Research & Doug – October 29, 2013

1) Larry Fitzgerald replaced Jason Witten as the youngest player in history to catch 800 passes. –Cardinals press release

In honor of Larry’s accomplishment over Witten, here’s some stats specific to their careers. I went through every game of each player’s career using Pro-football reference.com.

a) Jason Witten has caught a pass from eight different QBs. Larry Fitzgerald has caught a pass from 15 different QBs.

b) Witten has had six seasons where every pass came from the same QB. Fitzgerald has only experienced that once in his career…this one.

c) Witten has had to catch a pass from the third-string QB only twice in his career. Other than this one, Fitzgerald has only two seasons where he didn’t catch the ball from his third-string QB.

d) Witten had a different QB in each of his first three years, but each one started every game. In Fitzgerald’s first three years, he caught a pass from the third-string QB twice and caught a pass from six different QBs.

e) Witten has never caught a pass from a fourth-string QB. Fitzgerald has had to do it in two different seasons.

In case you’re dying to know, the 15 human beings to throw a pass to Fitzgerald in an NFL game are:

Josh McCown

Shaun King

John Navarre

Kurt Warner

Matt Leinart

Tim Rattay

Brian St. Pierre

Derek Anderson

Max Hall

John Skelton

Richard Bartel

Kevin Kolb

Ryan Lindley

Brian Hoyer

Carson Palmer

Now to the normal part of R & D:

2) 16 teams haven’t thrown for as many yards in a game this year as Calvin Johnson amassed against Dallas. — ESPN Stats & Info

3) One of the 16 teams from the last stat is the Arizona Cardinals, who haven’t matched Johnson’s total in the air since Kurt Warner retired. –ESPN Stats & Info and me

4) Andre Ellington has more yards from scrimmage than any rookie in the NFL. –Cardinals press release

5) The only hit for Stephen Drew in the first five games of the World Series was the 40-foot pop-up that fell between Wainwright and Molina. –I’ve been paying attention

6) The NFC East has five wins outside the division, three less than any other division. –ESPN broadcast

7) Greg Schiano has won three home games in his NFL career. — Associated Press

8) The Patriots blitzed a DB five times this year going into their game against Miami and blitzed a DB 14 times against them. –ESPN Stats & Info

9) Seattle only allows a 31.6 completion percentage in the red zone. –ESPN Stats & Info

10) Reggie Bush has 335 yards receiving. He’s the only player on the Lions roster with more yards receiving on the season than Calvin Johnson had in one game against Dallas. –I looked it up

11) Only twice in Matt Ryan’s career has he thrown four INTs and both games are against Arizona. –Cardinals press release

12) The Bears are the only team with a winning record to lose to the NFC East. –I looked it up

13) Drew Brees has eight 5 TD games. The most in NFL history.–NFL press release

14) The three youngest players to triple in a World Series game are Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle and Xander Bogaerts. –Fox broadcast

15) Only Dan Marino has had more 400+ yard games (at equal points in their careers) than Mathew Stafford. –NFL press release

16) Alex Smith is the first QB since the merger to win his first eight games with a new team. –NFL press release

17) The National League Champion St. Louis Cardinals only scored 26 percent of their runs via the HR, lowest percentage in baseball. –Fox broadcast

18) The Eagles have only beaten teams with 0 wins at the time of the game. –ESPN Stats & Info

19) Mizzou has forced a turnover in 38 straight games longest current streak. –ESPN2 broadcast

20) The last time the Red Sox won the World Series at home was the last World Series game before the curse of the Bambino. –Fox broadcast

21) The Chiefs are the first team to from worst to 8-0 in NFL history. –NFL press release

22) Terrelle Pryor’s 93-yard TD run is the longest by a QB in NFL history and the longest by a Raider for any position in franchise history. –NFL press release

23) The Cowboys lost with a +4 turnover margin for only the second time in franchise history. –ESPN Stats & Info

24) Tom Brady won for the 33rd time following a loss against losing a second in a row only eight times for the best winning percentage after a loss in NFL history. –ESPN Stats & Info but updated by me

25) After starting 1-2, the 49ers have called more running plays than passing plays in each of their last five games and won all five. –I looked it up

26) The Bengals had two pick-sixes for the first time since the first term of the Reagan administration. –ESPN Stats & Info said 1984, I added the Reagan mention for effect

27) In their last three games, the Vikings have handed the ball to Adrian Peterson 10, 13 and 13 times. –I looked it up with the idea from ESPN Stats & Info

28) Seattle gave up as many sacks as first downs earned (7). –I was counting

30) The Seahawks have forced at least two turnovers in every game this year. –ESPN Stats & Info

Follow @doug987FM