Tom Brady Leaves To Much Time, Newton Runs for TD 50: Events that Sparked my Interest, Week 4

Week 4 of the NFL season had some surprising finishes. Both the Falcons and Patriots got upset and that alone caught my eye and will have big implications on the playoffs later on. Another thing that will impact that playoffs is how Le’veon Bell performs for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and after missing Week 1 due to a holdout and having poor weeks 2 and 3, he performed how the best back in football is supposed to in Week 4.

While I’m not going to write much about it, something that really sparked my interest due to a YouTube video I recently watched was that Week 4 of the NFL Season had 2 scores that the league previously hadn’t seen before: 14 to 57 (Texans beat the Titans) and 18 to 46 (Seahawks beat the Colts).

With that out of the way, its time for Events that Sparked My Interest in Week 4.

Tom Brady Leaves Too Much Time for the Panthers, Cam Newton rushes to TD number 50

After brining the Patriots back from two scores down, Tom Brady left Cam Newton and the Panthers slightly over three minutes to engineer a game winning drive with the game tied at 30. Usually the Patriots opponent leaves too much time, but on Sunday it was Brady who left Newton too much time.

Besides his game winning drive, Newton also rushed for his 50^th career touchdown, becoming the first QB in history to achieve that. In September 2016, he passed Vince Young (44 TD’s) to have the most rushing TD’s by a QB in the Super Bowl era and not long after that passed Otto Graham’s all time QB rushing TD record, with 45.

In terms of active quarterbacks, it doesn’t seem likely that Newton’s record will be passed any time soon, baring a devastating injury to him. This is since the next QB’s on the active list are: Aaron Rodgers (25), Andy Dalton (18), Tom Brady (17), Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger (16 each), and Joe Flacco (15). Following them, Andrew Luck, Alex Smith, Matthew Stafford, and Russell Wilson all have 14, while Ryan Fitzpatrick (yes, that’s not a typo) and Mark Sanchez (I’m not kidding, this isn’t a typo) have 13 each.

To put Newton’s 50 TD’s in 6 and ¼ years in perspective, he is tied with LeGarrette Blount (a running back who has been in the league a year longer) for 7^th on the active list. 5^th and 6^th place belong to Chris Johnson and Matt Forte with 55 and 52 TD’s and they have both been in the league since 2008.

To put our other QB’s totals in perspective, David Johnson, who has been in the league since 2015 has only one fewer TD than Rodgers. Had Johnson not gotten hurt earlier in the year, he surely would have passed Rodgers, moving from 18^th to 17^th on the active list. Ezekiel Elliott, whose played in 19 career games, has as many rushing TD’s as Brady. Mind you, not including the 2008 season when Brady played in only one game due to injury, he’s played in 17 seasons and rushed for 17 touchdowns.

Deshaun Watson’s Texans Stomp on the Titans in Huge Game for the Rookie

Not only did the Titans vs. Texans game result in a never before seen score, it gave way to a highlight reel game for former National Champion Deshaun Watson. His 5 total TD’s (4 in the air, 1 on the ground) tied a rookie record for QB’s. While his yardage wasn’t absurd, he only needed 3 of those touchdowns to secure the win for the Texans.

While the game was already over with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Texan defense came up with turnovers on three straight possessions, and the team scored 20 points in those final minutes.

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It's the Week of the Running Passers: Events that Sparked My Interest, Week 2

Week Two of the NFL Season had some interesting and weird moments, including the Thursday Night Football game pitting the Cincinnati Bengals against the Houston Texans and an hour long weather delay in the Mile High City. I’m not going to be talking about the TNF game here because I’ve already written about it and what my thoughts about Andy Dalton and Marvin Lewis are,which you can view here. With that out of the way, here are the Events that Sparked my Interest in Week 2.

Josh McCown is part of the Week of the Running Passers

In Week Two, the idea of a traditional quarterback was debunked. Russell Wilson (Seahawks), Carson Wentz (Eagles), Tyrod Taylor (Bills), Deshaun Watson (Texans), and Josh McCown (Jets) – of all people – each rushed for over 30 yards. Watson lead the way with 67 yards, 6 more than Lamar Miller, a running back and fellow Texan. Taylor and Wentz had 55 yards each, more than Matt Forte and Mark Ingram. Wilson and McCown had 34 and 31 yards respectively. Shane Vereen, Adrian Peterson, and DeMarco Murry all had less than 30 years, just to name a few running backs who performed worse. But, in true Josh McCown fashion, he fumbled the ball.  Regardless, running quarterbacks caught my interest this week because it means that Russell Wilson is back and Watson’s day suggests a possible second coming of Wilson.

Big Tight Ends Make Big Impacts in their Own Ways

This week was the week of the tight ends, with three high profile ones each making big, unique impacts.

But, before I can talk about the season or game changing performances I need to get to the history making tight end. Antonio Gates – yes, he is still playing – passed Tony Gonzalez for the most touchdown catches by a tight end in history, on a 7 yarder from Philip Rivers in the third quarter against the Miami Dolphins, giving him 112 in his career. Of those 112, 85 have come from Rivers’ arm, which is the most between a quarterback and tight end in history as well. To further make history in the first half Gates recorded his 900^th career reception, making him the third tight end to reach that mark. Only Gonzalez and the Cowboys Jason Witten – yes, he is also still playing– have more. 

The award for this week’s game changing tight end goes to Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. Kelce brought in 8 throws for 103 yards; including a 44 yard grab and a separate 15 yard touchdown. He was easily the Chiefs best receiver of the day as Alex Smith threw for 148 yards to non-Kelce receivers and no additional touchdowns. The Chiefs 27-20 win against the Eagles put them at 2-0 for the season.

Now to the season changing tight end moments from Week 2. Greg Olsen, the Carolina Panthers top tight end broke his foot and is out indefinitely. This is a huge blow to the Panthers that cannot be stressed enough. They already play in what is arguably the toughest division in football (the NFC South) and they just lost Cam Newton’s uncontested top target for who knows how long. For me, their season has now gone down the drain because they do not have any other big targets and the NFC wild card race is much tougher then the AFC’s one.

Events that Sparked My Interest is a series that I’m starting with the new NFL Season. It will contain 2-3 thoughts, notes, or other events that sparked interest during the week and will be posted on Tuesday’s. 

Subscribe to my blog via email to get an update any time something is posted. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at @KidReporter363 for other updates about my writing and check out all my content at haydengoldberg.contently.com.