Thursday, October 10, 2024

Kyler Murray pulls off rare feat no NFL QB had accomplished in 50 years, plus 14 more wild stats from Week 2

Kyler Murray pulls off rare feat no NFL QB had accomplished in 50 years, plus 14 more wild stats from Week 2

If you want to have your mind blown, just check out these 15 crazy stats from Week 2

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The second full Sunday of the 2024 NFL season is officially in the books, and it was a wild one. 

For one, we finally got to see what a fully healthy Kyler Murray can do. During Arizona’s 41-10 win over the Rams, Murray finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3 after completing 17 of 21 passes (81 percent) for 266 yards and three touchdowns. He also tacked on 59 rushing yards, which made him just the second QB in NFL history to throw for at least 250 passing yards with at least 50 rushing yards while also finishing the game with a perfect passer rating.

Murray joins former NFL MVP Ken Anderson, who did it while playing for the Bengals in 1974. That means it’s been 50 years since the last time we saw a quarterback play a game like this. After two weeks, the underrated Cardinals look like a team that could be a dark horse playoff contender this season. 

So that else happened in Week 2? 

Let’s check out 14 more of the wildest stats (via CBS Sports research unless noted)

  1. Giants do the impossible. In their 21-18 loss to the Commanders, the Giants became the first team in NFL history to lose a game in regulation after scoring three touchdowns and holding their opponent to zero touchdowns. That had only happened one other time in NFL history, but the other game went to overtime, giving the Giants an NFL first. The Commanders beat the Giants with seven field goals. 
  2. High-scoring Saints. The Saints have scored 91 points through two games, which is the fourth-highest total in NFL history through two weeks. The Saints are also just the third team in NFL history to score at least 44 points in three straight games. Not only did they top that mark last week, but they also scored 48 in their 2023 season finale. 
  3. Kamara goes crazy. The Saints running back totaled 180 yards and four touchdowns against the Cowboys. Kamara, who also had 172 scrimmage yards and six touchdowns on Christmas Day in 2020, is just the fifth player in the Super Bowl era with multiple career games with at least 150 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns, The Saints running back joins three Hall of Famers in LaDainian Tomlinson (four games), Marshall Faulk (three) and Jerry Rice (two) along with Clinton Portis (two).
  4. Cowboys get crushed at home. With their 44-19 loss to the Saints, the Cowboys became just the fifth team in the Super Bowl era to give up at least 44 points in two consecutive home games. Before Sunday, the Cowboys’ last home game came in a 48-32 wild-card loss to the Packers.  
  5. Steelers are winning without scoring points. The Steelers improved to 2-0 on the season by beating the Broncos, 13-6. The Steelers have totaled just one touchdown in those two wins making them the first team since the 2000 Lions to start 2-0 despite scoring just one touchdown over the first two games.  
  6. Viking go long against 49ers. During Minnesota’s 23-17 win over the 49ers, Sam Darnold threw a 97-yard TD to Justin Jefferson, which was the longest offensive play that the 49ers have ever surrendered in franchise history (You can see the play here). It was also the second-longest receiving TD in Vikings history trailing only Bernard Berrian, who had a 99-yard catch in 2008. 
  7. Burrow vs. Mahomes is always a classic. The two quarterbacks have met five times and in all five games the final score has been decided by three points or less, which makes it the only QB matchup where that’s happened in NFL history. The streak continued on Sunday with Kansas City’s 26-25 win over the Bengals.  
  8. Mahomes always seems to win. The victory over the Bengals on Sunday was the 76th over Mahomes’ career, which puts him in a tie with Tom Brady and Roger Staubach for the most ever by a QB in the first 100 starts of his career. The twist here is that Mahomes has only made 98 starts, so he’ll have two chances to break the record. 
  9. Panthers might be one of the worst teams everThe Panthers have not led with time on the clock during the fourth quarter for 20 consecutive games, which is tied for the second-longest streak in NFL history trailing only the Rochester Jeffersons, who went 22 straight games without leading in the fourth quarter from 1922-25. 
  10. Brock Bowers is on a roll. The Raiders tight end caught nine passes for 98 yards against the Ravens and if you combine that with his total from last week (six catches for 58 yards), it makes him the first tight end in NFL history to catch at least five passes for at least 50 yards in each of his first two NFL games.  
  11. Jayden Daniels is on a roll. The Commanders QB had 44 rushing yards against the Giants, which gives him 132 yards through two games. With that total, Daniels has broken Robert Griffin’s record for the most rushing yards by a QB in his first two career games in the Super Bowl era (Griffin ran for 124 during his first two starts in 2024). 
  12. Malik Nabers has a breakout game. The Giants rookie had 10 receptions for 127 yards and one touchdown and with those numbers, he became the youngest player in NFL history to record at least 10 catches for at least 100 yards. At 21 years and 49 days old, Nabers broke a record that had stood since 1953 when Gern Nagler had a huge game against the Chicago Cardinals at 21 years and 251 days old. 
  13. Braelon Allen also breaks an age record. The Jets rookie running back scored two touchdowns in New York’s 24-17 win over the Titans. At 20 years and 239 days old, Allen became the youngest player in the Super Bowl era to ever score a touchdown. He also became the second youngest player to score since 1933, trailing only Andy Livingston, who was 20 years, 53 days, when he scored for the Bears in 1964. 
  14. Buccaneers beat long odds. During their win over the Lions, the Bucs got outgained by 247 yards and the Lions had five more sacks than Tampa Bay. According to NFL.com, that makes the Bucs just the second team since 1970 to win a game where they were outgained by at least 200 yards while also having five fewer sacks than the other team. The only other time that’s happened came in 1987 when the Oilers beat the Bengals. 

It should also be noted that the Lions were historically bad int he red zone. Detroit got inside of Tampa Bay’s 20-yard line a total of seven times in the game, but the Lions were only able to score one touchdown. According to ESPN, it was the first time since 1981 that the Lions had at least six red zone possessions without a TD. 

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