Andrew Luck is currently on pace to throw for 4,832 yards in his rookie season, which would completely obliterate the previous rookie record set by Cam Newton last season of 4,051 yards. It must be noted that Luck and the Indianapolis Colts are only a quarter of the way through their season following a Week 4 bye. Still, that is mighty impressive.
Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden is also on pace to break Newton’s single-season rookie mark with 4,151 yards. However, he is also on pace to throw about 30 interceptions, which could be the highest for any quarterback since Vinny Testerverde accomplished the feat with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1988. On that note, Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is tied for the NFL-lead with nine interceptions through five weeks and is also on pace to throw 30.
Continuing with the turnover theme, Michael Vick lost two more fumbles against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. He has now turned the ball over a total of 11 times in five games, which puts him on pace for an astonishing 35 turnovers for the season. That is simply dumb!
On a more positive note. Reggie Wayne is having a rebirth of sorts. He racked up 213 receiving yards for the Indianapolis Colts in their win over the Green Bay Packers on Sudnay and is currently on pace for the first 2,000 yard receiving season in NFL history. Again, we must take this with a grain of salt considering that Indianapolis has played just four games.
Hey San Francisco 49ers fans, want some records?
Following their 45-3 romp of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, a lot of different records and firsts occurred. It was the first time since 1961 that a 49ers’ team has had a quarterback throw for over 300, a running back go for 100 and two wide receivers accumulate triple-digit yards.
This is stunning if you ask me. You mean to say that Joe Montana, Roger Craig, Jerry Rice and John Taylor never accomplished this feat? What about Steve Young, Ricky Watters, Terrell Owens and the aforementioned Rice? That is a mighty big accomplishment if you ask me.
San Francisco also set a franchise record with 621 total yards and became the first team in NFL history to rush for and throw for at least 300 yards in the same game. San Francisco has now outscored their last two opponents by a combined 79-3 score, marking the best two-game stretch in franchise history.
On the negative side of the ledger, the Buffalo Bills defense has been historically bad. Buffalo became the first team since the 1950 New York Yanks to allow 550-plus total yards in two consecutive games. Their negative 412 yardage difference also represented the 11th worst in the league since the AFL/NFL merger. The 1,200 yards that they have given up the last two weeks is the highest total for a two-game stretch in NFL history. Ouch!
While this has been one of the highest-scoring starts to a season in NFL history, there have been some great individual and team efforts on defense.
Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews has racked up eight sacks in five games and is currently on pace to accumulate an NFL-record 26 for the season. J.J. Watt, who has recorded 7.5 sacks, is also on pace to break Michael Strahan’s single-season record.
Meanwhile, a total of 36 different players are currently on pace to accumulate double-digit sacks, which would be a league record.
Six teams are yielding less than 16 points per game, half of them coming from the best division in the NFL, the NFC West. San Francisco has given up a total of three points and a little over 300 total yards in their last two games combined and are yielding just 13.6 points per outing.
On the other side of the ledger, both Buffalo and the Tennessee Titans are giving up over 35 points per game and an opposing quarterback rating of over 103.0 each. Overall, there are four teams in the NFL that are giving up over 30 points and a triple-digit quarterback rating. The New Orleans Saints and Oakland Raiders finish off that group.
There are seven teams averaging over 400 yards per game on offense, of those seven teams only the New England Patriots, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers possess winning records through five weeks.
Meanwhile, of the six teams with the least amount of yards per game, three (St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals) possess winning records. We might be seeing somewhat of a shift in terms of defense winning games after it appeared passing offenses were going to rule this era in the NFL.
That’s all I have for you right now. I will probably be doing an extensive look at statistics at about the midway point in the season.