Sometimes numbers tell the whole story. Sometimes they offer a peak behind the curtain. Sometimes they are just interesting. Ray Flowers presents his weekly look at the numbers which includes Alex Smith doing something better than any other quarterback, Matt Forte's historic pace and DeMarco Murray being so good that his rushing total more than doubles the mark of two other first round picks in fantasy football. 


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THROWERS

1: The number of throwers who have a QB Rating of at least 100 on plays with three wideouts. The only man, you guessed it, is Peyton Manning (117.9). Manning also leads all passers in 2-wideout sets (128.7) though Ryan Tannehill (128.2) is right on his heels. Manning falls to #2 on the list when clubs deploy 4-wideouts as his 115.4 mark is behind that of, and this is crazy, Alex Smith (127.5). Did I just blow your mind? It's OK to admit I did. 

2: The rushing touchdown mark of Matthew Stafford, Andrew Luck and Josh McCown (Russell Wilson leads with three). The reason I bring up the total of two is that Cam Newton has one rushing score this season. 

3: That's the number of passers who have benefited to the tune of at least 1,000 yards after the catch by their receivers. Andrew Luck (1,073) leads the way followed by Jay Cutler (1,024) and Matthew Stafford (1,010). Cam Newton has only seen his guys run for 643 yards after the catch catch while Bryan Hoyer is all the way down at 513 yards. 

10: The interception total of Blake Bortles in just five games. He's thrown a total of 174 passes or one interception every 17.4 passes. Kirk Cousins, who lost his starting job with the Redskins, has averaged an interception every 22.7 passes (his total of nine interceptions is second worst in football). At the other end of the spectrum, here are the three leaders in INT/ATT rate: Peyton Manning one interception every 72.3 pass, Philip Rivers one every 76.7 and Aaron Rodgers on every 106 passes. Rodgers has thrown one interception in 211 passes. Going back to last season when he was injured Rodgers thrown a total of seven interceptions in 16 games. He's also thrown for 35 scores and 4,210 yards. 

19: The league leading completion total of passes for greater than 25 yards. It belongs to Ben Roethlisberger. Two guys are tied for second with 17 - Peyton Manning, and get this, Kirk Cousins

58: The percentage of passes that Russell Wilson has thrown compared to the league leader Andrew Luck. The numbers - Luck has thrown 302 passes, Wilson 175. There are currently four quarterbacks who have completed more passes than Wilson has thrown this year: Matt Ryan (178), Drew Brees (178), Jay Cutler (177) & Luck. Speaking of Wilson, and this has been lost amidst the hysteria... the guy has thrown for four touchdowns his last three games while tossing an average of 213 passing yards a game. 

79.4: The QB Rating of Drew Brees over his last two starts. He's thrown for an average of 357 yards and two scores a week but he's also thrown four interceptions. 

Philip Rivers continues to dominate defenses when he has a clean pocket. On the 22 drop backs when he faced no pressure he was 15-for-22 with 183 passing yards. He was just 2-for-9 (22) when he was pressured. Rivers is also on pace to throw just seven interceptions. He's averaged 15 interceptions the past four seasons. He's also on pace for 39 passing scores. He's never thrown more than 34 and has averaged 29 the past four seasons. 

Alex Smith had one pass batted down and another was thrown away in Week 7. On his other 26 pass attempts in Week 7 not a single one was longer than 20-yards downfield. That's awful. 

Contrary to what many seem to think... Matthew Stafford has done a good job when he shouldn't and a bad job when he shouldn't. Stafford posted a QB Rating of 124.3 when he was under pressure but only managed a poor 74.0 mark when he had a clean pocket in Week 7. Oddly, he also completed just 11 of 18 passes of less than 10 yards. 

RUNNERS

3: The number of running backs who have at least 33 receptions this season. That's more receptions than Rob Gronkowski (31) and Julius Thomas (28). Yes, I like to point out the fact that Thomas is massively TD dependent. In fact, I will be mentioning it again below. Back to the runners. Matt Forte (52) is on pace for 119 receptions. Le'Veon Bell (36) is on pace for 82 receptions. Fred Jackson (33), well he's hurt and likely to miss a month. What will the Bills do in the backfield? My thoughts are located in this Weeks Waiver Flavor piece. Back to Forte... The single season record for receptions is 143 (Marvin Harrison in 2002). No other players has ever hit 125 in a season. Moreover, the 119 receptions would tied Forte for the 9th most ever with Issac Bruce (1995). As far as I can tell the record for runners in a season is 101 by Larry Centers in 1995. 

4: The number of rushing scores for Arian Foster in October. Only two other runners have three - Matt Forte and Eddie Lacy. Speaking of Lacy... he is averaging 4.0 YPC this season. He averaged 4.1 YPC last year. Over his last three games he's averaged 5.3 yards a tote. 

4: The league leading rushing touchdown mark on carries that originated inside the 10-yard line. Here are the men who have hit pay dirt four times (the second number is the attempts they have inside the 10): DeMarco Murray 4/8 and Lamar Miller 4/14. 

5.2: The YPC mark of Jerick McKinnon who is taking over the backfield for the Vikings. For your viewing pleasure: Frank Gore (4.10), Ben Tate (4.0), Eddie Lacy (4.0), Zac Stacy (3.9), Alfred Morris (3.8) and LeSean McCoy (3.6). 

5.8: The yards per carry mark of Justin Forsett. That's a huge number. It may not be a sustainable pace, but note that over his last 156 carries, since the start of the 2012 season, Forsett is averaging 5.8 yards a tote. Should be pointed out that his 87 carries and 503 rushing yards are already four year bests... and the season isn't even half over. Oh, and while he's run for an impressive 206 yards the past two weeks I would be remiss if I didn't point out that he hasn't scored and has just one target as a pass catcher in that time. 

913: The rushing total of DeMarco Murray through seven games, a league leading figure that puts him on a 16 game pace of 2,086 yards. Only two men have ever bettered that: Eric Dickerson (2,105 in 1984) and Adrian Peterson (2,097 in 2012). Did you know that Dickerson ran for 3,913 yards his first two seasons and hit at least 1,800 yards in three of his first four campaigns? If you add together the rushing totals of LeSean McCoy (422) and Marshawn Lynch (420) you are literally still 71 yards short of the mark of Murray. Insane. 

Kate Beckinsale in Underworld... watched it again last night... wow.

Chris Ivory ran for 107 yards with 55 of those coming after contact against the Patriots in Week 7. What is so odd about that is the fact that he had failed to run for 45 yards in four of his previous five outings. Ivory also carried the ball 21 times against the Patriots after touching the ball just 18 times over the previous two games. On the year he's averaging an elite 4.9 YPC... the same total as his career mark. 

LeSean McCoy has run for 230 yards the last two games. He ran for 192 yards in his first four games. 

RECEIVERS

Odell Beckham Jr. has people's hearts a flutter. After all he scored twice last week and has three scores in three games. I get it. Let's be frank though, shall we? He's averaged five targets a week, a lowish number, and he's yet to hit 45 yards in an outing as he's averaged 35.3 yards a game. Riley Cooper averages 36.2 yards a week on four targets. Just saying. 

Randall Cobb leads all wideouts with 33 receptions from the slot. He's also scored eight times, tops among all wideouts. The eight scores are the same total as Dez Bryant (4) and Jeremy Maclin (4). 

T.Y. Hilton has been great. Over seven games this season he's caught at least five passes each week. He's also caught at least seven passes in each of his last three games. On the year his seven game average equates to a pace of 107 receptions and 1,626 yards. Too bad he's also on pace for just two touchdowns. 

Vincent Jackson is the only wideout in football who has seen at least 60 targets and has fewer than 27 receptions. He has 25. In fact, only he and Jeremy Maclin (27) have less than 34 receptions amongst the 60 target club. 

Concerned about Julio Jones are you? What were you expecting? His 16 game pace is 112 receptions, 1,546 yards and seven scores.  

Eddie Royal has five scores as a pass catcher. Remove two games against the Jags and Bills and he has one score in five contests. 

This video, passed on to me by Justin Fensterman, brought it all back for me. The Oracle. An inappropriate song. Classy.

Emmanuel Sanders has slowed down in October. In three games he's caught only 13 passes for 180 yards. He caught at least six passes in each of his previous four games. His last two games he's also gone for just 79 yards. In the previous three games he went for at least 101 yards an outing. 

Golden Tate has seen 31.9 percent of the pass attempts of the Lions the last four weeks. The only fellas receiving a higher percentage of targets this season than that are Dez Bryant, Andre Johnson and Jordy Nelson

Julius Thomas has only one more reception than Owen Daniels (28 to 27). Thomas is averaging 50.7 yards a game. Zach Ertz has been better at 51.0 yards. Even more concerning. Remove Week 1 from Thomas (104 yards) and his five game yardage average is 40 yards a game. If he doesn't score...

Demaryius Thomas had yet another huge game for the Broncos. Oddly, for just third third time this season, he caught the ball for fewer yards (81) than time the ball was in the air (90). He's a YAC monster who at 8.7 is second in the NFL to DeSean Jackson (9.4) among players with at least 25 receptions. 

Kendall Wright has three scores in his last three games. He averaged three touchdowns in his first two seasons. He's also caught at least five passes in four of his last five games for the Titans. 

 

Listen to Ray Flowers' show Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear me hosting my own show Sunday nights, 7-10 PM EDT.