Week 9 Expeditious NFL News & Notes: Decline of Andy Reid's Success in Philly
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Rex Ryan Looking To Push Patriots to Three Straight Losses
1 of 8AFC East
From week before: Since 2009, the Patriots are 16-0 when having 30 or more rushing attempts per game, which means they are 13-11 overall in games where they failed to reach 30 attempts.
Why did I bring this up? After every loss since 2009 in which the Patriots went on to win the next game, they have stayed grounded, carrying the ball 30 or more times in five of six of those games resulting in a 6-0 record. In Week 3 they lost to the Buffalo Bills with 26 carries and Week 4 they followed up with 30 carries in a win over Oakland.
Fast-forward to Week 10: The last two weeks the Patriots have lost two straight, failing to reach 30-plus carries in each of those games with 12 against Pittsburgh and 24 versus the New York Giants.
Reggie Bush has had the highest two back-to-back rushing totals of his six-year career with 103 yards in Week 8 and 92 yards rushing in Week 9. One important milestone of Bush’s career is approaching and that is reaching 10 straight games played, the only time he has played 10 straight games was his rookie season in 2006.
Longest Streak of Consecutive Games Played | |
2006 | 16 |
2007 | 9 |
2008 | 7 |
2009 | 9 |
2010 | 6 |
2011 | 8-for-8 |
Buffalo Bills
Fred Jackson is making people forget that the Buffalo Bills drafted C.J. Spiller with their first pick in 2010. Spiller's career high for carries in one game is nine after 21 games, take into consideration that rookie quarterback Cam Newton has two games with 10 carries after eight games.
Another bizarre twist to the lack of productivity by Spiller he has five games where he has rushed for six yards or fewer. Spiller has 89 carries in his career while Newton has 63 in eight games—remember, one is a first-round running back the other a first-round quarterback.
The hottest team in the AFC East the New York Jets host the coldest team in the AFC East the New England Patriots losers of two straight. The last time the Patriots lost three straight (four total) was in 2002.
The Cleveland Browns Have Struggled Since Franchise Return in 1999
2 of 8AFC North
Pittsburgh Steelers
Under Mike Tomlin the Pittsburgh Steelers are 27-2 (including playoffs) since 2007 when the team scores 27 or more points. Sort of indicates that sitting on the ball does not help in the log run, no pun intended.
Since the return of the Cleveland Browns in 1999, the organization has been one of the league's absolute worst teams. From 1999 to 2010, the team has lost 10 or more games in a season nine times.
Ready for this? From 1946 to 1995 prior to Cleveland's hiatus, the Browns had double-digit losing seasons seven times total.
The team's 6-2 overall record duplicates the same win total in 2005 and 2009; in both of those seasons the Bengals went on the make the playoffs, losing both first-round games. The last time the Cincinnati Bengals won a playoff game was in 1990.
The Ravens' win over the Steelers, 23-20, at Heinz Field marks only the second time in franchise history they won both regular-season matchups since 2006. Also worth noting, 2006 the Ravens went 13-3 the best record in the history of the team.
Andrew Luck Has Some Strange Connections to the Indianapolis Colts
3 of 8AFC South
Arian Foster has found his groove over the last two weeks combining for 358 yards of total offense and four touchdowns. Foster is the only running back in the National Football League to have two games with 30-plus carries so far in 2011, ranking him fifth in the category—remember, he missed two games.
The last time the Colts lost nine straight games was in 1997, when they lost 10 in a row. This weekend they play host to the 2-6 Jacksonville Jaguars.
In 1997, they went on to finish 3-13 which allowed them to draft Peyton Manning first overall in the 1998 NFL draft. The quarterback under center in ‘97 for the Colts was none other than 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, who coached Stanford’s quarterback Andrew Luck. Luck is the clear choice to be chosen No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft should he decide to declare for the draft.
It’s funny how all those names somehow intertwine.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Maybe cause for celebration or more frustration, the Jags finally have more points (98) scored than league-leader John Kasey (85) the kicker for the New Orleans Saints.
To put in better perspective how impressive the seven rushing touchdowns by Cam Newton are in his rookie season: Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has played in 151 games since 1999 and he has eight rushing touchdowns total in his career.
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Darren McFadden Can Avoid Most Defenders but Not the Injury Bug
4 of 8AFC West
Oakland Raiders
In four seasons, running back Darren McFadden has shown the ability to be explosive and jaw-dropping in his performances. I’m nicknaming him the "Silver Salute" after a name of a firework, because yes, he is explosive but the experience is short-lived. Playing in 45 of the Raiders' 56 games, McFadden just can’t seem to shake the injury bug.
The Chargers are known for their slow starts and sizzling finale to each season. Over the month of November the team is 12-8 under Norv Turner and prior to last weekend’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, the first in November since 2008, the team was 7-0 in 2009 and 2010. Prior to that, from 2006 to 2008 the team was 5-7 in November.
What am I saying? Better hope they play like the 2009 and 2010 teams or the Chargers are not making the playoffs.
Not sure if the Kansas City Chiefs ruined or made the day of Miami Dolphins fans by giving them their first win of the season, one game ahead of the Indianapolis Colts for the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.
Can we both agree that neither the Denver Broncos nor St. Louis Rams are winning football teams?
Tim Tebow is 3-5 as the starter in his last eight games while Sam Bradford is 1-7 in his last eight starts with the Rams. Tebow has four fourth-quarter comebacks/game-winning drives in his eight career starts. The Rams even traded for the Broncos' best wideout in Brandon Lloyd, something else that didn’t get much attention when Tebow was handed the offense—they traded their No. 1 receiver.
Is Tebow the next Peyton Manning? No. Would teams like the Washington Redskins or Miami Dolphins start him over the guys they have? I bet yeah, they would.
Dez Bryant Is Due to Reach Endzone
5 of 8NFC East
Washington Redskins
The Redskins are positioning themselves to have USC’s Matt Barkley under center in 2012. I just hope head coach Mike Shanahan and his son and offensive coordinator Kyle share the same philosophy on the rookie quarterback they intend on drafting.
New York Giants
Tom Coughlin took over in New York in 2004 for the Giants and since then once has the team finished with back-to-back 10-plus-game winning seasons (2007-08). It’s worth mentioning because after eight games played the Giants are 6-2; going .500 down the stretch would guarantee Coughlin his fifth 10-plus-game winning season and second in a row.
Head coach Andy Reid has coached 200 regular-season games for the Eagles. Entering his 13th season, Reid enters the twilight of his coaching career since only two other coaches (Bill Cowher, Tom Landry) have won Super Bowls after their 13th season with one team.
Posting a winning percentage of 60 percent over his 13 years, Reid has seen his winning percentage slip considerably. In his first six years he won 66 percent of his games and in his last six years, 56 percent. Add in his 13th season in 2011 with the Eagles at 3-5, and his percentage slips again to 55 percent.
Since Week 5 of 2010, Dez Bryant hasn’t gone longer than two consecutive games without scoring a touchdown. Why is that noteworthy? Bryant hasn’t scored in the last two contests and this week takes on the Buffalo Bills defense that ranks 25th in the NFL.
Brian Urlacher Is Missing Something
6 of 8NFC North
This I still find amazing: After eight games, no linebacker from the Bears defense has recorded a single sack in 2011.
Jared Allen is leading the NFL in sacks with 12.5 total, if Allen can keep the lead he will be only the fifth player to lead the league twice in the category that became and official statistic in 1982.
Shouldn’t shock anyone that quarterback Aaron Rodgers leads the team in touchdown passes after eight games, but isn’t it a little strange he is tied for the team lead in rushing touchdowns with fullback John Kuhn.
How bad have the Detroit Lions been? Winning six games this season matches the total from 2010 when the team went 6-10; the last time they won six games or more in back-to-back years was under Bobby Ross in 1999 and 2000.
Matt Ryan Looks To Buck Current Trend
7 of 8NFC South
Matt Ryan hasn’t led the Falcons to a home win versus the New Orleans Saints since his rookie season in 2008. Ryan’s career record is 2-3 against the Saints.
New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees, taken with the first pick of the second round in 2001, has 21 touchdown passes after nine games in 2011. Former first-round picks Jim Druckenmiller, Heath Shuler and Akili Smith combined for 21 total touchdown passes in their NFL careers.
Apologies to the Panthers readers—this isn’t really a Carolina note but more an NFL note in general.
How hard is grabbing 10 touchdown passes in one season? Receiver Steve Smith has done it only once, back in 2005, and Houston Texans receiver Andre Johnson never has eclipsed the mark—his high is nine.
Mike Williams might end up with a dubious comparison to former Buccaneer receiver Keyshawn Johnson. In 2000, Johnson led the team in touchdowns with eight and in 2001 he managed to catch only one touchdown out of the 106 grabs he made on the year.
Williams had 11 touchdown catches in 2010, leading the Bucs, but after 37 catches and eight games played in 2011 the second-year wideout has only one touchdown.
Greg Salas Is Picking Up Where He Left off
8 of 8NFC West
What does quarterback John Skelton have in common with the Rams' Sam Bradford? Each has led their team to one win in 2011.
San Francisco 49ers
Hats off to running back Frank Gore, who over the last five games has averaged 126.8 yards rushing, going over 100 yards in each of the last five contests. It was a far cry from his production in the 49ers' first three games, finishing with 153 total yards rushing.
A lot is being made of Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck not having NFL-type weapons—I beg to differ. Rookie receiver Doug Baldwin went undrafted in 2011 but that doesn’t mean he isn’t the type of player NFL teams are in need of.
After eight games the undrafted rookie out of Stanford has one fewer touchdown catch (two) than the other three receivers taken in the first and second rounds: Sidney Rice, Mike Williams and Golden Tate (three).
St. Louis Rams
Rookie Greg Salas out of Hawaii is picking up right where he left off in college—catching plenty of passes. Salas caught 225 passes in his last two collegiate seasons and is now leading the Rams with 27 catches on the year thus far. He joins the list of three other rookies—A.J. Green (40), Greg Little (31) and Doug Baldwin (28)—who are also leading their teams in receptions.
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