by Vince Verhei

You know your receiver's on a roll when his yardage total takes a three-digit dip from one game to the next, and he still has one of the highest sums of the week. After putting up 151 yards against New England, Cleveland's Josh Gordon is now averaging 127.3 yards per game, best of any non-strike season in league history. Assuming he plays each of Cleveland's last three games, he'll need 346 more yards (115.3 per game) to hang on to that slot, If he can amass at least 406 yards, then we'll be able to remove that pesky "non-strike season" qualifier.

Gordon's receiving value against the Patriots was erratic, and he finished with only four first downs in ten targets. He also led the team with 34 rushing yards, though, and when you include that value, he had a very good day, missing our receiver tables by just a few decimal points (in part because one of his teammates had an even better day). There's little doubt that he has been the breakout star of 2013, especially in the second half of the year. Has he been the most improved player throughout this season, though? Our team pages use Weighted DVOA to measure which teams are playing best lately, but there's no equivalent measure for individual players.

We can find something similar by splitting the season into two halves, the first covering Weeks 1 to 7, and the second covering Weeks 8 to 14. We'll use DVOA instead of DYAR, because DYAR will tell us more about health and playing time then it will about who has actually improved. (You don't need a spreadsheet to know that Nick Foles has a lot more DYAR after Week 8 than he did before that.)

Through seven weeks of the season, Gordon's DVOA was 7.1%. In Weeks 8 through 14, it has been 31.5%. That's an improvement of 24.3%, which is very good, one of the ten biggest improvements in the league, but not the very best. Of all receivers (wideouts or tight ends) with at least 25 targets in each half of the season, the biggest improvement has come from Michael Floyd, whose DVOA has soared from a near-average 0.3% to a league-best 45.8%. Since Week 8, Floyd is catching nearly two-thirds of the balls thrown his way, and averaging 19.3 yards per catch. It took a while for Floyd to develop chemistry with Carson Palmer, but lately they have been a very dangerous duo.

Other receivers who have improved greatly in the second half of the year include Jacksonville's Ace Sanders and Cecil Shorts (good things happen when Blaine Gabbert gets benched), Julian Edelman (a beneficiary of the general improvement of the New England offense), and New York Giants tight end Brandon Myers (like Floyd, in his first year with a new quarterback; he has now caught touchdown passes three games in a row).

What on earth has happened to Terrance Williams, though? The Dallas rookie's DVOA has plummeted from 38.2% in the first half of the year to -45.5% in the second, a decline of 83.8%. His Catch Rate in the second half of the year is only 30 percent. No other receiver has declined in DVOA by even 40.0%, but other sinkers include Denver's Wes Welker, Atlanta's Julio Jones , Houston rookie DeAndre Hopkins, and Chicago's Martellus Bennett.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: That should be Green Bay's James Jones, not Atlanta's Julio Jones. Hard to play worse in the second half of the year when you don't play at all.)

The most improved passer this year, from the first half of the season to the next, has been Tom Brady, who has been building chemistry with an almost entirely new set of receivers. His DVOA has climbed from -11.8% to 31.5%, an improvement of 43.3%, and since Week 8, he's averaging 8.3 yards per throw, with 13 touchdowns and only four interceptions. Other big improvers have been Carson Palmer (in his first year with Arizona), Russell Wilson (missing most of his offensive line for most of the first half of the season), Nick Foles, and Christian Ponder. At the other end of the spectrum, Terrelle Pryor's DVOA has fallen from -18.6% to -72.8%. Since Week 8, he is completing less than half his passes, with no touchdowns and five interceptions. That is why he was benched for an undrafted rookie. Fellow first-year starters Geno Smith and EJ Manuel also make the bottom five, as they learn how hard it is to play in the NFL, and the NFL learns best how to play them. Matt Ryan, not surprisingly, is playing much worse without Julio Jones than he did with him. Peyton Manning has also been much worse as of late, though that speaks mostly to his cartoonishly great start of the year. Still, five quarterbacks have been better since Week 8, some veterans (Brady, Brees, Rivers), some youngsters (Foles, Wilson).

On the ground, no running back has improved more in rushing DVOA than Denver rookie Montee Ball, who has gone from -30.6% in the first seven weeks of the year to 23.1% since then. His yards per carry has also climbed, from 3.2 to 5.3. Other second-half stars include New Orleans' Pierre Thomas, New England's LeGarrette Blount (have you noticed how many New England players I've listed here today?), Oakland's Rashad Jennings, and Cincinnati's Giovani Bernard.

The success of Ball and Bernard does not mean that all rookie runners should be expected to improve throughout the year. Witness Arizona freshman Andre Ellington, perhaps the only Cardinals player who has declined throughout the season. Through seven weeks, he was averaging 6.4 yards per carry, and led the league with a DVOA of 57.6%, more than double anyone else. Since then, he's still averaging 5.5 yards per rush, but his DVOA has fallen to just 2.8%. He hasn't posted a single-game DVOA better than 33.3% since Week 8, and he was particularly brutal against Jacksonville in Week 11 (eight carries, 3 yards).

Other runners who have seen big drop-offs include San Francisco's Kendall Hunter, Pittsburgh rookie Le'veon Bell, Indianapolis' Donald Brown, and Green Bay's James Starks.

OTHER NOTES: As requested, here are the top five running backs for Week 13, by rushing DYAR only: LeSean McCoy (76 rushing DYAR), Jamaal Charles (48), Marcel Reece (42), Giovani Bernard (35), Shonn Greene (34). Chris Polk was sixth with 29, which tells you how dominant Philly's rushing attack was against Detroit. Did running backs have an advantage in all that snow? Apparently not, because Detroit's Joique Bell (-29 DYAR) was the worst runner of the week. If we include quarterbacks, than the worst runner was Matthew Stafford. Those players had two fumbles apiece on running plays.

Meanwhile, if you're looking Andre Johnson in our receiving tables, you won't find him. The Houston wideout had a league-best 161 receiving yards this week (including a 7-yard DPI), but he finished with -2 DYAR. Those 161 yards came on a whopping 22 targets, second-most for any player in a game this year. (Vincent Jackson had 23 for Tampa Bay in Week 7; he finished with negative DYAR too.) Johnson's worst plays, by DYAR, were a trio of incompletions with 6 yards or less to go for a first down.

Quarterbacks Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR 1. Peyton Manning DEN 40/58 404 4 0 247 247 0 Manning had an amazing 18 pass attempts in the red zone alone. That's the most in a game this season, besting the 16 that Matt Ryan had in Week 4 against New England. (Drew Brees also had 16 red zone attempts for New Orleans this week.) Case Keenum only has 15 red-zone passes in seven starts all season. On his 18 plays, Manning had ten completions for 61 yards, with four touchdowns, two other first downs, and no sacks or interceptions. By DYAR, this was the second-best red-zone total in a game this year. The best remains Nick Foles' Week 9 game against Oakland (7-of-7, 56 yards, four touchdowns, one other first down). 2. Josh McCown CHI 27/36 348 4 0 238 220 18 3. Andrew Luck IND 29/46 326 4 0 234 223 11 Luck's 69-yard touchdown to Da'Rick Rogers came on third-and-5, but otherwise, he went 3-of-9 on third downs for 17 yards and only one first down. 4. Drew Brees NO 30/42 313 4 0 200 200 0 The Saints' first drive was a three-and-out, with Brees going 1-of-2 for 1 yard, plus a 4-yard scramble. On their next three drives, Brees went 16-of-19 for 182 yards with one sack, one DPI, three touchdowns, and 10 other first downs, and that was pretty much the end of the game. 5. Jason Campbell CLE 30/43 391 3 0 192 178 15 Usually for Cleveland quarterbacks, I can just list there stats without throws to Josh Gordon to find something interesting. This week, though, the Browns had another viable target, as we shall discuss shortly. Instead I'll point out while the Patriots defense didn't always break, Campbell at least made them bend repeatedly. Inside his own 40, he went 14-of-16 for 243 yards with one touchdown and eight other first downs. 6. Philip Rivers SD 21/28 249 3 0 178 178 0 There was nothing wrong with the way Rivers started this game, but he really poured it on after the Chargers took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. From that point forward, he went 13-of-15 for 150 yards with two touchdowns and eight other first downs, plus a 36-yard DPI, two sacks, and one fumble. 7. Andy Dalton CIN 24/35 275 3 0 178 165 13 Dalton excelled in short yardage. With 5 yards or less to go for a first down, he went 6-of-8 for 66 yards with a touchdown and four other first downs, plus two DPIs for 15 total yards and two more first downs. 8. Carson Palmer ARI 27/32 269 1 0 168 168 0 Palmer's second incompletion of the game came with six minutes and change left in the third quarter. By that point Arizona was ahead 23-3. Before that, he had gone 19-of-20 for 189 yards with one touchdown and eight other first downs, plus one sack and one 15-yard DPI. 9. Ben Roethlisberger PIT 23/39 349 3 0 118 120 -2 Officially, Roethlisberger is credited with a completion and 62 yards on the Stanford band play that almost-but-not-quite won the game for the Steelers. By DYAR, it was his second-best play of the day. I think we'll all agree that over-rates the play, since it still sealed Pittsburgh's fate, but there's something to be said for gaining 62 yards on fourth-and-4. That was just about the only good play Roethlisberger had throwing to his right, though. Otherwise, he went 6-of-15 for 58 yards and only two first downs. 10. Tom Brady NE 33/51 418 2 1 99 98 1 On New England's first seven drives (not counting an end-of-half kneeldown), they scored zero points, and Brady went 11-of-23 for 150 yards with seven first downs, plus a 10-yard DPI, three sacks, one fumble, and one interception. On their last five drives, they scored 27 points, and Brady went 21-of-27 for 268 yards with two touchdowns and 12 other first downs, plus one sack, one intentional grounding, and a 29-yard DPI. 11. Alex Smith KC 14/20 137 2 0 78 76 2 Kansas City won by 35 points, and it could have been worse. In the red zone, Smith went 4-of-7 for 15 yards with one touchdown and no other first downs, with a pair of failed third-down plays. 12. Russell Wilson SEA 15/25 199 1 1 75 76 -1 Throwing to his left or up the middle, Wilson went just 4-of-9 for 16 yards and two first downs. To his right, though, he went 11-of-16 for 183 yards with one touchdown, eight other first downs, and one interception (a last-second desperation heave that gets counted as a Hail Mary in our system). He was also sacked twice, with one fumble. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR 13. Matt Cassel MIN 17/38 265 2 0 59 62 -3 Casssel was at his worst between the 40s, where he went 3-of-9 for 35 yards and one first down. 14. Geno Smith NYJ 16/25 219 1 1 43 20 23 On passes to receivers within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, Smith went 9-of-15 for 82 yards with only two first downs and one interception. 15. Nick Foles PHI 11/22 179 1 1 40 21 19 First eight drives: 4-of-13 for 35 yards with two first downs, one fumbled snap, and one interception. Last six drives: 7-of-9 for 144 yards with a touchdown and five other first downs. 16. Colin Kaepernick SF 15/29 175 1 1 38 38 0 On first downs, Kaepernick went 7-of-15 for 82 yards with three first downs and an interception. 17. Tony Romo DAL 11/20 104 3 0 36 36 0 18. Chad Henne JAC 12/27 117 2 0 34 30 4 First three drives: 6-of-10 for 70 yards with two touchdowns and three other first downs, plus a 33-yard DPI. Rest of game: 6-of-17 for 47 yards with one first down, plus two DPIs for 37 more yards and one sack. 19. Ryan Tannehill MIA 20/33 200 3 1 -4 -26 22 Inside the Pittsburgh 40, Tannehill went 11-of-13 for 78 yards with three touchdowns and four other first downs. 20. Robert Griffin WAS 12/25 164 1 1 -8 -15 7 Griffin, like most of his teammates, appeared to have quit far before the final gun on Sunday. In the second half, before he was pulled, he went just 1-of-7 for 27 yards with a sack. Throwing to his right, he went 4-of-12 for 31 yards and two first downs. 21. Matt Schaub HOU 17/29 198 1 1 -14 -16 2 On first downs, Schaub went 6-of-12 for 50 yards with one first down and one sack. 22. Matt Ryan ATL 20/35 206 2 1 -14 -14 0 First four third-down plays: 3-of-4 for 52 yards with a touchdown and two first downs. Rest of game on third or fourth downs: seven plays, no conversions, two completions, 11 yards, one interception. Rk Player Team CP/AT Yds TD INT Total

DYAR Pass

DYAR Rush

DYAR 23. Matthew McGloin OAK 18/31 245 2 1 -32 -41 9 Third downs, first half: 2-of-5, 3 yards, no conversions, one interception. In the second half, he went 7-of-10 for 119 yards with two touchdowns and four other first downs, plus a 21-yard DPI. Each of those plays came with Oakland down by at least 13 points. 24. Cam Newton CAR 22/34 160 1 0 -38 -45 6 First two third downs: 11-yard completions with 2 and 9 yards to go. Rest of game: 2-of-3 for 4 yards with no conversions and five, count 'em, five sacks. After all that, he did throw a 17-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal, down by 25 points with less than 6 minutes to go in the game. 25. Kirk Cousins WAS 7/16 59 0 0 -43 -43 0 When you enter a game in the fourth quarter, and your team appears to have quit long before that, you get numbers like this. Cousins only had three first downs, and none in his last ten plays, a stretch where he completed three passes for 16 yards. 26. Case Keenum HOU 16/29 159 1 1 -44 -52 8 Between his own 20- and 40-yard lines, Keenum went 7-of-12 for 36 yards and only one first down. 27. Joe Flacco BAL 28/49 245 3 3 -47 -57 9 Flacco's third interception of the day came with a 5-point deficit and barely eight minutes left in the game, and seemed to be the final nail in Baltimore's coffin. From that point forward, Flacco went 7-of-10 for 91 yards with two touchdowns and four other first downs, plus DPIs of 18 and 37 yards. 28. Matthew Stafford DET 10/25 148 0 0 -50 -18 -32 In addition to his two fumbles on running plays, Stafford also botched a pair of snaps. He was OK on third and fourth downs, but the problem was that he got to third and fourth down in almost every series. On first and second downs, he went 3-of-11 for 45 yards and only one first down, with both botched snaps. 29. Ryan Fitzpatrick TEN 13/24 172 1 1 -57 -62 5 At the start of the fourth quarter, the Titans were only down by nine points and still very much alive. In the final frame, Fitzpatrick went 3-of-8 for -2 yards and a sack, with no first downs, and Tennessee had lost by 23 points. That's not entirely Fitzpatrick's fault. On one second-and-11 pass, Fitzpatrick hit Chris Johnson with a screen pass 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Johnson proceeded to run backwards for -8 yards of YAC. That's a net loss of 14 yards, tied for the biggest loss on a reception this year. Oh, and then Johnson fumbled at the end of the play, and Denver recovered. The fumble and recovery do not affect Fitzpatrick's DYAR. The backwards running, sadly, does. 30. Eli Manning NYG 20/32 259 1 2 -67 -67 0 Deep passes: 4-of-5 for 140 yards. Why did they even bother throwing short? 31. Mike Glennon TB 9/25 90 2 2 -73 -73 0 Throwing to his left, Glennon went 2-of-11 for 2 yards (not a typo) with one first down and one interception. 32. Matt Flynn GB 24/32 258 1 1 -92 -87 -5 Flynn gets the biggest downgrade due to opponent adjustments of any quarterback this week. He was sacked five times by the defense that entered the weekend ranked dead last in Adjusted Sack Rate. 33. Kellen Clemens STL 16/27 181 0 2 -100 -99 -1 Clemens, meanwhile, gets the biggest upgrade due to opponent adjustments of any quarterback this week — and he's still way down here. He had seven plays on Arizona's side of the field, none in the red zone. In fact, he never had a dropback inside the Cardinals' 30. On the rare occasions he did crack the 50, he went 3-of-5 for 26 yards and no first downs. He did pick up 10 yards and a first down on a DPI, but he was also sacked once. 34. E.J. Manuel BUF 18/33 184 0 4 -203 -208 5 Seven sacks will do that to you. On third downs, he went 1-of-6 for 7 yards with one first down — and three sacks. This was the second-worst game of any quarterback this year, behind only Geno Smith's game against Buffalo in Week 11. Man, Bills fans have seen some crummy quarterback play this year.

Five most valuable running backs Rk Player Team Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR 1. LeSean McCoy PHI 217 2 4 0 76 76 -1 This was the best game by a running back this year, edging out Knowshon Moreno's game against New England in Week 12. The margin is close enough that changing opponent adjustments could still push Moreno in front, but for now let's just enjoy McCoy's results. Six of his 29 carries were stuffed for no gain or a loss, but he also had a 57-yarder, a 40-yarder, a 26-yarder, and three other 10-plus-yard runs. He had eight first downs on the ground. In the fourth quarter alone, he had 11 carries for 148 yards and two scores. The only pass thrown his way resulted in a 4-yard completion on first-and-10. 2. DeMarco Murray DAL 146 0 9 0 60 58 2 3. Giovani Bernard CIN 99 0 49 0 56 35 21 Only two of Bernard's 12 carries lost yardage. Eight of them gained 6 yards or more, and five of them gained at least 10 yards, capped off by a 20-yarder. He caught each of the four passes thrown his way, and while two of them were third-down dumpoffs short of the sticks, the other two gained 22 and 21 yards and a pair of first downs. 4. Jamaal Charles KC 151 1 8 1 55 49 7 More fuel for the "Washington quit" fire: Charles' final three carries (all in the third quarter) gained 35 yards on second-and-20, then 17 and 33 yards on first-and-10. He had two other 10-yard runs on the day and finished with seven first downs, including a touchdown. Meanwhile, he was stuffed only four times in 19 runs. In three targets, he had two receptions for 8 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown. 5. Danny Woodhead SD 42 0 52 1 50 21 29 Each of Woodhead's seven carries gained at least 2 yards, including a pair of 10-yarders. His four completions in five targets included a 6-yard touchdown and a 39-yard gain on third-and-4.

Least valuable running back Rk Player Team Rush

Yds Rush

TD Rec

Yds Rec

TD Total

DYAR Rush

DYAR Rec

DYAR 1. Adrian Peterson MIN 13 0 4 0 -29 -7 -23 Yes, I do feel bad about kicking a great player when he's down. But none of Peterson's seven carries gained successful yardage, none gained more than 4 yards, and two of them lost yards. His two passing targets: an incompletion, and a 4-yard gain (and fumble) on third-and-5.

Five most valuable wide receivers and tight ends Rk Player Team Rec Att Yds Avg TD Total

DYAR 1. Jordan Cameron CLE 9 9 121 13.4 1 70 This was the best game by a tight end this year, and the only game by a tight end in the top 20 receivers games this season. If anything, Cameron's day was even better than the 100 percent Catch Rate or 13.4 yards per target would suggest. All of Cameron's catches resulted in a first down, including two third-down conversions, and seven of them gained at least 13 yards, capped off by a 21-yarder. 2. Marques Colston NO 9 13 125 13.9 2 60 Eight of Colston's completions gained a first down; the ninth was an 8-yard gain on first-and-15. He had three catches on three targets in the red zone, resulting in 31 yards, two touchdowns, and another first down. 3. Da'Rick Rogers IND 6 9 107 17.8 2 53 Your garbage-time star of the day. Rogers was below replacement level on four first-half targets, but scored on 69- and 2-yard touchdowns in the second half. Each of those scores came with Indianapolis down by 21 points. 4. Keenan Allen SD 3 3 59 19.7 2 51 Three targets, in order: 43-yard touchdown on third-and-3; 12-yard gain on second-and-5; 4-yard touchdown on third-and-goal. 5. Eric Decker DEN 8 12 117 14.6 1 50 Decker had a 7-yard DPI that is accounted for in his DYAR, but otherwise not listed in this table. Decker had seven first downs against Tennessee, including a 20-yard touchdown.