FOX Sports Research
The tenth week of the NFL is nearly in the books, with just one game left to play. Several players had incredible performances, along with surprising results from multiple teams.
Arguably the most surprising performance came from Jared Goff, who managed to get the win for the Lions despite throwing five interceptions against the Texans on Sunday night.
It was the first time in his career that he’s thrown five interceptions in a game, and just his second time throwing four. Still, he was able to get the win, which put him in some rare company. Since 1991, quarterbacks to throw five interceptions in a game were a dismal 2-44. The only two to record a win in that span were Matt Ryan in 2012 and Tony Romo in 2007. Goff is now the third.
He’s also just the 18th quarterback since at least 1948 to win a game despite throwing five interceptions, and just the ninth to do so since the 1970 merger. Quarterbacks that throw five picks in a game are 9-115 since the merger.
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This was also the first time in the Dan Campbell era that the Lions were able to win a game after trailing by 10 or more points at half. Entering Sunday, they were 0-12 in such situations.
Goff’s unique win wasn’t the only spectacular thing to happen this weekend. FOX Sports Research broke down ten more eye-opening nuggets for you. Let’s take a look.
1. Chase-ing greatness
We’re going to start off this week’s edition of incredible stats with the first game that was played in Week 10, as Ja’Marr Chase played incredibly in the Thursday night matchup against the Ravens. The fourth-year receiver recorded 11 receptions for 264 yards and had two touchdown catches. With his performance, Chase became the only player in NFL history to have multiple career games with 250+ receiving yards and multiple touchdown receptions.
That’s right, he’s done something that Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and every other receiver in the history of the league hasn’t.
It was also his second career game with 200+ receiving yards against the Ravens, tied for the most by any player against a single opponent in NFL history. At 24 years old, he joins Isaac Bruce and Lance Alworth as the only players since 1950 with three games of 200+ receiving yards before turning 25 years old.
He leads the league in both receiving yards (981) and receiving touchdowns (10), the first player this season to reach 900 in the former category and 10 in the latter. He also has 14 catches of 50+ yards since 2020, more than any player in that span.
Takeaway:
Chase is going to get paid. And at this rate, he’s going to warrant the largest wide receiver contract of all-time.
2. Rare type of win for Vikings
It was an ugly game for the Vikings this week, as they slugged out a 12-7 win over the Jaguars on the road. They scored no touchdowns, and turned the ball over three times. Entering Sunday, teams were 0-192 when scoring zero touchdowns and recording three or more giveaways since 2007. The Vikings became the first team since the 2006 Packers to win a game when scoring no touchdowns and recording three or more giveaways. Since 2006, teams in that situation are now 2-213 when doing so.
Minnesota also managed 400 yards of offense despite failing to get in the end-zone. Since 2015, there have only been nine teams to record over 400 yards of offense and have zero total touchdowns in a game, with two of them coming this season (Vikings in Week 10 and Commanders in Week 2 vs Giants).
Sam Darnold also threw three interceptions, making him the first quarterback with seven or more wins and 13 or more turnovers through the first nine games of a season since Peyton Manning in 2015. For what it’s worth, Manning did lead the Broncos to a Super Bowl title that season. All of their 12 points came from their kicker, but we’ll get to him in a bit.
Takeaway:
The Vikings keep finding ways to win. Just how long can they keep this up?
3. Can’t stop the Chiefs
The Chiefs needed a missed field goal from the Broncos to improve to 9-0, but a win is a win— and there are a plethora of nuggets that we found as a result. Here’s a list of those nuggets to contextualize Kansas City’s win:
- Chiefs have won a franchise record 15 straight games including the playoffs, the longest since the Packers won 19 in a row from 2010-11 (regular season + playoffs).
- Chiefs have now won nine straight games when trailing in the second half— an NFL record (regular + postseason).
- Chiefs lead the NFL with seven one-possession wins this season; the most one-score wins by an eventual Super Bowl champion is nine by both the 2015 Broncos and 1986 Giants.
- Chiefs are 9-0 for the third time ever and for the first time since 2013.
- Chiefs are the fifth team to win the Super Bowl and start the next season 9-0 (2015 Patriots, 2011 Packers, 1998 Broncos, 1990 49ers).
- Patrick Mahomes is now 13-1 in his career against the Broncos, and 33-5 (86.8%) vs AFC West opponents— the latter being the second-highest quarterback win percentage vs a single division with a single team since 1970 (Manning was 19-2 (90.5%) vs AFC West, Kurt Warner was 19-2 (90.5%) vs NFC West).
- Travis Kelce caught his 76th career touchdown, tying him with Tony Gonzalez for the most in Chiefs history.
- Kelce has 32 receptions in his last three games, which is the second-most by a tight-end in a three-game span in NFL history; the only tight-end with more was 33 by Jason Witten in 2012.
Takeaway:
Even if the Chiefs had lost to the Broncos, they’d still be the overwhelming favorites to win the AFC.
4. Josh Allen climbing the record book
Josh Allen didn’t play his best game against the Colts, throwing no pass touchdowns along with two interceptions. But the Buffalo signal caller still rushed for a touchdown in the ten-point win against Indianapolis. It was his 57th career rushing touchdown, tying him with O.J. Simpson for the second-most in Bills history. Only Thurman Thomas has more with 65. He is also on track to crush the record for most career rushing touchdowns by a quarterback, which is currently held by Cam Newton with 75. Allen currently sits in second all-time behind Newton with his 57 rushing scores.
Takeaway:
Buffalo is easily a top three team in the AFC along with Kansas City and Baltimore. It’s up to Allen to get past those two.
5. Hurts makes history
Speaking of quarterbacks that score a lot of rushing touchdowns, Jalen Hurts had two in the win over Dallas on Sunday. He is now the third player in NFL history with 50+ career rushing touchdowns and 75+ career pass touchdowns, joining Newton and Allen. His 51 career rushing scores trails only those two among all quarterbacks in league history as well. Hurts became the eighth player in NFL history to record 23 career games with a pass touchdown and a rush touchdown, and is now tied with Newton for the most games with a passing score and multiple rushing scores all-time (eight such games).
He’s now rushed for 10+ touchdowns in four consecutive seasons; no other quarterback all-time has ever had a streak of even two such seasons. His four seasons with double-digit rushing scores are also the most of any quarterback in NFL history.
Takeaway:
With the Commanders loss to the Steelers, the matchup between Philly and Washington next Thursday just became even more important.
6. Let Russ cook
How about the Steelers? Despite what some deemed a quarterback controversy between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson, Mike Tomlin’s choice to go with Wilson has proven to be the correct call— as Pittsburgh is 3-0 since the switch, and now sitting at the top of the AFC North with a 7-2 record. Wilson took down the Commanders this week in a highly anticipated matchup against rookie of the year front-runner Jayden Daniels. Wilson is now 12-2 in head-to-head matchups vs rookie quarterbacks since 2013, the best mark of any signal caller in that span in such situations. What’s even more impressive is that he’s got a perfect passer rating (158.3) in the fourth quarter this season, throwing three touchdowns with no interceptions while completing 78.6% of his passes. Per NextGen Stats, Wilson has more completions, yards, and touchdowns on deep passes (20+ air yards) than Fields in half the number of games played.
The win also moves him to 4-1 against Dan Quinn, who has been one of the best defensive coaches over the last five seasons. Rookie quarterbacks have now lost in each of the last 11 instances they’ve faced a top two scoring defense (Pittsburgh entered this week second in league in scoring defense, holding opponents to 14.9 points per game). The Steelers also improved to 11-2 vs rookie starting quarterbacks in the T.J. Watt era (since 2017).
Takeaway:
Is it crazy to think the Steelers can give the Ravens a run for their money for the division crown? We only have to wait a week to find out, as the two square off in Week 11.
7. Chuba Hubbard was awesome abroad
Chuba Hubbard had a career day in Munich, rushing for 153 yards and one touchdown against the Giants. Having been born in Canada, he became the first foreign-born player to have 150+ yards (rushing or receiving) in an international game all-time. When removing the foreign-born aspect from the equation, Hubbard is still only the third player ever to have 150+ rush yards and at least one rushing score in an international game all-time, joining Chris Ivory (2015 with the Jets) and Travis Etienne Jr. (2022 with the Jaguars). He’s having a career year despite the Panthers struggling, notching three games with over 100 yards rushing this season. With 818 yards on the season, he’s on pace to record the first 1,000-yard rushing season of his career. He’s third in the league in the category, trailing only Derrick Henry (1,120) and Saquon Barkley (991).
Takeaway:
Hubbard is one of the few bright spots for Carolina this year. He’s arguably the most underrated back in the league.
8. Daniel Jones continues to struggle
Daniel Jones was signed to a four-year contract worth $160 million after leading the Giants to a playoff win against the Vikings in the Wild Card in the 2022 season. Since that playoff win, Daniel Jones is 3-14 as a starter with 10 passing touchdowns and 14 interceptions (including a playoff loss in the Divisional round). In those 17 games, the Giants are averaging 13.6 points per game. Over the last five seasons, he’s thrown nine or fewer touchdowns in the first ten games of the season a whopping four times— the only quarterback in that span with multiple instances of doing so (among quarterbacks to start each of the first 10 games of the season).
Takeaway:
The clock is ticking on how much longer the Daniel Jones era will last in New York.
9. Caleb Williams taking sacks
Simply put, Caleb Williams has been taking a ton of sacks this year— 38 to be specific. That’s the second-most sacks a rookie quarterback has taken in the first ten weeks of the season since the 1970 merger. He trails only David Carr, who took 49 sacks in his first 10 weeks with the Texans. Tim Couch trails Williams with 35 sacks in his rookie season in 1999. All three quarterbacks were drafted first overall.
Takeaway:
Chicago has some serious work to do with their offensive line. They won’t be able to contend with the Packers and Lions in the slightest if they don’t get it fixed soon.
10. Good day for kickers
Jake Moody missed three games due to injury and made his return for the 49ers this past Sunday against the Buccaneers. It was a rough day for him, as he went three-for-six on the day, including one-of-four on attempts that were 40+ yards. But when it mattered most, Moody drained the game-winner to give San Francisco the 23-20 win. He became just the seventh kicker since 2000 to miss three or more field goal attempts and then make a game-winner in the final 2:00 of the fourth quarter overtime. The last kicker to do this was Mason Crosby in 2021 for the Packers.
He wasn’t the only kicker to have a day, as Minnesota’s John Parker Romo had a huge coming out party in the 12-7 victory for the Vikings. Romo was responsible for all 12 points, going a perfect four-of-four in his first ever NFL game. He became the first player in NFL history to make four or more field goals and account for all his team’s points in a debut. The last Vikings kicker with four made field goals in his debut was Blair Walsh in 2012.
Jake Bates also a hit career-long against the Texans on Sunday night, nailing a 58-yarder— and also hit the game-winner from 52 yards. He hit three field goals from 60+ earlier this year in the United Football League.
Takeaway:
Kickers are people too, especially when they hit game-winners!
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