice to see the Bears offense outscore a baseball team. If only I could harvest my premonitions, my gambling life would be a lot more fun. The Bears, along with 4 other teams, failed to outscore the Houston Astros, who put up 13 runs en route to a win in game 5 of the World Series. The Lions and Raiders would just sneak by with 15 and 14 points respectively, but neither team has cause to be happy with their performances in week 8. Hell, the Lions offense managed just shy of 500 yards from scrimmage, but were unable to score any touchdowns despite 5 trips to the red zone (and two drives that ended just outside).
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.
1.53 Points Per Player
So Week 9 belonged to the RBs once again, so much for the one week of WR dominance. The top 10 RBs averaged 1.53 points per player higher than the top 10 WRs. This is the trend that we've seen all season, definitely due to several factors, such as poor offensive line play and QBs dropping like flies. On the season the top 10 RBs are crushing the top 10 WRs, 120.97 - 87.36 (average points per player). To me, this means two things. First of all, top WRs are extremely valuable - there are only 2 that have broken 100 points this year (DeAndre Hopkins and Antonio Brown), and Tyreek Hill is the only other guy above 90. On the flip side, there are 14 RBs that have 90+ points, meaning that these are the guys who are winning weeks for you.
3rd and 33 Conversion
The Rams had a spectacular play and scored a touchdown on 3rd and 33, one of Robert Woods' two touchdowns. The Rams wound up scoring 51 points, but this play was remarkable for one main reason. No team has converted a 3rd and 30+ since the Vikings converted a 3rd and 37 on 10/31/1999, and it's only the second such conversion as far back as the pro-football-reference play-by-play records go back (to 1994). It's always fun to look at the past, but back the present and we see Jared Goff putting up the most fantasy points for all QBs this week - 28.44 on 4 TDs and 311 yards, his best game of the season.
39:13 TD to INT Ratio
Despite the low WR fantasy numbers, we are seeing the QBs get more and more efficient as the season goes on. This week, all the QBs that played combined to throw only 13 interceptions, versus an impressive 39 touchdowns. That's a 3:1 ratio that any QB would be proud of. 12 starting QBs had a passer rating of 100 or more. This week we saw MVP candidates Alex Smith and Carson Wentz in action. Smith was the early front-runner, but this week he finally threw his first pick and collected his third loss in the last 4 games. Meanwhile, Carson Wentz threw another four touchdowns (for the third time this year) and now has a league leading 23 TDs.
5 Ejections from 3 Fights
Week 9 was a particularly rowdy one, with three big fights breaking out, causing ejections for five players, A.J. Green and Carlos Hyde. Mike Evans is another player that maybe should have been ejected, but will be out next week, suspended for hitting Marcus Lattimore while he was having words with Jameis Winston. Hyde's ejection didn't hurt his fantasy day, since it was late in the 4th quarter, but Green left after only one catch for 6 yards - leaving him with just 7 receptions over the last three games. Green will be back next week against Tennessee, and the Bengals need him to play a lot better.
263 Points
With 51 points on Sunday (matching the Eagles total), the LA Rams are leading the league in scoring, with 32.9 points per game. First in the league this year, they finished last year in last place, with only 224 points scored. They only took 8 games to eclipse last year's mark. In his third season, RB Todd Gurley has been very impressive and is leading the league in fantasy points among non-QBs. Gurley leads the league with 10 TDs overall, 7 rushing and 3 receiving. His 338 receiving yards is good for fifth in the league among RBs, and does a lot to help Jared Goff. Goff, meanwhile, is leading the league in both yards per attempt and yards per completion and has an impressive 13:4 TD:INT ratio.
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.
1.38 Yards per Carry
Thursday night's game was another slogfest, and while the games have been more competitive this year than they have in past years, the poor quality of play really shines through. This week, the leading rusher in the game, Adrian Peterson, with 29 yards on 21 carries, had a whopping 1.38 yards per carry. He beat out both of the Seahawks rushers, who finished with 27 yards (Thomas Rawls) and 26 yards (J.D. McKissic). Of course, the big story in this game is the achilles injury that Richard Sherman. Sherman had been previously critical of the NFL regarding Thursday night games, and he was battling this injury all season. The numbers of injuries may not be significantly higher than on Sundays, but it's clear that the quality of play on short rest is affected nearly every single week.
6 Rushing Touchdowns
The Saints set a franchise record with 6 rushing touchdowns on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills. They also rushed for 298 yards on the day behind impressive performances from Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram, who combined for over 50 points. Ingram and Kamara were the 1st and 4th highest scoring fantasy RBs on the week, mixed in with the 3 TD DeMarco Murray and the unknown Austin Ekeler. The Saints improved to 7-2, and it's really surprising that Drew Brees has only thrown for 300+ yards once in those wins, and only twice overall. The Saints run game was really by far the most impressive aspect of this game, peaking with a 10-play 94 yard TD drive that was all rushes of 15 yards or less. The Saints averaged 6.2 yards per carry on the day, just shy of Drew Brees's 7.4 yards per passing attempt.
208 Consecutive Starts
Congrats to Eli Manning, who tied his brother Peyton with 208 consecutive starts on Sunday - good for second on the list behind Brett Favre. This start, like most this year, was very forgettable for Eli. Going in to Sunday's game in San Francisco, this was the first time in 33 years that two teams met this late in the season with only 1 victory between them. Clearly, the stage was set for mediocrity and this game delivered. The Giants managed to make C.J. Beathard look great, putting up the 4th most points this week among QBs - 26.02 points. This was the 49ers first win against a team that wasn't the Rams in 708 days. On the other side, the Giants gave up yet another touchdown to an opposing TE, making it one in every game this season, and this streak goes back into last season. Looks like a good sign for Travis Kelce and the Chiefs against the Giants next week.
297 Passing Yards
It was strange seeing Mitchell Trubisky on the passing leader boards all afternoon and evening. His 297 yards is easily a career high (the previous was last week's 164). He completed 60% of his passes with 21 completions on 35 attempts. One TD and no picks are a good way to show that you can take care of the ball, ok, Coach? I didn't really write about Trubisky for his sake, though congrats to the rookie on a solid outing, but to poke at head coach John Fox. In the 2nd quarter, Fox threw a challenge flag on a play where Benny Cunningham was called out of bounds short of the goal line. Upon review, it was determined that Cunningham did not, in fact, step out of bounds. Great news? Nope, it was then determined that he lost control of the ball before it struck the pylon, thus ruling it a fumble out of the end zone and a touchback for the Packers. This play is kind of a microcosm of Fox and the Bears over the last couple of years. There's always been flashes of good things happening, but it all winds up looking mismanaged and it's never the desired outcome. Here in Chicago, it's pretty clear that he's going to be on the hot seat before too long.
4-60+ Yard TD Passes
If you read this column, you know I'm a sucker for milestones that haven't been reached in a while. On Sunday, Jacoby Brissett threw a pair of 60+ yard touchdowns against the Steelers' formerly league leading passing defense. It's been over 50 years since a Colts QB had 4-60 yard touchdown passes in a single season. Johnny Unitas did it back in 1966, and both Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck were not able to reach that mark, not even with all of the great receivers they have had. Brissett has 4 on the season now, and has improved as the year has gone on and is one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal season in Indy. The Colts are only 3-7, but did hang in there against a Steelers team that is tied for the best record in the AFC. If the Colts could figure out a run game, they would have something for Andrew Luck to look forward to when he comes back. Right now, Brissett's league leading 35 sacks has to be alarming for a guy who is probably not nearly as mobile. Get well soon, Andrew!