Week 10 Expeditious NFL News & Notes: Rex Ryan Defense Crashing Jets Season

Expeditious NFL News & Notes is put together to provide a wide range of number-oriented morsels for those who crave the delicacy and nerdy-ness of NFL statistics, news, notes and just about anything that can be put into the mix.

If you’re not quoting one note each week, I’m not doing my job. 

AFC East: Rob Gronkowski Is in Hall of Fame Territory

New England Patriots

How good is second-year tight end Rob Gronkowski?

After 25 games played in his NFL career, his numbers stack up against some of the best that have ever played the position, including three Hall of Famers and one future selection in the hollowed ground in Canton. 

Looking at those numbers, Gronkowski has more touchdown passes (18) than Ozzie Newsome, Tony Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe (13) combined.

Gronkowski’s Production After 25 Games
Players	Catches	Yards	TD’s	Games
Kellen Winslow Sr.*	119	1,603	12	25
Rob Gronkowski	94	1,255	18	25
Ozzie Newsome*	72	1,084	8	25
Tony Gonzalez	72	756	2	25
Shannon Sharpe*	60	792	3	25
Asterisk (*) Indicates Hall of Fame Selection

Miami Dolphins

Head coach Tony Sparano is in the midst of a two-game winning streak in South Beach, bringing his career record to 16-25 overall.

In his third season, Tony Sparano needs one more win to reach the total wins, including postseason, to match the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who went undefeated. 

Buffalo Bills

The Bills are 1-3 over their last four games, which could come as a direct result of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s troubles with taking care of the football.

Over the last four games, he has thrown eight interceptions, compared to throwing only four in the previous five games. During his career in Buffalo, Fitzpatrick is 2-9 overall when he throws multiple picks in a game.

New York Jets 

Mark Sanchez gets blamed for the inadequate Jets offense, but look a little deeper—Rex Ryan’s defense isn’t playing consistent.

Over nine games, the Jets have four losses. In all four of those losses, the defense has given up 30 points or more per game, with an average of 34.

In the Jets' five wins, the defense has smothered opponents, allowing only 13 points per game—that’s a 21-point swing.

AFC North: Antonio Brown Is Making a Name for Himself

Pittsburgh Steelers

It isn’t a secret how productive Antonio Brown has been, creating a new wrinkle in the Steelers passing offense.

Over the last four games, he has produced 364 receiving yards, and if he catches 59 yards versus the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11, he will equal the 423 total yards in his previous 15 games played.

Cleveland Browns

Rookie receiver Greg Little, after nine games, has become the main target of quarterback Colt McCoy.

Little leads the team in catches (37) and yards (379), but the talented second-round pick has yet to find the end zone for his first touchdown.

Cincinnati Bengals

Rookie and second-round selection Andy Dalton has helped guide the Bengals to a 6-3 start, their best since 2009.

Dalton, after his first eight games, has more touchdown passes (14) than the Bengals' two previous first-round picks at quarterback—Akili Smith and Carson Palmer (13).

Baltimore Ravens

Terrell Suggs made it known after the loss to Jacksonville that running back Ray Rice needs more touches.

When it comes to running the ball, Rice’s carries per game are down almost four full carries from 19.1 in 2010 to 15.3 in 2011. Take into account that from 2009 to 2010, Rice had only three games in which he failed to reach 10 carries, the same amount of times as 2011.

The five carries he had in Week 10 were his lowest amount since Week 13 of his rookie year back in 2008.

Suggs isn’t making this stuff up—it’s in the numbers. The Ravens aren’t feeding Ray Rice the ball. 

AFC South: Matt Leinart Hasn't Won a Game Since 2007

Houston Texans

The last time quarterback Matt Leinart started and won a football game was back in 2007 with the Arizona Cardinals—ironic, that was Matt Schaub’s first year with the Houston Texans.

Schaub was injured in Week 10 and will miss the rest of year with a right foot injury.

Indianapolis Colts

Although I can’t confirm it is an NFL record, what the Indianapolis Colts have done since 1997 is pretty astonishing.

Over the last 15 years, the Colts have either won or lost at least 10 games in each season. Let’s just say whatever the Colts do—win or lose—they do it well.

Win	Loss
0	10
10	6
14	2
12	4
13	3
12	4
14	2
12	4
12	4
10	6
6	10
10	6
13	3
3	13
3	13

Jacksonville Jaguars

Maurice Jones-Drew is about as close as a player can get to his production from last season.

Take a peek at his 2010 numbers compared to his numbers after nines games in 2011.

Year	Y/A	Avg. YPG	Att	Long
2010	4.4	94.6	21.4	37
2011	4.5	94.9	21.2	41

Tennessee Titans

Chris Johnson has his best game of the year in Week 10, rushing for 130 yards and adding 44 more via four catches.

But this resurgence started one week earlier—he just didn’t have enough carries (14) to post the big numbers folks have become accustomed to seeing from him.

Over his first seven games, he averaged 2.6 yards per carry, and in his last two games he has doubled his production, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. 

AFC West: Darren Sproles Leaving San Diego Might Be Overrated

Oakland Raiders

Carson Palmer has a passer rating over 100 (102.3) in his two games as the starter for the Oakland Raiders.

Directing the Silver and Black to their first win with him as quarterback, Palmer finished with a 125.0 passer rating.

How impressive is that for Palmer? Take into consideration that he has started 98 games before Week 10, and only seven other times has he had a rating higher than his Week 10 performance.      

San Diego Chargers

A lot is being said about how Darren Sproles leaving San Diego has left the offense in flux and quarterback Philip Rivers suffering.

That might be the case, but the production from the running backs is exceeding the production from 2010, when Sproles was part of the backfield.

2010 Production from Running Backs (Entire Season)
Player	Catches	Yards	TDs
Darren Sproles	59	520	2
Mike Tolbert	25	216	0
Ryan Mathews	22	145	0
Jacob Hester	22	145	1
Total	128	1,026	3
Average	8 per gm	64 per gm
2011Production from Running Backs (9 games)
Player	Catches	Yards	TDs
Mike Tolbert	37	327	2
Ryan Mathews	33	365	0
Jacob Hester	8	37	0
Curtis Brinkley	3	24	0
Total	81	753	3
Average	9.2	83 per gm

Kansas City Chiefs

The quarterback play between Matt Cassel and Tim Tebow wasn’t exactly up to snuff, with both combing for 162 passing yards—that’s eight quarters of football.

Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo has 237 yards passing in just two quarters of one player versus the Buffalo Bills in Week 10.

Denver Broncos

Tim Tebow doesn’t win pretty but he does win—in his last seven starts, the Broncos are 4-3.

Replacing Kyle Orton didn’t sit well with some, but the Broncos were 4-14 with him under center. So Broncos fans, you have a choice—win ugly, or don’t win at all?

NFC East: DeMarco Murray Has the Most Rushing Yards over the Last Four Weeks

Washington Redskins

Starting to think that head coach Mike Shanahan has the Redskins marching band playing "Hail To The Redskins" while using musical chairs to select his starters on offense.

New York Giants

Eli Manning has twice led the league in interceptions in both 2007 and 2010, not to mention finishing in the top five four times since 2005 in interceptions thrown.

With eight in 2011, Manning currently ranks tied for 15th with eight. With a brutal stretch coming up for the New York Giants, it will be vital for Manning to put ball security at the top of his list.

Philadelphia Eagles

With the Eagles losing to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10 (21-17 at home), I thought it would be best to keep most of the Week 9 notes attached.

Head coach Andy Reid has coached 201 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 3-6, and his percentage slips again to 54 percent.

Dallas Cowboys

No running back in the NFL has more rushing yards than rookie DeMarco Murray with 601.

Think about it like this—Murray has only 131 less yards rushing in four games than the entire Tennessee Titans offense that features Pro Bowl running back Chris Johnson. 

NFC South: Roddy White Producing as Normal

Atlanta Falcons

On the surface, it might seem like Roddy White is having a subpar year compared to his 2010 totals—a season in which he led the league in receptions with 115.

In 2010, White averaged 7.1 receptions per game, and after nine games in 2011 is 5.2, nearly two catches less per contest.

But in reality, White is playing to his norm in 2011. Prior to the breakout year of 2010, from 2007 to 2009 White averaged 85.3 catches per season, equaling 5.3 per game.

His 5.2 catches per game in 2011 puts him on pace for 83.2 catches.

New Orleans Saints

Quarterback Drew Brees leads the league in passing attempts, competitions and passing yards.

Running back Darren Sproles and tight end Jimmy Graham have combined for 122 catches, while the entire receiver unit has caught 124. If you group the Saints' tight ends and running backs together, they combine for 175 of the 299 completions Brees has in 2011.

Defensive coordinators, start paying attention less to those wideouts.

Carolina Panthers

Pretty impressive that rookie Cam Newton’s ninth game was his first without recording a touchdown.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Josh Freeman threw 18 interceptions his rookie year in 2009, starting in nine games.

Freeman erased those memories in 2010, because only Tom Brady (4) and Ben Roethlisberger (5) threw fewer, while Freeman tied Michael Vick with six for the third-fewest interceptions in the NFL.

The third-year quarterback went from the penthouse to the outhouse in 2011 thus far, throwing 13 interceptions, the second-most in the NFL behind only Philip Rivers with 15.

NFC West: Marshawn Lynch Finally Has Found His Groove

Arizona Cardinals

Here is a fun number to play around with after Week 10—quarterbacks John Skelton and Tim Tebow have as many wins as Sam Bradford and Josh Freeman with five.

Who would of thought that heading into the season? Not me, I know that.

San Francisco 49ers

Jim Harbaugh is the Bo Schembechler of National Football League.

What he was taught at Michigan you saw at Stanford with a power running game and solid defense—remember, Toby Gerhart was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2009.

In his first season as coach of the 49ers, you are seeing the trickle-down effect of Michigan-type football with a solid rushing game (49ers seventh in NFL) and strong defense (49ers 11th in NFL).

Seattle Seahawks

Take away one of the most memorable runs in playoff history from running back Marshawn Lynch, the 67-yard touchdown versus the New Orleans Saints in 2011, and you haven’t seen much success of late.

Well, that is until the last two games for the Seahawks—Lynch has recorded back-to-back 100-yard rushing games, the first time in his NFL career that started in 2007.

In fact, his 135 rushing yards in Week 9 resulted in his first 100-yard rushing game since 2008. Welcome back Marshawn, we missed you.

St. Louis Rams

The Rams have two wins in 2011.

Quarterback A.J. Feeley has one and Sam Bradford has the other—most people might forget that Feeley directed the win over the New Orleans Saints, while Bradford beat the Cleveland Browns this past weekend.

NFC North: Antoine Winfield Records Second Career Sack

Chicago Bears

What does Houston Texans' Troy Nolan have that the Bears linebackers don’t?

Seems like I’m the only one that finds this somewhat strange. Chicago is 6-3, yet no linebacker has recorded a single or half-sack for the 2011 season.

Nolan has a half-sack more than the entire Bears linebacker corps.

Minnesota Vikings

Antoine Winfield has played 13 years in the National Football League, appearing in 175 regular season games.

On Monday night versus the Green Bay Packers, he recorded the second sack of his career—his first since 2003. His two sacks match his total of touchdowns scored as well with two.  

Green Bay Packers

Matthew Stafford threw four, and Josh Freeman has three more dreaded interceptions in Week 10 alone.

All 16 teams took the field in Week 10, and 35 interceptions where thrown, with an average of 2.1 per game. Only three games didn't see any at all.  

Aaron Rodgers has thrown only three interceptions the entire 2011 thus far, and he leads the league in touchdown passes with 28.

Detroit Lions

Calvin Johnson has 54 catches and 11 touchdown passes, while Brandon Pettigrew has 46 catches, eight fewer, resulting in two touchdowns.

The Detroit Lions' other option at tight end, Tony Scheffler, has 12 catches but doubles the touchdown total of Pettigrew with four.