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Marshall and Decker, following one of many touchdowns

Marshall and Decker, following one of many touchdowns

Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker have quickly become one of the best wide receiver duos in the NFL. In their first game together this season, against the Browns, both scored a touchdown. The next week, the duo repeated that act against the Colts. A month later, both caught touchdowns against Washington. Then, Marshall and Decker each scored in back-to-back games against the Jaguars and Bills, and have since caught touchdowns against the Dolphins and Titans.

That’s seven games where both players have scored touchdowns in the same game.  They are just the second pair of receivers to pull off this feat. And with two games remaining, it’s still possible for them to tie the NFL record for any pair of teammates. Today, let’s look at all duos to score a touchdown in at least seven games.

Nine Games

In 1995, Emmitt Smith rushed for 25 touchdowns, while Michael Irvin caught 10 touchdowns. Of course, Smith set a record by scoring a touchdown in 15 regular season games, the only player to ever do that. Irvin’s 10 touchdowns came in 10 games, and while he did catch a touchdown in the lone game in which Smith was left out of the end zone, that still leaves 9 games where both players scored a touchdown. Incredibly, Smith then scored in all three playoff games, while Irvin caught touchdowns in the Cowboys wins over Philadelphia and Green Bay, giving the duo 11 games that season where both scored a touchdown.

Eight Games

  • In 1948, Alyn Beals and Johnny Strzykalski combined to score 25 touchdowns in 14 games for the San Francisco 49ers in the AAFC, including in six straight games beginning in week two, and eight games total.
  • Eighteen years later, a pair of Cleveland Browns repeated that feat. That season, Leroy Kelly scored 16 touchdowns, Gary Collins had 12, and fullback Ernie Green had nine scores. But it was Kelly and Green that were most aligned: while Green scored in only nine games, Kelly scored in all but one of those contests (a 27-7 win over Philadelphia).
  • Two years later, Kelly and Paul Warfield each scored in eight games for the Browns.
  • Fifteen years later, on Washington’s famous 1983 team that set the scoring record, John Riggins and Charlie Brown pulled off this trick.
  • Finally, in 2005, Shaun Alexander (who had 28 touchdowns) and … Joe Jurevicius (!) were the last duo to meet these criteria.  That year, Jurevicius set a career high with 10 touchdowns.

Seven Games

  • In ’48, while Strzykalski and Beals scored in eight games together, Strzykalski also scored in seven games with teammates Joe Perry and quarterback Frankie Albert (who had eight rushing touchdowns).
  • Five years later, Perry and receiver Billy Wilson scored in seven games for the 49ers.
  • In 1960, Jim Brown and Bobby Mitchell pulled off this feat for the Browns; five years later, Brown matched this with Gary Collins.
  • On the ’94 Cowboys, Smith and a wide receiver scored in seven games, but this time, it was Alvin Harper.

Jacksonville’s Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns have scored a combined 20 touchdowns, and have caught scores in six games for the Jaguars, so they could wind up making this list, too. Of course, it should go without saying that there’s more than a bit of a trivia/flukiness aspect to this “record”, at least once you reach a minimum number of touchdowns.  But for a Jets offense that’s generally been only record-setting in futility in recent years, the rise of Marshall and Decker has been music to Jets’ fans ears.

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