Jets running back Isaiah Crowell had a remarkable game on Sunday against the Broncos. He made the most of his 15 carries, producing a 77-yard rushing touchdown, along with carries of 54, 36 and 15 yards. He finished the day with 219 rushing yards, setting a new Jets franchise rushing record in the process.
Do you know what else he did? He averaged 14.33 yards per carry, the highest single-game YPC average by any player in history with at least 15 carries. That made me wonder: what are the highest single-game yards per carry averages at all carry levels?
Joey Galloway holds the record for yards per carry in a game, at 86.0. He did that on one carry, as you could probably guess (and what a carry it was). Up the minimum threshold to 2 or more carries, and Brian Mitchell is your record-holder: he averaged 52.2 yards per carry on 2 carries for 105 yards. At 3+ carries, Cordarrelle Patterson was the record-holder, with a 3-102-34.3 performance … until Browns running back Nick Chubb broke that mark in week 4 of this season against the Raiders with 3 carries for 105 yards. At 4+ carries, Latavius Murray holds the record with a 28 yards per carry average. And so on.
I went ahead and calculated the single-game YPC leaders at each carry threshold, from 1 carry through 43 carries. [1]Jamie Morris is the only player with more than 43 carries in a game. He rushed 45 times for 152 yards in an overtime loss to the Bengals in a meaningless game for the Redskins in the 1988 season … Continue reading That is shown in the table below, which should be self-explanatory (I have also provided a link to the game’s boxscore). Ties are noted in the footnotes, with the most recent player shown in the table. Finally, the last column shows whether that person holds the record for yards per carry at that carry level *and* at any higher carry level. For example, Steve Broussard holds the record for YPC by a player with 6 carries, but he does *not* hold the record for YPC by a player with at least 6 carries. So he gets a “No” in the final column.
| Car | Player | Year | Tm | Opp | Yards | YPC | Boxscore | Highest? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joey Galloway | 1995 | SEA | JAX | 86 | 86 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 2 | Brian Mitchell | 2000 | PHI | ATL | 105 | 52.5 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 3 | Nick Chubb | 2018 | CLE | OAK | 105 | 35 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 4 | Latavius Murray | 2014 | OAK | KAN | 112 | 28 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 5 | Rashad Jennings | 2010 | JAX | OAK | 109 | 21.8 | Boxscore | No |
| 6 | Steve Broussard | 1997 | SEA | TEN | 138 | 23 | Boxscore | No |
| 7 | Hugh McElhenny | 1952 | SFO | DTX | 170 | 24.29 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 8 | Maurice Jones-Drew | 2009 | JAX | TEN | 177 | 22.13 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 9 | Jeremy Hill | 2016 | CIN | CLE | 168 | 18.67 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 10 | Michael Vick | 2002 | ATL | MIN | 173 | 17.3 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 11 | Marion Motley | 1950 | CLE | PIT | 188 | 17.09 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 12 | Michael Vick [2]Keith Lincoln and George Taliaferro also had 12/166 in a game. Link. | 2006 | ATL | NOR | 166 | 13.83 | Boxscore | No |
| 13 | Keith Lincoln | 1963 | SDG | BOS | 206 | 15.85 | Boxscore | No |
| 14 | Bobby Mitchell | 1959 | CLE | WAS | 232 | 16.57 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 15 | Isaiah Crowell | 2018 | NYJ | DEN | 215 | 14.33 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 16 | Frank Gore | 2009 | SFO | SEA | 207 | 12.94 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 17 | Bob Hoernschemeyer | 1950 | DET | NYY | 198 | 11.65 | Boxscore | No |
| 18 | Bo Jackson | 1987 | RAI | SEA | 221 | 12.28 | Boxscore | No |
| 19 | DeAngelo Williams | 2008 | CAR | TAM | 186 | 9.79 | Boxscore | No |
| 20 | Jim Brown | 1963 | CLE | DAL | 232 | 11.6 | Boxscore | No |
| 21 | LeShon Johnson | 1996 | ARI | NOR | 214 | 10.19 | Boxscore | No |
| 22 | Corey Dillon | 2000 | CIN | DEN | 278 | 12.64 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 23 | Tiki Barber | 2006 | NYG | WAS | 234 | 10.17 | Boxscore | No |
| 24 | Chris Johnson [3]Clinton Portis also had a 24/228 game. Link | 2009 | TEN | JAX | 228 | 9.5 | Boxscore | No |
| 25 | Jamaal Charles | 2009 | KAN | DEN | 259 | 10.36 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 26 | Willie Ellison | 1971 | RAM | NOR | 247 | 9.5 | Boxscore | No |
| 27 | Doug Martin | 2015 | TAM | PHI | 235 | 8.7 | Boxscore | No |
| 28 | Napoleon Kaufman [4]O.J. Simpson also had a 28/227 game. Link. | 1997 | OAK | DEN | 227 | 8.11 | Boxscore | No |
| 29 | O.J. Simpson | 1976 | BUF | DET | 273 | 9.41 | Boxscore | No |
| 30 | Adrian Peterson | 2007 | MIN | SDG | 296 | 9.87 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 31 | LaDainian Tomlinson | 2003 | SDG | OAK | 243 | 7.84 | Boxscore | No |
| 32 | Willie Parker | 2006 | PIT | CLE | 223 | 6.97 | Boxscore | No |
| 33 | Jamaal Charles | 2012 | KAN | NOR | 233 | 7.06 | Boxscore | No |
| 34 | Jerome Harrison | 2009 | CLE | KAN | 286 | 8.41 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 35 | Shaun Alexander | 2001 | SEA | OAK | 266 | 7.6 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 36 | Cookie Gilchrist | 1963 | BUF | NYJ | 243 | 6.75 | Boxscore | No |
| 37 | Mike Anderson | 2000 | DEN | NOR | 251 | 6.78 | Boxscore | No |
| 38 | Le'Veon Bell | 2016 | PIT | BUF | 236 | 6.21 | Boxscore | No |
| 39 | Corey Dillon | 1997 | CIN | TEN | 246 | 6.31 | Boxscore | No |
| 40 | Walter Payton | 1977 | CHI | MIN | 275 | 6.88 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 41 | Franco Harris | 1976 | PIT | CIN | 143 | 3.49 | Boxscore | No |
| 42 | Terrell Davis | 1997 | DEN | BUF | 207 | 4.93 | Boxscore | Yes |
| 43 | Rudi Johnson | 2003 | CIN | HOU | 182 | 4.23 | Boxscore | Yes |
Here’s the same data but plotted on a graph; the red dots represent the players with a “Yes” in the table (i.e., they hold the record for YPC at that carry level or greater). In case it isn’t obvious, the X-Axis represents number of carries, and the Y-Axis represents yards per carry.
You can see a lot of blue in between the red dots at 16 and 22. That’s Corey Dillon’s fault! The players to average the most YPC at 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 carries don’t hold the record for YPC at that level and above because Dillon averaged 12.64 carries on 22 carries in his record-setting game against the Broncos.
Other notable entries: five players have two spots on the list. Michael Vick is the single-game YPC record-holder for a player with at least 10 carries, and also for a player with exactly 12 carries (although he shares that with two other players). Dillon holds the record at 22 carries and also at 39 carries, although he only had to beat out 12 other players in the latter case. Chiefs great Jamaal Charles is the king at 25 and 33 carries; Charles is one of only three players to average at least 10 yards per carry on 25 carries (and nobody has ever averaged 10+ YPC on more than 25 carries.
The other two players are O.J. Simpson and Keith Lincoln. Simpson is your record-holder at 29 carries, and is tied for the record at 28 carries. Simpson also has the second-best YPC for a running back with 29 carries in a game, making him responsible for 3 of the 7 times in history a running back has averaged 8+ yards per carry on 28+ carries. Lincoln rushed 12 times for 166 yards in one game (tying him with Vick and Taliaferro), and 13 for 206 in one of my favorite games of all time.
What’s your favorite record in this table? I have a soft spot for Bobby Mitchell, who rushed for 232 yards on a day when he ranked second on his own team in carries. There have been just 28 times in NFL history when a player rushed for at least 232 yards. In 27 of those instances, the player had at least 20 carries; Mitchell is the 28th, and he did it on just 14 carries.
References
| ↑1 | Jamie Morris is the only player with more than 43 carries in a game. He rushed 45 times for 152 yards in an overtime loss to the Bengals in a meaningless game for the Redskins in the 1988 season finale. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Keith Lincoln and George Taliaferro also had 12/166 in a game. Link. |
| ↑3 | Clinton Portis also had a 24/228 game. Link |
| ↑4 | O.J. Simpson also had a 28/227 game. Link. |