by Vincent Verhei

It all started with an innocent little tweet. Following yet another epic Chargers loss last Monday night, Derrik Klassen of Bleacher Report (and our newest Film Room contributor) noted that Philip Rivers "lives in a perpetual state of down a score with less than two minutes left." Being a skeptic, I did a quick check on Pro Football Reference and found the numbers proved Klassen correct. Since taking over as the Chargers' starting quarterback in 2006, Rivers had thrown 214 passes down by one score in the final two minutes of a game, 54 more than any other player in the same timespan.

Things kind of snowballed from there. Many people simply retweeted my research. Others suggested some different methodologies that might make the numbers more meaningful over the long term. Regardless, there was enough interest that we considered running a special longer piece on the numbers and what they meant. We ultimately decided not to crowd the site on what was already a busy week, and kept the idea in our back pocket for the next epic Chargers loss.

To the surprise of nobody who has been paying attention to the Chargers for any length of time, we did not have to wait long. Just six days after watching an apparent game-tying field goal waived off on a late timeout call and a second attempt blocked, the Chargers missed a potential game-winner after Miami mysteriously called timeout and ensured them a chance to try the kick in the first place. So we pulled the story idea out of our pocket, headed back to PFR, and went to work.

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The Game Play Finder at PFR goes back to the 1994 season, so that's where we began our study. When we saw Brett Favre among the leaders, we went into our own numbers and added his last-two-minute, down-one-score passing stats from his first seasons as a starter in 1992 and 1993. (No, we did not bother checking what happened on his four passes with Atlanta in 1991.) Since those numbers were taken from our database, they do not include clock-killing spikes, while all other numbers in this essay do. That hardly matters, however, because the final results were not very close. Rivers really has been playing in a desperate two-minute drill more than anyone else. Rivers has thrown 228 regular-season passes in his career after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, down by eight points or less. That's 33 more than Favre's 195. Joe Flacco and Peyton Manning are next in line with 175 each. No other quarterback in the last 24 years has even three-quarters of Rivers' total.

When reading numbers below, please note that opponent adjustments are not included in DYAR until after Week 4.

Most Passes, Down One Score, Final 2 Minutes, 1994-2017 Rk Name Cmp Att Yds TD INT Total Att Clutch% Rk Rtg Rk 1 Philip Rivers 110 228 1347 7 11 5989 3.81% 3 57.0 24 2 Brett Favre* 105 195 1394 10 15 10165 1.92% 26 61.8 16 3 Joe Flacco 85 175 988 4 9 4793 3.65% 4 52.3 26 3 Peyton Manning 91 175 1129 8 14 9380 1.87% 29 54.2 25 5 Tom Brady 84 166 1015 12 6 8299 2.00% 24 78.8 6 6 Matthew Stafford 78 147 967 9 5 4326 3.40% 6 79.9 4 6 Ben Roethlisberger 84 147 1065 10 5 6003 2.45% 16 88.4 2 8 Jon Kitna 62 143 694 6 12 4442 3.22% 8 37.5 30 9 Tony Romo 88 142 1049 8 3 4335 3.28% 7 94.5 1 10 Drew Brees 74 141 885 9 9 8840 1.60% 30 66.7 11 11 Matt Ryan 68 140 878 6 8 5122 2.73% 13 59.2 22 12 Drew Bledsoe 63 135 733 7 6 6288 2.15% 21 62.4 15 12 Eli Manning 71 135 952 10 6 6863 1.97% 25 81.5 3 14 Carson Palmer 70 128 936 4 7 6124 2.09% 22 65.8 14 15 Kerry Collins 55 120 659 6 4 6261 1.92% 27 65.9 13 Rk Name Cmp Att Yds TD INT Total Att Clutch% Rk Rtg Rk 16 Jeff Garcia 57 117 620 6 6 3676 3.18% 11 60.5 19 16 Jay Cutler 70 117 842 7 7 4524 2.59% 14 76.9 7 18 Chad Pennington 61 109 549 3 7 2471 4.41% 1 52.1 27 19 Rich Gannon 55 107 591 4 5 3078 3.48% 5 60.9 18 20 Trent Green 50 106 720 5 7 3740 2.83% 12 57.9 23 21 Mark Brunell 49 104 771 5 7 4640 2.24% 18 60.2 20 22 Marc Bulger 49 102 646 4 5 3171 3.22% 9 61.2 17 22 Donovan McNabb 47 102 582 7 3 5374 1.90% 28 74.9 8 24 Brad Johnson 50 99 602 4 4 4326 2.29% 17 66.1 12 24 Aaron Rodgers 46 99 662 6 5 4749 2.08% 23 67.8 9 24 Steve McNair 54 99 547 5 2 4544 2.18% 20 79.0 5 27 Ryan Fitzpatrick 50 98 566 4 11 3877 2.53% 15 42.7 29 28 Joey Harrington 42 97 509 1 3 2538 3.82% 2 50.6 28 28 Jake Plummer 41 97 679 3 4 4350 2.23% 19 59.6 21 30 Aaron Brooks 48 95 655 7 7 2963 3.21% 10 66.8 10 * Includes 1992 and 1993 statistics.

All told, 3.81 percent (the "Clutch%" column in the table) of Rivers' career passes have come in the last two minutes of the game, needing one score to tie or take the lead. That's actually not the highest ratio in the table, trailing former Jets/Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington (4.41 percent) and former Lions/Dolphins/Falcons starter Joey Harrington (3.82 percent). Rivers is in turn trailed by Flacco and Rich Gannon (though this does not include the early years of Gannon's career, which goes all the way back to 1987). Flacco's Super Bowl ring aside, this is basically a group of good-but-not-great players. Contrast that list to the names at the other end of this category -- Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Kerry Collins, and Favre. There's little question that the latter group is superior to the former, suggesting that great quarterbacks often perform well enough to avoid the need for late-game heroics.

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The leaders and trailers in quote-unquote clutch performance are fascinating. The NFL's passer rating is certainly a flawed statistic, especially when analyzing players from different eras, but it's a simple way to capture which players accumulate completions, yards, and touchdowns while avoiding interceptions, at least at the extremes. And in this situation, no player had a higher passer rating than Tony Romo (94.5), who always got too much blame for Dallas losses and not enough credit for wins. Next we have Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford, and Steve McNair, four more passers with reputations for late-game heroics.

On the other hand, the worst passer rating here goes to Jon Kitna (37.5), with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Joey Harrington next in line. That's three good nominees for the "How did that guy last so long in the NFL?" all-stars. Pennington is fourth-worst -- it's unfortunate that a player who found himself in the clutch so often played so badly in those scenarios. You could say the same for the fifth-worst player, Flacco. It's the names who just missed the bottom five that are most stunning though -- Peyton Manning (?!), and then Rivers. This is probably the only category you will ever find Eli ranking among the leaders, and Peyton among the trailers.

For a closer look at what's going on in the NFL, here's a look at the same table, limited to active players.

Most Passes, Down One Score, Final 2 Minutes, Active QBs Rk Name Cmp Att Yds TD INT Total Att Clutch% Rk Rtg Rk 1 Philip Rivers 110 228 1347 7 11 5989 3.81% 5 57.0 25 2 Joe Flacco 85 175 988 4 9 4793 3.65% 6 52.3 26 3 Tom Brady 84 166 1015 12 6 8299 2.00% 28 78.8 7 4 Matthew Stafford 78 147 967 9 5 4326 3.40% 8 79.9 6 4 Ben Roethlisberger 84 147 1065 10 5 6003 2.45% 22 88.4 3 6 Drew Brees 74 141 885 9 9 8840 1.60% 30 66.7 17 7 Matt Ryan 68 140 878 6 8 5122 2.73% 17 59.2 23 8 Eli Manning 71 135 952 10 6 6863 1.97% 29 81.5 5 9 Carson Palmer 70 128 936 4 7 6124 2.09% 25 65.8 19 10 Jay Cutler 70 117 842 7 7 4524 2.59% 18 76.9 11 11 Aaron Rodgers 46 99 662 6 5 4749 2.08% 26 67.8 16 12 Ryan Fitzpatrick 50 98 566 4 11 3877 2.53% 20 42.7 29 13 Cam Newton 44 86 608 6 0 2985 2.88% 13 97.4 2 14 Alex Smith 42 85 392 3 5 4171 2.04% 27 49.7 28 15 Matt Cassel 42 84 663 4 4 2624 3.20% 10 72.7 13 Rk Name Cmp Att Yds TD INT Total Att Clutch% Rk Rtg Rk 16 Matt Schaub 50 83 607 4 4 3274 2.54% 19 78.7 8 17 Sam Bradford 44 79 355 3 3 2876 2.75% 16 64.1 20 18 Ryan Tannehill 33 75 427 4 4 2637 2.84% 14 58.0 24 19 Kirk Cousins 41 71 425 5 5 1623 4.37% 2 69.3 14 20 Andy Dalton 39 70 461 1 2 3126 2.24% 23 68.8 15 21 Andrew Luck 34 66 430 7 0 2651 2.49% 21 107.5 1 22 Russell Wilson 33 65 458 7 4 2347 2.77% 15 84.0 4 23 Josh McCown 38 63 434 3 3 2185 2.88% 12 77.1 10 24 Chad Henne 29 61 318 2 6 1954 3.12% 11 34.8 30 25 Nick Foles 23 54 251 2 1 1285 4.20% 3 61.6 22 26 Derek Anderson 26 53 317 1 1 1596 3.32% 9 66.3 18 26 Robert Griffin 31 53 331 1 1 1210 4.38% 1 75.3 12 28 Mark Sanchez 23 49 269 2 3 2285 2.14% 24 52.2 27 28 Shaun Hill 24 49 364 3 2 1225 4.00% 4 77.3 9 30 Brian Hoyer 23 44 226 2 2 1261 3.49% 7 63.3 21

Sometimes it can be tricky determining who's retired and who's not. This table assumes that Tony Romo will stay in the TV booth, while Robert Griffin will get another shot somewhere. Admittedly, this is an intentional case of selection bias -- I wanted Griffin in the table because he leads all active players with 4.38 percent of his career passes coming down one score in the final minutes. Kirk Cousins, Nick Foles, and Shaun Hill also have higher such rates than Rivers. Meanwhile, look at the active quarterbacks with the lowest rates in the metric: Brees, Eli Manning, Brady, Alex Smith, and Aaron Rodgers. Again we see that good quarterbacks rarely find themselves needing a score at the end of a game.

By passer rating, the best active quarterback has been Andrew Luck (107.5, with no interceptions), followed by Cam Newton (he hasn't thrown an interception either), Ben Roethlisberger, Russell Wilson, and Eli Manning. (Remember this includes passing stats only, and avoids the scrambling ability of Luck, Newton, and Wilson.) The worst? Chad Henne at 34.8. (You might think that this is why the Jaguars are sticking with Blake Bortles, but Bortles has been even worse -- 16-of-40, 165 yards, no touchdowns, five interceptions, 13.0 passer rating.) The rest of the bottom five is rounded out by Fitzpatrick, Smith, Mark Sanchez, and Flacco.

A few notes on some well-known quarterbacks who failed to make either table:

With 41 attempts, Derek Carr barely missed the active player leaderboard, but he has been tremendous in that situation. He has completed 26 passes for 275 yards with six touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 102.1.

You won't find Colin Kaepernick in these numbers, because in nearly 1,700 NFL passes, only 36 -- 2.13 percent -- have come down a score in the final two minutes. He has completed 19 of them for 220 yards, with one touchdown, one interception, and a passer rating of 69.2. Marcus Mariota has also gone 19-of-36 in the clutch, despite throwing only 889 passes (Clutch rate: 4.05 percent). Mariota's 19 completions gained 251 yards with one touchdown, with two interceptions and a 61.2 passer rating.

Tim Tebow only threw 361 passes in his career, but 29 of them (8.03 percent) came in clutch situations. It's easier to rack up game-winning drives when you're playing from behind every week. Tebow completed 12 of those passes for 156 yards, with one touchdown, one interception, and a 56.1 passer rating.

Kurt Warner almost never needed a late score. Only 1.74 percent of his 4,070 career passes came down a score in the final minutes. Which is a good thing, because his performance in those situations was dire: 37-of-71, 464 yards, no touchdowns, four interceptions, 49.3 passer rating.

Steve Young's career started in the 1980s, but he still threw more than 2,000 passes after 1994. Only three of them came in two-minute drill scenarios. He completed all three of them for 57 yards and a touchdown, a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

Quarterbacks Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 1. Tom Brady NE 30/39 447 3 0 2 250 250 0 NO Brady would have made the top five this week based on his first 15 minutes alone. In the first quarter, he went 11-of-15 for 177 yards and three touchdowns. He was nearly perfect on deep passes, going 5-of-6 for 156 yards with two scores. He got off to a hot start on third downs (first quarter: 5-of-5, 101 yards, five conversions, including two touchdowns), but quickly cooled way off (rest of game: 1-of-2, 6 yards, no conversions, two sacks). 2. Philip Rivers LACH 31/39 331 1 0 1 166 173 -8 MIA On passes up the middle, Rivers went 7-of-8 for 87 yards. Six of those completions went for first downs, including a touchdown; the other was an 8-yard gain on second-and-14. He had a great day on first down: 16-of-19 for 175 yards, plus a 20th throw that resulted in a 3-yard DPI, for 12 total first downs. But he had trouble keeping drives alive. On third downs, he went 4-of-7 for 27 yards with one sack and only two conversions. 3. Derek Carr OAK 23/28 230 3 0 0 160 160 0 NYJ Late in the second quarter, Carr threw three incompletions in a row. He didn't miss another pass all game. In the second half, he went 10-of-10 for 63 yards. No, that's not a lot of yardage, but five of those completions resulted in first downs, including a touchdown. Plus, he gained 17 yards and a sixth first down on a 17-yard DPI. At one point he picked up a first down on five throws in a row. 4. Drew Brees NO 27/44 356 2 0 1 159 159 0 NE This was the 48th time Brees has thrown for at least 350 yards and two touchdowns, the most since 1950 according to Pro Football Reference. The man in second place: his opponent on Sunday, Tom Brady, who pulled the same feat off this weekend and now has 38 such games. More painful for Brees, it was the 18th time he has done so in a loss, which is also a record. (EDITOR'S NOTE: The first version of this comment had an incorrect note about interceptions in this statistic, which has been removed.) He was tremendous in short-yardage against New England. With 5 yards or less to go for a first down, he went 8-of-11 for 125 yards. Each of those completions went for a first down, including two touchdowns. 5. Ben Roethlisberger PIT 23/35 243 2 0 2 122 122 0 MIN Holy streaks, Batman! Starting midway through the second quarter, Roethlisberger threw five incompletions in a row; six completions in a row; three incompletions in a row; six completions in a row; an incompletion and a sack; eight completions in a row; and then two straight incompletions to close out the game. If we remove sacks and DPIs, he completed 83 percent of his passes if the prior pass had been complete, but only 36 percent of his passes if the prior pass had been incomplete. 6. Trevor Siemian DEN 22/32 231 4 1 2 93 97 -4 DAL All four of Siemian's touchdowns came in the red zone. He was also quite good on third downs, going 7-of-8 for 94 yards and seven conversions, including two of his touchdowns. However, he also gave up two third-down sacks, fumbling on one of them. 7. Aaron Rodgers GB 33/50 343 2 1 3 92 88 4 ATL It was too little, too late, but Rodgers was very good in the fourth quarter trying to rally the Packers out of a big hole. He completed 11 of 17 passes for 146 yards in the final frame, with two touchdowns. But all of those throws came with Green Bay down by at least 11 points. That's partly because Rodgers was so ineffective in the second quarter: 5-of-11 for 40 yards with one first down, one interception, and one sack. 8. Matt Ryan ATL 19/28 252 1 0 3 89 86 3 GB Remember the third-down pass protection problems that contributed to the Super Bowl collapse? Ryan struggled on third down again against Green Bay, and it nearly cost them a win despite a big lead. On third downs, Ryan went 2-of-4 for 25 yards and two conversions, but was also sacked three times. 9. Joe Flacco BAL 25/34 217 2 1 2 86 86 0 CLE Flacco split most of his passes and almost all of his completions between throws to the right or up the middle. He only threw five passes to the left, completing one (a 7-yard gain on second-and-12), with an interception. 10. Alex Smith KC 21/28 251 1 0 4 75 71 4 PHI Some weird down-by-down splits here. Smith completed all 11 of his second-down passes (he was also sacked once) for 139 yards, but only four first downs. This would be fine if he had converted those third downs he had created, but he usually didn't. He only picked up first downs on two of his nine third-down dropbacks, going 3-of-7 for 36 yards with two sacks. 11. Jameis Winston TB 18/30 204 1 0 2 71 76 -5 CHI An otherwise erratic day was bouyed by a strong performance on third downs, when Winston went 6-of-8 for 68 yards with a sack. Each of the six completions picked up a new set of downs. 12. Jay Cutler MIA 24/33 230 1 0 2 66 69 -4 LACH This game might never have come down to a field goal try if Cutler had played better in the red zone. On three separate drives inside the Los Angeles 20, he went 2-for-4 for 0 yards (not a typo) with two sacks. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 13. Matthew Stafford DET 15/21 122 2 0 3 33 24 10 NYG 14. Russell Wilson SEA 23/39 198 1 0 3 28 24 4 SF Wilson ran eight times for 39 yards against San Francisco. He picked up three first downs on the ground, including conversions on third-and-1 and fourth-and-1. However, he also had a fumbled snap that went down as a running play that hurt his numbers. 15. Kirk Cousins WAS 18/27 179 1 0 2 27 42 -15 LARM The Washington offense was awfully predictable against the Rams. On first down, they had 25 runs (including a botched pitch that went down as a fumble for Cousins, which murdered his rushing numbers), but only four passes. Then again, those four passes resulted in three completions for 9 total yards and a fumbled snap, so maybe running was a better idea. However, Washington didn't run the ball a single time on third down, leaving it all on Cousins to keep drives alive. He went 7-of-12 for 72 yards, with only five conversions. 16. Carson Palmer ARI 19/36 332 1 1 4 27 33 -6 IND Palmer had serious issues turning scoring opportunities into touchdowns. Inside the Indianapolis 26, he went 4-of-10 for 34 yards with only two first downs, with an interception. He was not the only quarterback this week who was at his worst in scoring range, as we shall soon see. 17. Cam Newton CAR 20/32 228 0 0 6 23 18 5 BUF Newton didn't complete a single pass in the red zone, going 0-for-4. (A fifth pass resulted in a 5-yard DPI.) He also gave up a sack on second-and-9 from the Buffalo 22. 18. Marcus Mariota TEN 15/27 215 1 1 1 23 14 8 JAC Mariota had a 32-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith in this game. The pass was caught 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage, with 38 yards after the catch. Maybe the Titans should have tried more screens in scoring range, because Mariota didn't pick up a single first down any closer to the end zone than the 32. From that point forward, he went 1-of-9 for 8 yards (an 8-yard gain on second-and-16 at that) with an interception. 19. Deshaun Watson HOU 15/24 125 0 0 3 22 3 19 CIN Watson's 49-yard touchdown run on third-and-15 was worth 23 DYAR by itself. It was about his only good play across the 50. Otherwise, on Cincinnati's side of the field, he went 2-of-3 for 11 yards with one sack and one run: an 11-yard gain on third-and-16. 20. Josh McCown NYJ 17/25 166 2 0 4 9 3 6 OAK GABBERT WATCH UPDATE: McCown's game against the Raiders was pretty close to replacement level and didn't bring him any closer to Blaine Gabbert's career record of -1,928 passing DYAR. He now has -126 passing DYAR in 2017, and stands at -1,471 career passing DYAR with 14 games to go (unless he is benched). He was best against the Raiders on third downs, going 6-of-7 for 101 yards and five first downs (including both of his touchdowns), with two sacks. 21. Kevin Hogan CLE 5/11 118 1 1 1 8 3 5 BAL Hogan had three really big plays -- completions of 49 and 34 yards to Seth DeValve and Duke Johnson respectively, plus a 23-yard touchdown to David Njoku -- and a bunch of crap. 22. Mike Glennon CHI 31/45 301 1 2 1 0 0 0 TB Another passer who basically threw up all over himself in scoring range. Inside the Bucs' 22, Glennon went 3-of-12 for 26 yards with an interception. Only one of those completions picked up a first down -- a 14-yard touchdown when the Bears were down by 29 points with less than two minutes to go in the game. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Sacks Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR Opp 23. Blake Bortles JAC 20/34 226 1 2 2 -8 -24 16 TEN The king of garbage time strikes again! In the fourth quarter, Bortles completed all nine of his throws for 134 yards and seven first downs, including his only touchdown. He only had six first downs in the first three quarters of the game. 24. Carson Wentz PHI 25/47 333 2 1 6 -9 -33 23 KC And then there's Carson Wentz. Late in the third quarter, Wentz got on a hot streak, picking up first downs on five straight passes, each gaining 11 to 18 yards, the last a touchdown that put Philadelphia ahead 10-6. He only gaines six more first downs from that point forward (including two throws in the third quarter), going 9-of-21 for 99 yards with four sacks, a fumble, and an interception. 25. Tyrod Taylor BUF 17/25 125 0 0 3 -23 -30 7 CAR A lot of quarterbacks struggled in the red zone this week, but at least they got there. Taylor didn't have a single run or pass inside the 20 this week, in part because he played so badly in the front zone (the area between Carolina's 20- and 40-yard lines). His five plays in that range: three incompletions, a 6-yard completion on third-and-9, and a 5-yard run on third-and-16. 26. Case Keenum MIN 20/37 167 0 0 2 -24 -24 0 PIT Keenum didn't get a play in the red zone either, and his action in the front zone was limited to three passes, all incomplete. Still, he was vaguely competitive until the Steelers took a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. From that point forward, he went 5-of-10 for 29 yards and only one first down. 27. Andy Dalton CIN 19/34 216 0 0 3 -25 -27 2 HOU On three separate drives that reached scoring range, Dalton went 3-of-8 for 16 yards with a sack inside the Houston 40-yard line. That includes 1-of-5 for 2 yards with a sack in the red zone. 28. Eli Manning NYG 22/32 239 1 1 5 -31 -31 0 DET 29. Dak Prescott DAL 30/50 238 2 2 2 -34 -32 -1 DEN Red zone passing: 3-of-8, 18 yards, one touchdown, two sacks, one pick-six. 30. Jared Goff LARM 15/25 224 1 1 2 -47 -37 -9 WAS Goff had a bad day on second downs: 2-of-7 for 11 yards. His biggest pass was a 69-yard catch-and-run to tight end Gerald Everett. 31. Jacoby Brissett IND 20/37 216 0 1 4 -66 -70 4 ARI Another red zone disaster: 0-for-4 with a sack. Keep in mind the Colts lost this game in overtime. 32. Brian Hoyer SF 16/27 99 0 1 2 -145 -145 0 SEA Hoyer's longest play gained only 14 yards. He threw for only four first downs on the day, and all of them came within the San Francisco 40-yard line. Anything beyond that, he went 7-of-13 for 35 yards with an intentional grounding and a sack. He was able to surprise the Seahawks a couple of times on first-down passes, but on second and third downs, he went 9-of-16 for 46 yards with two sacks and only one conversion. On passes up the middle, he went 3-of-9 for 27 yards with an interception. 33. DeShone Kizer CLE 15/31 182 0 3 2 -190 -188 -1 BAL Oh look, more scoring-range follies. Kizer threw six passes inside the Ravens 26, completing more to the Ravens (two interceptions) than to his own teammates (one, for just 3 yards). That includes an interception on his only red zone pass. He also had one red zone run -- it lost 4 yards. On third/fourth downs, he went 3-of-9 for 52 yards with two conversions, two interceptions, and one fumble-sack.

Five Best Running Backs by DYAR (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. C.J. Anderson DEN 25 118 1 3/3 36 1 67 30 37 DAL Eight first downs on the ground, including a 23-yard touchdown and another gain of 28, while getting hit for no gain or a loss only four times. His three receptions included a 16-yard touchdown on third-and-9 and a 12-yard gain on third-and-11. 2. Derrick Henry TEN 14 92 1 0/0 0 0 64 64 0 JAC All of Henry's runs gained at least 2 yards. He had seven first downs on the ground, including four conversions with 3 yards or less to go. Plus three runs for 10-plus yards to boot. 3. Chris Thompson WAS 3 77 2 3/7 29 0 52 48 4 LARM His three carries: a 9-yard gain on second-and-7; a 7-yard touchdown on second-and-4; and a 61-yard touchdown on second-and-6. 4. Ty Montgomery GB 10 35 1 6/7 75 1 46 10 36 ATL Not a big day as a runner, with a long gain of just 7 yards, and his two first downs both coming with 1 yard to go. But four of his catches produced first downs, including a goal-line touchdown and two 23-yard gains. 5. James White NE 2 11 0 8/8 85 0 46 8 39 NO His four catches included gains of 24, 23, 12, and 10 yards.

Five Best Running Backs by DYAR (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. Derrick Henry TEN 14 92 1 0/0 0 0 64 64 0 JAC 2. Chris Thompson WAS 3 77 2 3/7 29 0 52 48 4 LARM 3. C.J. Anderson DEN 25 118 1 3/3 36 1 67 30 37 DAL 4. Rob Kelley WAS 12 78 0 0/0 0 0 30 30 0 LARM All of his runs gained at least 1 yard, including gains of 21 and 19, plus a 2-yard gain on second-and-1. 5. Chris Carson SEA 20 93 0 1/2 7 0 24 29 -5 SF Four hits for no gain or a loss, but six first downs on the ground, including three runs of 10 yards or more. When the Seahawks took over with a narrow 3-point lead and 4:47 to go, Carson ran the ball on five straight plays, gaining 43 total yards and three first downs to put the game away.

Worst Running Back by DYAR (Total) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. LeSean McCoy BUF 12 9 0 6/7 34 0 -36 -38 2 CAR Zero first downs. A long run of just 6 yards. Half of his 12 carries resulted in no gain or a loss, including a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-1.

Worst Running Back by DYAR (Rushing) Rk Player Team Runs Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR Opp 1. LeSean McCoy BUF 12 9 0 6/7 34 0 -36 -38 2 CAR

Five Best Wide Receivers and Tight Ends by DYAR Rk Player Team Rec Att Yds Avg TD Total

DYAR Opp 1. Martavis Bryant PIT 3 4 91 30.3 1 73 MIN That's twice in two weeks the Pittsburgh Steelers have produced the league's most valuable receiver. Bryant's catches were a 27-yard touchdown on first-and-20, a 13-yard gain on third-and-12, and a 51-yard catch in the third quarter, but his 49-yard DPI to convert a second-and-22 in the second quarter was worth about as much DYAR as any of those. Bryant's totals include 67 DYAR receiving, 6 DYAR rushing for his one run for 7 yards. 2. Michael Crabtree OAK 6 6 80 13.3 3 71 NYJ Crabtree's three touchdowns went for 1, 2, and 26 yards, the latter a third-down conversion. His other two catches each gained at least 20 yards and a first down. 3. Mike Evans TB 7 9 93 13.3 1 54 CHI No catches for more than 18 yards, but all of them gained at least 8 yards and a first down, including three third-down conversions. 4. J.J. Nelson ARI 5 7 120 24.0 1 53 IND Four of Nelson's catches went for first downs, including a 31-yard gain on second-and-7 and a 45-yard touchdown. 5. Mohamed Sanu ATL 5 6 85 17.0 0 50 GB Sanu's totals include 39 DYAR receiving, 10 DYAR rushing for his one carry for 8 yards. He had three catches for 20-plus yards apiece, plus a 10-yard gain on third-and-3.