Cold, Hard Football Facts.com: Vikings defense deserves credit too

Vikings defense deserves credit too
Cold, Hard Football Facts for November 5, 2007

By Jonathan Comey

Cold, Hard Football Facts taker of aspirin

When two NFL records get set in a single game, it’s easy for a more complex achievement to be overlooked.

And so it was in Minnesota's 35-17 win over the visiting Chargers Sunday.

Antonio Cromartie’s 109-yard return of a missed field goal (his third TD in two weeks, as many as Rams QB Marc Bulger has thrown for the season) tied the NFL record, and it’s one that’ll never be broken.

(Note to special teams: when you’re attempting a 55-plus-yard field goal, start booking down the field as soon as you’re done blocking.)

The greater achievement was Adrian Peterson’s all-time single-game rushing record of 296 yards, which came despite his team's total lack of a passing game and San Diego’s stiff run defense (5th in the NFL coming into the game at 3.63 YPA allowed).

Peterson is on pace for 2,072 yards, even though his start against San Diego was just his second of the season. We’d say he’s earned the job.

But another remarkable going-on came courtesy of the Minnesota defense, which shut down both RB LaDainian Tomlinson and TE Antonio Gates – the first time that this has truly been done since Gates emerged as a Pro Bowler in 2004.

Tomlinson finished with 40 yards rushing, only the ninth time he was held under 50 since the start of 2004.

Here’s how Gates fared in those previous eight games where Tomlinson struggled:

Week 7, 2004: 7 catches, 57 yards, 1 TD
Week 9, 2004: 5 catches, 53 yards, 3 TD
Week 12, 2004: 7 catches, 93 yards, 2 TD
Week 7, 2005: 8 catches, 72 yards, 1 TD
Week 16, 2005: 5 catches, 52 yards, 1 TD
Week 5, 2006: 3 catches, 55 yards, 1 TD
Week 1, 2007: 9 catches, 107 yards, 1 TD
Week 2, 2007: 7 catches, 77 yards, 1 TD

Remarkable, that Gates caught a touchdown in each of the games that Tomlinson couldn’t carry the load -- 13 TDs in eight games! -- and clearly it's one of the reasons that San Diego's offense has been so consistently good.

Now let’s turn the tables.

Gates, who had one catch for 10 yards vs. Minnesota, had been held to 40 yards or less 11 times since the start of 2004.

Here are Tomlinson’s performances in those 11 games:

Week 2, 2004: 87 yards rushing, 1 TD
Week 3, 2004: 60 yards rushing, 1 TD
Week 13, 2004: 113 yards rushing, 2 TD
Week 15, 2004: 111 yards rushing 2 TD
Week 6, 2005: 140 yards rushing, 2 TD
Week 12, 2005: 184 yards rushing, 3 TD
Week 15, 2005: 76 yards rushing, 0 TD
Week 17, 2005: 92 yards rushing, 1 TD
Week 1, 2006: 131 yards rushing, 1 TD
Week 9, 2006: 172 yards rushing, 3 TD
Week 15, 2006: 199 yards rushing, 2 TD

The closest anyone has come to shutting both players down would probably be that Week 15 matchup with the Colts in 2005, when Tomlinson ran 24 times for 76 yards (adding 9 yards on pass receptions) and Gates had six catches for 29 yards and no scores.

But the Vikings – not in the class of those 2005 Colts, for sure – did an even better job, holding them to a combined 87 yards.

The Vikings faced similar RB-TE duos in past games this season, but couldn't match the shut-down success they displayed against the Chargers.

In a 13-10, Week 3 loss to Kansas City, the Vikings stuffed Larry Johnson (24 carries, 42 yards) but were torched by Tony Gonzalez (5 catches, 96 yards).

And in a 24-14 Week 7 loss to the Cowboys, the Vikings couldn't stop anybody at the RB or TE position. Jason Witten hauled in 10 catches for 86 yards, while Julius Jones and Marion Barber combined for 124 yards on 28 carries.

Weird stuff. Weird game.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE JAGGERNAUTS?

The Jaguars have been an impressive statistical team over the past couple of seasons, but what a frustrating bunch they are on the field, as evidenced by their 41-24 loss Sunday to hard-charging New Orleans.

Their Jacksonville defense totally fell apart for the second time in 2007 – and worse, it was the run defense the first time and the pass defense this time.

Jacksonville gave up 282 yards rushing in the season opener (a 13-10 loss to Tennessee), but came back strong and are right around the league average (4.2 YPA carry allowed, tied for 19th; 107.8 YPG allowed, 16th).

Now, this past Sunday, their pass defense completely threw a rod. Drew Brees completed 35 of 49 passes for 445 yards, 9.1 YPA, 3 TD, 0 INT and a 119.9 rating, while being sacked only once.

The Saints had been looking better in recent weeks, but not that much better – and certainly not against a team that was supposed to have a top defense.

Jacksonville has allowed 29 (to Indy), 23 (to Tampa) and 41 (to NO) the last three weeks, and won’t face a team with a losing record until Week 16 when Oakland comes to town.

Trouble.

QB CLASS OF 2002: NOT SO CLASSY

Although all of them had been relegated to the bench at some point this season, the top four QBs in the 2002 draft all played yesterday.

And they all showed without a doubt that they were not worthy of their draft status.

Carolina's David Carr (No. 1 overall) was unbelievably bad in a 20-7 loss to Tennessee: 15 of 27, 55.6%, 107 yards, 4.0 YPA, 0 TD, 1 INT and a 61.8 rating.
Atlanta's Joey Harrington (No. 3) was just as bad in a 20-16 win over awful San Francisco: 14 of 25, 56.0%, 138 yards, 5.5 YPA, 0 TD, 1 INT and a 55.1 rating.
Denver's Patrick Ramsey (No. 32) came off the bench to replace injured Jay Cutler in an embarrassing 44-7 loss to Detroit. He wasn’t abominable (29 of 46, 63.0%, 262 yards, 5.7 YPA, 1 TD, 1 INT), but his passer rating of 76.5 for the game was right around his subpar career average of 75.0.
And finally, Oakland's Josh McCown (No. 81), was so dreadful in a 24-17 loss to Houston that Raiders fans might pine for the glory days of Aaron Brooks. McCown's day: 13 of 28, 46.4%, 158 yards, 5.6 YPA, 1 TD, 3 INT and a 36.6 passer rating.

The star QB of that draft class?

Jacksonville could have used him Sunday – David Garrard was the 108th player picked in 2002, and actually has a career ahead of him.

AFC vs NFC: CLOSE

It was a big weekend for the NFC, as they won 5 of 7 games against AFC foes and stormed back in their interconference battles.

Only the Browns (33-30 win over Seahawks) and Tennessee (20-7 win over Carolina) salvaged victories over the NFL's senior circuit.

The AFC now holds a slim 21-19 lead against the NFC (not tied, as we originally stated).

But Week 9 certainly belonged to the NFC, and especially the NFC North, which beat up on the once-mighty AFC West.

The Packers won at Kansas City, 33-22
The Vikings snapped San Diego's puny necks, 35-17
The Lions embarrassed Denver, 44-7, despite average numbers on the stat sheet

Add New Orleans’ impressive 41-24 win over Jacksonville (and Washington’s 23-20 OT win against the Jets, if you must), and it might have been the best day for the NFC since Tampa hoisted the Lombardi Trophy back in January 2003.

NFC WEST NOT HELPING
But things aren’t all rosy in the NFC. Idle St. Louis had the best Sunday of anyone the NFC West, and that’s figuring in the fact that they were moping around the house wishing they weren’t 0-8.

The West played three close games and lost them all, dropping to a cumulative 9-23 (.281) on the season. Those numbers translate to a combined 18-46 season puts the NFC West on pace to become the worst division since the NFL realigned to its current eight-division format in 2002.

The worst of the eight-division era was the NFC North in 2002 and the NFC West in 2004, both at 25-39 (.390).

Here’s how their teams managed to lose Sunday:

Arizona – Had the ball for a grand total of 16 minutes, 53 seconds, but still managed to turn it over twice in a 17-10 loss at Tampa that probably shouldn’t have been that close.
Seattle - Lost in overtime to Cleveland, and lost RB Shaun Alexander to injury. Cleveland’s Jamal Lewis had one of the oddest lines in NFL history, running 20 times for 37 yards … and four TDs. The Seahawks didn’t sack Derek Anderson once in 48 pass attempts. They went for it on 4th-and-1 at the Cleveland 44 in overtime and unwisely went for it behind their crappy O-line; the Seahawks failed to convert and the Browns scored five plays later.
San Francisco – Alex “Bust in Training” Smith threw three interceptions, two of them as the Niners were trying to take the lead and stay alive in this pathetic division. San Fran's last six drives: INT, fumble, long march ending in a 22-yard-field goal, 3-and-out, INT, INT.

Ugh. Couldn’t the NFL get by with a 28-team league?

HALFWAY STATS

Since most NFL teams have eight games under their belts, it’s easy to do those full-season projections that us stat dorks are so fond of. Here are a few good ones:

Derek Anderson (CLE): 4,216 yards and 34 TDs
Trent Cole (PHI): 84 total tackles, 18 sacks, four forced fumbles
Brett Favre (GB): 616 passes, 4,816 yards, 26 TDs, 14 wins
Larry “Fantasy Killer” Fitzgerald (ARI): 100 catches, 1,474 yards, just 2 TDs
Tony Gonzalez (KC): 104 catches, 1,230 yards, 8 TDs
Devin Hester (CHI): 1,800 return yards, six TDs
T.J. Houshmandzadeh (CIN): 124 catches, 1,348 yards, 20 TDs
Adrian Peterson (MIN): 316 rushes, 2072 yards, 16 TDs
Rookie LB Patrick Willis (SF): 166 total tackles