7 Most Important Stats From Week 12 in the NFL

This is how bad things are for the reeling 6-5 Chiefs: They’ve scored one TD in the last 10 quarters. One against the lowly Bills; none in an overtime loss to the Giants, and none in the 4th quarter of a loss to the Cowboys. Remember when Kareem Hunt was your offensive rookie of the year? Yeah, me neither. He rushed for 17 yards on 11 carries against the Bills, and hasn’t topped 90 yards in the last six games.

2.93

In what has to be one of the worst starts this season for any QB, Paxton Lynch was 9-of-14 for 41 yards (!) in a loss to the Raiders. The scariest part is that the Raiders had one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL. Lynch suffered a leg injury and didn’t return, and was seen crying on the sideline. He was also intercepted, though that was terribly unlucky. I’m at a loss how a QB can average 2.93 yards per pass after playing nearly three quarters. Lynch can’t be called a bust yet, but goodness gracious, he’s got to show something by next season.

The Panthers scored 35 points and beat the Jets on the road in a nice triumph for quietly 8-3 Carolina. So why does 11 matter? Because that’s the number of completions Cam Newton had. He was 11-of-28 for 168 yards. No TDs. The Panthers won in spite of Newton. A fumble returned for a TD, a punt return touchdown, and 145 yards rushing by the team lifted Carolina to victory.

Carson Wentz has one of the best stats of the season through 11 games: In the red zone, the MVP leader has 20 TD passes and 0 interceptions. Wentz finished the month of November with no interceptions in three games.

186

There’s a lot of renewed excitement over Brett Hundley in Green Bay after his 3-TD performance against the Steelers Sunday night. Just a brief word of caution: While Hundley played by far the best he has in the NFL, 186 yards of his 245 yards passing came on yards after the catch. Yes, he still has to put the passes in the right place, but the game said more about the Steelers defensive backs basically “taking the night” off more than anything.

240

The Eagles defense just held a 4th straight opponent to under 240 yards of total offense. The last time a team had a streak of this magnitude was in 1992 (Cowboys). Sure, the Eagles did it against four teams with losing records (Bears, Cowboys, Broncos, 49ers) but it’s still impressive. I’m fully aware critics will point out the QBs were a rookie (Mitchell Trubisky), Dak Prescott without Ezekiel Elliott, Trevor Siemian, and CJ Beathard.

253

Julio Jones had been in something of a 4-game funk. No TDs. That brutal drop against Carolina. In fact, he’d had only two 100-yard games all season. And then the awful Tampa Bay secondary came to Atlanta Sunday … and Jones caught a season-high 12 catches for 253 yards and TDs. Jones is having one of the slowest seasons of his career, but perhaps this snaps him out of it.