Sometimes, numbers tell truths about a football player.

Concerning Danny Woodhead , a reputedly smart, quick and tough Chargers running back, let's try three numbers on for size here today.

The first number is zero.

Question: how many penalty flags have NFL officials thrown against Woodhead in his NFL career?

You say you need more data, we say the data will deceive – but here you go.

Woodhead has played in 77 NFL games, plus 10 more in the playoffs. Give him 30 plays per game and 2,500 plays all told.

Answer: Danny Woodhead, eight-year veteran, has zero penalties in his NFL career. Zero as in one less than one. Aught, cipher, bagel.

The number comes from ProFootballFocus, an analytics site to which some NFL teams subscribe.

Asked if it’s true he’s never been flagged, Woodhead seemed not to know.

“That’s a good question,” he said Wednesday. “I don’t know if I have or not.”

Does he recall any bright yellow flags from his NFL past?

“I don’t, I don’t,” he said. “And if I did, I’m going to try to put it out of my mind. So, I couldn’t tell you. It’s been eight years, too.”

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Penalties are the cost of doing business, even for Philip Rivers , the man Chargers playcaller Frank Reich calls the smartest guy in the building. Reich also likened him to a supercomputer. And yet, even Rivers has been flagged several times in his 166 starts, usually for delay of game. Heck, he even lost 15 yards for pestering a ref.

Just last Sunday, in the Chargers' 24-19 loss to the Bengals , 17 yellow flags flew.

Woodhead suggested that, yes, somewhere in his football past, he’s committed a penalty or two. Only he couldn't come up with any specifics.

“I’m sure I did,” he said. “I had to have. I’m sure I did. You would think, right? At least in my career, high school, college and pro."

Wouldn’t it make sense that physical prowess, too, enables him to make fewer mistakes?

It would, which leads us to our second number.

1.44.

In seconds, it's the 10-yard split Woodhead clocked eight years ago in preparation for the NFL draft. A 1.44 clocking denotes extreme quickness and acceleration, even by NFL standards for a running back or receiver.

Was there a cyclone at Woodhead’s back as he dashed across Nebraska?

Actually, the sprint came indoors.

Allowing for the human error of NFL scouts using stopwatches, it's fair to add a few tenths of a second to the 1.44 -- but even 1.50 would be blazing. Consider that current teammate Melvin Gordon, the running back in whom the Chargers invested three draft picks last April, clocked a 1.62 at the NFL Scouting Combine . Former Chargers running back Darren Sproles was at 1.52.

Woodhead, now 30, is still quick enough to elude his NFL pursuers. He is gaining 4.1 yards per rush and has nine catches in 12 targets through the two games.

When a broken ankle ended his 2014 season a year and three days ago, there may have been a bonus to it. The time off spared Woodhead dozens of hits. Another NFL running back who is 30 and seldom played last year, the Vikings ' Adrian Peterson, said this week the hiatus brought health dividends. He said he's fresher now, and his body recovers faster.

The last number, 345, concerns Woodhead’s toughness.

Detroit Lions defensive tackle Haloti Ngata is listed at 345 pounds. He might be bigger.

Woodhead is 5-foot-7 5/8. That makes him short. Importantly, he’s not small. He is, more than he may appear to be on the telecasts, stout in build. At 200 pounds, he's heavier than many slot receivers and scatbacks.

But in the season opener, when he darted in front of Ngata, who was surging into the backfield, Woodfield looked like a child stepping in front of a beer truck. On purpose.

Woodhead, responding to a Lions blitz, succeeded at giving Rivers the time needed to release the ball.

As Ngata knocked Woodhead backward, toward his feet, Rivers hit Keenan Allen for a gain that converted third-and-19 and all but clinched the victory

Danny was being Danny. In one play, he called upon smarts, quickness and toughness.

“Whatever it takes,” Woodhead said. “If I have to get in somebody’s way, and maybe slow him – if I can be a little bit of a road bump...”

What he did, he said in a subtle shift of topic, was not unique. At least, for everyone wearing a lightning bolt-helmet.

“That’s the great thing about this team,” he said. “They’re willing to do what it takes. That’s the type of guys we’ve got.”