NFL historical & statistical oddities (1 Viewer)

[MarshallRob]

In 1934, Chicago Bears rookie running back Beattie Feathers became the NFL’s first-ever 1000-yard rusher. In 11 games he rushed for 1004 yards on only 119 carries (8.4 YPC!) and scored 9 TD’s. His rushing record stood for 13 years.

For the rest of his career, 43 games over the next six years, he totaled fewer yards and TD’s than he did in his rookie season: 976 yards on 259 carries and 8 TD’s.

 

[The Jerk]

Virtually everyone agrees that a key to winning football games is avoiding turnovers. Well...

Super Bowl XIV featured the two teams who had committed the most turnovers during the regular season:

Steelers: 26 fumbles + 26 interceptions = 52 in regular season

Rams: 20 fumbles + 29 interceptions = 49 in regular season

The Steelers actually committed 8 more turnovers in the playoffs, including 3 in the Super Bowl, for a total of 60 in 19 games!! It's hard to believe they actually won the Super Bowl while committing more than 3 turnovers per game on average.

 

[Chris Smith]

Since 1978

Most passing yards with 10 or fewer touchdown passes:

- Hugh Millen, New England Patriots, 1991: 3,073 passing yards and 9 passing touchdowns

Most passing yards with 5 or fewer touchdown passes:

- Trent Dilfer, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1995: 2,774 passing yards and 4 passing touchdowns

Most rushing yards with no rushing touchdowns:

- Joe Washington, Baltimore Colts, 1978: 956 rushing yards and 0 rushing touchdowns

Lowest rushing yardage total with 12+ rushing touchdowns:

- Robb Riddick, Buffalo Bills, 1988: 438 rushing yards (12 rushing touchdowns)

Lowest passing yards with 20+ touchdown passes:

- Dave Krieg, Seattle Seahawks, 1987: 2,131 passing yards and 23 passing touchdowns

 

[Mister CIA]

I celebrated my 21st birthday before the Dallas Cowboys had a losing season in my lifetime.

 

[thesurfshop19]

I was looking at the last few years in the standings and one popped out.

The last three Super Bowl champions had home field advantage in the playoffs in the season before they won the title, but not in that season.

2003 - Patriots champions, Patriots HFA

2004 - Patriots champions, Steelers HFA

2005 - Steelers champions, Colts HFA

2006 - Colts champions, Chargers HFA

Pretty useless, but also pretty quirky!

 

[BGP]

Back in the late 1980s, the Quarterbacks in the AFC Central were named Bernie (Kosar of CLE), Bubby (Brister of PIT), and Boomer (Esiason of CIN). Then there were the Oilers, who had Warren (Moon). But wait! Warren's backup in the early 1990s was named Bucky (Richardson)!

 

[BGP]

This isn't so much a contest as it is (or could become) a cool little compilation of quirky things about the NFL. Unless it dies among all the more useful threads out there.

I think my favorite would have to be ....

The Kansas City Chiefs haven't won a playoff game since Joe Montana was their QB in 1993. This includes going 0-3 at vaunted Arrowhead Stadium, all in 13-3 seasons.

In fact, the Chiefs have exactly one playoff win without Joe Montana since they won the Super Bowl in the 1969 season (1991 vs. LA Raiders)!

Pretty amazing for a team I've seen as one of the NFL's better ones (especially as a deeply respected rival of the Broncos).

EDIT: I just looked up the droughts as far as postseason victories go. The longest droughts are:

1990 - Bengals

1991 - Lions

1993 - Chiefs

1994 - Browns, Chargers, Bears

1995 - Bills

1996 - Cowboys

Since this posting, the Bears won two playoff games, and can be removed from the list. The Chiefs, Cowboys, and Chargers all qualified, but all lost their first game.