Research & Doug – December 18, 2013

1) This is only the fourth winning season in Arizona Cardinals history.(Cards press release)

2) The Cardinals went undefeated versus the AFC for the first time since re-alignment. (Cards press release)

3) The Cardinals have scored more points this year — with two games still remaining — than they did in any of the three years since Kurt Warner retired. (Cards press release)

4) Seven of the last eight Cardinal touchdowns have been scored by a player not on the roster last year. (Cards press release)

5) Carson Palmer has thrown for more career yards than Steve Young and Troy Aikman. (Cards press release)

6) Eleven years ago, Kansas City scored 35 or more first half points in consecutive games and did it again in their last two games. No franchise has ever done it once and KC has done it twice. (NFL press release)

7) Only three QBs have thrown for at least 50 TDs in their first two years in the league: Dan Marino, Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson. (NFL press release)

8) Tony Gonzalez has over 1,100 receptions for 15,000 yards and 100 TDs, only Jerry Rice is that club.(NFL press release)

9) The Lions lead the NFL in dropped passes with 44, twelve more than second place.(ESPN Stats & Info)

10) The only QBs to throw for 4,000 in three of their first 5 seasons are Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Matthew Stafford. (ESPN Stats & Info)

11) Joe Flacco had completed 47 percent of his red zone passes before Dennis Pitta returned from injury and is at 80% with him back in the line up. (ESPN Stats & Info)

12) Torrey Smith had five TD receptions of 15 or more yards last year and zero this year. (ESPN Stats & Info)

13) A key to beating Denver is having a 100-yard rusher. Ryan Matthews rushed for 127 becoming the first player to rush for 100 yards against Denver this year and first overall since the devastating playoff loss to Ray Rice and the Ravens. (ESPN Stats & Info)

14) Peyton Manning is 1-5 versus San Diego in any game after November 30th. (ESPN Stats & Info)

15) If you’ve ever wondered the importance of a veteran, back-up quarterback, Kirk Cousins became the 16th QB to start despite representing less than a million dollars on the team’s salary cap (of course, Russell Wilson is on that list, too). (ESPN Stats & Info)

16) No team had lost four fumbles in a game this year until the Redskins lost five (plus two INTs for seven turnovers) against Atlanta. (ESPN Stats & Info)

17) Despite missing five games this year, Jay Cutler leads the NFL in red zone INTs. (ESPN Stats & Info) and me

18) From 2001-2012 with Tom Brady as the starter, New England lost one divisional game when they had a 10 point lead at some point in the game. In 2013, they’ve lost two. (ESPN Stats & Info)

19) Philly called only 10 total running plays and LeSean McCoy had just eight carries. (ESPN Stats & Info)

20) Starting the second half with a 23-point lead, Jason Garrett and Tony Romo handed off the ball to a running back only seven times. (ESPN Stats & Info)

21) Eli Manning threw 4 passes to Hakeem Nicks. Nicks caught one and the Seahawks caught the other three. (ESPN Stats & Info)

22) Since Eli Manning entered the league, he has more games with four-plus INTs than any other QB. (ESPN Stats & Info)

23) Vernon Davis is only the second 49er this century to have 5 straight games with a TD reception (Terrell Owens). (ESPN Stats & Info)

24) The AFC is so bad, it wasn’t until last weekend Jacksonville was eliminated from playoff contention. (ESPN Stats & Info)

25) This season, no QB has more 4th quarter INTs in a five-point game than Tony Romo and no QB has more games (2) in which they’ve thrown multiple INTs under the same situation (4thQ/5-pt game) than Tony Romo. (ESPN Stats & Info)

26) Huge note to dispel a common football myth, despite trailing by 23 to start the second half, Green Bay ran the ball more than they did in the first half. (ESPN Stats & Info)

27) Since Tony Romo became the starting QB in 2006, he’s thrown 7 INTs when his team is tied or leading by one possession after the start of the 4th quarter (2nd place is 4 INTs). (ESPN Stats & Info)

28) The Cowboys were 42-0 with a 20-plus point halftime lead before Sunday’s meltdown. (ESPN Stats & Info)

29) Normally the master of the deep ball, Drew Brees, completed two passes to Saints on passes 15-plus yards down the field and 1 pass to the Rams. (ESPN Stats & Info)

30) Despite Roethlisberger completing 85 percent of his passes when Cincinnati didn’t blitz, the Bengals only brought 5 rushers on 23% of Big Ben’s dropbacks. (ESPN Stats & Info)

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