With November arriving and the 2019 NFL regular season essentially half-complete, here’s a look at 10 statistics that best tell the story of what’s been a strange and wild couple months of professional football.
4: Combined number of teams that are either winless (the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals) or unbeaten (the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers). It marks the first time since 2007 that there have been multiple perfect and multiple winless teams this late in the year.
4: That’s the number of touchdowns the Patriots have allowed on defense in eight games. The New England defense has scored the same number of touchdowns, which essentially means they’ve surrendered net-zero touchdowns in 2019.
10: Sacks from Shaquil Barrett of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns. Both are on pace to tie Michael Strahan’s single-season record of 22.5.
20: Quarterbacks who have started all of their team’s games this season. A dozen teams have already been forced to use multiple starting quarterbacks, and that excludes an Indianapolis Colts team that lost Andrew Luck prior to the season.
23.6: That’s the average scoring margin in New England’s eight games (all victories). No team in modern NFL history has ever outscored its opponents by 20-plus points over the course of a full season.
34.0: Points per game allowed by the Miami Dolphins this season. No team in modern NFL history has surrendered that many points per game over the course of a full campaign.
73: Receptions for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas, who despite Drew Brees’ injury is on pace to set a new single-season record with 146 catches. Thomas is a big reason why New Orleans has excelled without Brees for five games and Alvin Kamara for two.
80.3: That’s the league-wide field-goal success rate this season, which would be the lowest average since 2004, and a huge drop-off from 84.7 percent last year. There have already been nearly as many misses from inside 40 yards (16) than there were all of last season (20). And with weather conditions likely to become worse, so could this year’s kicking numbers relative to previous campaigns.
121.8: Penalty yards per game this season, making this the most-penalized campaign in NFL history to this point.
Most penalty yards per game in modern NFL history:
1. 2019 (121.8)
2. 1970 (119.8)
3. 2015 (117.8)
4. 2005 (116.4)— Brad Gagnon (@Brad_Gagnon) October 31, 2019
576: Rushing yards in seven games by Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is on pace to rush for more yards (1,316) than any other quarterback in NFL history. Only one (Michael Vick) has hit the 1,000-yard mark in a single season.
