Week 2 in the NFL is nearly in the books. And what a rocky ride it has been so far.
Records have already been broken, both good and bad. A rookie who had zero touchdowns last season now leads the league in scoring. Furthermore, a couple of quarterbacks have turned heads, and not necessarily for great reasons.
Here are 12 crazy NFL stats that have already occurred in the first two weeks.
Sam Bradford achieves 121.2 passer rating in Vikings debut
In 29 career games with Minnesota, Teddy Bridgewater has topped that mark only once. The bottom line is Bradford looked stunningly comfortable under center with his new team. He completed 71 percent of his passes for 286 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in a victory against the Green Bay Packers Sunday night.
The trade for Bradford so far appears to be a winner.
Melvin Gordon leads the league in rushing touchdowns
In just two games, Gordon has rushed in three touchdowns. The crazy thing here is that Gordon failed to score a single touchdown on 190 attempts in his rookie season. If he keeps up this pace, he will finish this year with 24 touchdowns.
It would appear that the Chargers’ first-round pick from 2015 is finally paying off.
Russell Wilson’s zero touchdown performance breaks 17-game scoring streak
Wilson had a terrible day in a road loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 2. His failure to score through the air Sunday snapped his 17-game scoring streak.
Surprisingly, the quarterback who is now the active leader in this stat is San Francisco’s Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert has passed for a touchdown in 12 consecutive games after throwing two touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers.
He will look to continue the streak next week against Wilson and that angry flock of Seahawks.
Aaron Rodgers hasn’t had a passer rating over 100 in 14 straight games
Rodgers is considered one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. In fantasy football, he is a top-two quarterback pick in most draft formats.
Interestingly enough, Rodgers owns the nagging passer rating stat, mentioned above. In fact, Rodgers’ performance in Sunday night’s game against Minnesota was so awful, he achieved a career low passer rating of 70.7. Rodgers threw for only one touchdown compared to one interception. He also fumbled three times resulting in one loss.
It was a very un-Rodgers-like performance, to say the least.
Adrian Peterson has averaged only seven inches per carry before contact
Peterson is off to a rough start. Up until his knee injury in Sunday night’s game, Peterson had averaged a mere seven inches before coming into contact with his opposition.
Unfortunately, Peterson’s lack of success has much to to with Minnesota’s atrocious offensive line. So far, he has managed only 50 rushing yards on 31 attempts.
We can only hope the Vikings load up on some bubble wrap to protect whoever starts in Peterson’s place this weekend, if he does miss time.
Giants finish Week 2 with minus-three TO differential and win
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees combined for 13 touchdowns when they last met in 2015.
Quite the opposite went down in Sunday’s Week 2 rematch. The Giants won 16-13. But they failed to score an offensive touchdown and lost three fumbles along the way. The last time an NFL game was won under the same circumstances was when the Chicago Bears beat the Arizona Cardinals 24-23 in 2006.
That game was also known as the “They are who we thought they were” game.
New England Patriots could start first African American quarterback in team history
The status of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s shoulder injury is still up in the air. This means the Patriots could start rookie Jacoby Brissett this Thursday. If so, he would be the first African American quarterback who has ever started for New England.
Brissett was selected in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. On a short turnaround week, the Patriots have only a few days to decide whether they will roll with Brissett. If not, they could sign one of the current free agents in the interim.
Thursday’s game against the Houston Texans should be an interesting one to follow, regardless.
Dak Prescott sets record for most passes without an interception through a rookie’s first two games
It is becoming more and more apparent that Prescott is the real deal. So far in his first two professional starts, he has attempted 75 passes and remained interception free. This sets a new NFL record for a quarterback starting in his first two games.
To date, Prescott has completed 63.7 percent of those passes for a total of 519 yards. The icing on the cake would of course be to see Prescott achieve his first passing touchdown.
Oakland Raiders break an embarrassing defensive record
During the first two weeks of the 2016 season, the Raiders defense has allowed a ridiculous 1,035 total yards. Sadly, this breaks a 65-year old record formerly held by the 1951 New York Yanks. The Yanks were a short-lived football team from from the 1950’s that eventually evolved into today’s Indianapolis Colts.
The Raiders’ Swiss cheese defense absolutely must tighten things up moving forward.
Carolina’s victory over the 49ers (46-27) marked first time in NFL history this score was accomplished
After throwing out the bold prediction that the 49ers would beat the Panthers in Week 2, the extreme opposite happened. The Panthers destroyed the 49ers in a home victory (46-27) in Week 2. Apparently, this is the first time in NFL history that particular score was established.
The game marked the first win of the 2016 season for the Panthers.
The Browns’ stream of bad quarterback luck continues on
This upcoming Sunday will mark the fifth consecutive regular season game that the Browns have started a different quarterback. How completely horrible is this? Former Cleveland quarterback Johnny Manziel started in Week 16 in 2015. He was followed by Austin Davis in Week 17.
Fast forward to Week 1 in 2016 when Robert Griffin III went under center. A shoulder injury to Griffin (now on IR) led to Josh McCown starting in Week 2. Now, McCown is banged up and the Browns will debut rookie Cody Kessler in Week 3.
For comparison sake, the New England Patriots have started only five quarterbacks in the last 21 years.
Those brave enough to don a Browns’ quarterback jersey might want to update it accordingly.
Three teams that went undefeated in the preseason are still undefeated after Week 2
The three teams that have managed this task so far are the Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings.
If the Philadelphia Eagles can clinch a win in Monday Night Football, they will make for the fourth team that went undefeated in the preseason and remains so now.
A little food for thought here would be the focus on each team’s quarterback.
The Ravens lost Joe Flacco to an ACL injury last year. He barely played in the preseason. Houston is riding high on Brock Osweiler. The Vikings lost Teddy Bridgewater to a terrible knee injury only to acquire Sam Bradford in a trade, right before the start of the season.
Lastly, the Eagles appear to have found success with rookie Carson Wentz after departing with Bradford.