The Saddest NFL Stats Of Week 8
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Welcome to Week 8 NFL Sad Stats. It's that time of the year where we all kind of know what our teams are and it becomes a chore watching them week after week. Then again - sometimes it's also when we get some surprises out of our teams that came into the week flatlined. Talking about your teams, Jets and Dolphins fans. You never know when your week is going to be! And that's what keeps us coming back for more.
Anyway - let's get to this.
Sad Stat #1: Myles Garrett joins three others in getting five or more sacks in a losing effort
Kathryn Riley. Getty Images.Five sacks in a losing effort is quite unfortunate. Makes me think of that generic coach speech after a loss where they say something along the lines of "everyone could have done a little bit more out there today". Maybe keep that one in the pocket after this one, coach. Or tell Myles "headphones" first. He is officially excluded from blame.
This performance made just the 19th time a player recorded 5+ sacks in a game. And of those 19, only three others join Garrett in doing this in a loss. You might have seen this stat above floating around.
Ever wonder why these stats come with weird qualifiers? The reason they gave it the "more than three points" is because of guys like Derrick Thomas, who recorded 7 sacks in Week 10, 1990 in a 17-16 loss.
Earl Richardson. Getty Images.Or Leslie O'Neal (5 sacks in Week 11, 1986) who lost 24-21 as a Charger, and Howie Long (5 sacks in Week 5 1983) in a 37-35 loss.
Sad Stat #2: Chicago Bears penalties are starting to get out of hand
There's a lot going on with the Bears right now. Penalties piling up are becoming one of them. With 64 on the season, that slightly trails Denver and Dallas' league-high 67. Ben Johnson went out of his way to call out the players - particularly the leaders - for the continuance of these penalties. I imagine that's directed at some combination of Caleb and/or Dalman since many of these are pre-snap. 16 false starts for the Bears is tied for the most with the Chargers who - unlike the Bears - haven't yet had their bye.
Little bit of an eye-brow raiser to hear a coach pretty much say "well, I did my job, it's on y'all now", but that appears to be where we're at. Really believe in Ben Johnson, and maybe this is some psychological tactic to get the team to buckle down, but if there's one thing actionable you can do to get the most out of Caleb Williams I feel like pre-snap boot camp might be the way to go. Not washing your hands of the issue.
Sad Stat #3: Patrick Mahomes threw back-to-back interceptions on his first two drives and won the game by 21-points
The broadcast mentioned this was the first time Mahomes ever started a game throwing back-to-back interceptions which got me curious to see how many times he did this at any point in a game. Turns out, he's only done this four other times in his career in over 1,300 drives. I don't know about you - but that even seems high for someone like Mahomes.
And yet it wasn't even that shocking the Chiefs still demolished the Commanders like they did. Mariota went out there and played a pretty good game, especially to start, but even that was ruined by a Deebo drop turned interception. Fun fact though - the last quarterback to start a game with back-to-back interceptions was Josh Allen. And he also won that game. Week 18 vs the Dolphins just last year. Maybe something for teams to think about trying. Want to be like Patrick and Josh? It's easier than you think.
Sad Stat #4: Chiefs / Commanders set an NFL record for starting the game with the most FAILED positive or neutral drives
Great question here by Jeff D. Lowe. Someone needs to bookkeep games that start with the most drive failures and that someone may as well be me. For purposes of this stat, we are not considering a punt as a failed drive. For all we know, a team may have improved their position by playing the field position game. Therefore, punts must be considered neutral. Obviously scoring a touchdown or field goal is a success, and everything else is a failed drive.
Here's how things started off Monday night.
Wasn't until 5:46 in the second half that a non-negative drive occurred for either team. I'm not sure who this is more sad for. The Commanders at least have an excuse with their star quarterback hurt, but then again the Chiefs were still able to quadruple the Commanders by the end of the game for the decisive win. So I guess that settles that.
Try to remain respectful and act a little surprised to learn that the prior record was an NFC South division game. Saints/Panthers. Week 11, 2000. 9:19 left in the 2nd quarter.
