The first 3,000 yard passer, the first 4,000 yard passer, and some baseball player.
Green Bay’s Arnie Herber (1936) and Cecil Isbell (1942) were the first players to ever throw for 1,000 and 2,000 yards in a season, respectively. In 1960, Johnny Unitas became the first quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in a season. That same year, Frank Tripucka and Jack Kemp each topped the 3,000 yard mark in the 14-game AFL season (the NFL switched from 12 to 14 games the next year). In 1967, Joe Namath threw for 4,000 yards for the Jets in the AFL. Do you know who was the first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in the NFL?
Dan Fouts threw for 4,082 yards in 1979, becoming the first quarterback since Joe Namath to reach that mark. He again broke the single-season passing yards record in 1980 with 4,715 yards, and set the mark a third time in 1981 with 4,802 yards.
Like Shattenjager, this was the first I got without hints. So notable that Fouts set three consecutive yardage records with SD. Amazing accomplishment.
Yards per Attempt is the basic statistic around which the passing game should be measured. It forms the base of my favorite predictive statistic (Net Yards per Attempt) and my favorite explanatory statistic (Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt). But it’s not perfect. In theory, Yards per Attempt is a system-neutral metric. If you play in […]
Consider the following example. The Colts gain possession at the 20-yard line. Andrew Luck is in shotgun and throws a strike to Reggie Wayne, who catches it at the 30, runs 15 yards, and gets tackled at the 45-yard line. Luck gets credited with 25 passing yards and Wayne records 25 receiving yards. Wayne is […]
Over at Footballguys.com, I look at a different method to project receiving yards. The number of receiving yards a player produces is the result of a large number of variables. Some of them, like the receiver’s ability, are pretty consistent from year to year. But other factors are less reliable, or less “sticky” from year […]
On June 15, 2012, I launched Football Perspective. Since that day, Football Perspective has posted a new article every single day. This the site’s 445th post, so I won’t blame you if you’ve missed an article here or there. At the top of every page is a link to the Historical Archive, a page that […]
Football Perspective turns one tomorrow. To celebrate, Doug Drinen has come up with a contest centered around the following picture. Question 1: Explain what this is a picture of. Question 2: Make a case to your real or hypothetical significant other that this is worthy of being printed, framed, and hung on your wall. GRAND […]
#10: Tie: Mike Williams – linebacker, 1986 (Pittsburgh); Michael Williams – tight end, 2013-current (Detroit) Nine Mike Williamses have played in the NFL. A Tulsa linebacker of the same name was drafted by the Steelers in the 12th round of the 1986 Draft but never appeared in a game. In April, the Lions selected Alabama […]
Back in 2006, Doug Drinen came up with the Dungy Index, a way to measure a coach’s performance in the regular season relative to expectations. Because Doug understands regression to the mean, he was impressed by Tony Dungy’s ability to continue to string together 12-win seasons year after year.1 But Doug didn’t want to just […]
Entire books have been written about the West Coast Offense. Friend of the program Chris Brown has an excellent primer on some of the principles of the system. Due to time constraints, this post is not going to dissect a voluminous playbook, translate Spider 3 Y Banana into English, or discuss the role of motions […]
The Simple Rating System is a set of computer rankings focused on only two variables: strength of schedule and margin of victory. I published weekly college football SRS ratings each week last season, and you can read more about the SRS there. Last month, Jason Lisk of the Big Lead took the Las Vegas point […]
When I ask a question in the title of a post, I usually have an answer. But not this time. From 2000 to 2012, 163 different quarterbacks started 16 games. I thought it might be interesting to check out their splits based on the Game Script of each game. I grouped each quarterback’s statistics in […]
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This is the first time I’ve gotten one without the hints so far.
I really miss the old days of the PFR blog; this blog brings back some of that old style of rock and roll. Keep up the good work Chase.
Like Shattenjager, this was the first I got without hints. So notable that Fouts set three consecutive yardage records with SD. Amazing accomplishment.
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