NFL

5 NFL Stats to Know Through Week 9

And then there was one.

With nine weeks gone in the 2019 season, we are down to a single undefeated team and a single team without a victory.

Week 9 also saw Carlos Hyde become just the second player to rush for more than 150 yards in an international series game, finishing with 150 for the Houston Texans against the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars. Russell Wilson recorded his 90th win (including the postseason), tying the record for the most wins by a quarterback in their first eight NFL seasons, a mark previously held by Ben Roethlisberger.

Here are five other stats to know -- both traditional and via our advanced statistics -- from Week 9 of the season.

Jimmy Garoppolo Had 4 Passing Touchdowns

The San Francisco 49ers had gotten off to a 7-0 start seemingly in spite of having Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback. Prior to Week 9, Garoppolo had two touchdown passes in his previous three games combined, and he had passed for more than 181 yards just once in his last four. But against the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night, Garoppolo put on a show.

Garoppolo completed 28 of his 37 pass attempts for 317 yards and four touchdowns, giving him a passer rating of 136.9. It was his first 300-yard game since Week 14 of the 2017 season, while the four touchdowns were a new career high. His four touchdown passes came in the first three quarters of the game. The last 49ers quarterback with four touchdown passes in a game's first three quarters was Jeff Garcia, who managed the feat in 2003. Garoppolo joins Elvis Grbac, Steve Young and Joe Montana as the only San Fran quarterbacks to have at least 300 passing yards, four touchdowns and a passer rating of at least 130 in a game.

Garoppolo’s deeds earned him 28.9 fantasy points, which was another career high. His previous best was 22.6, which he managed in Week 2 of this season against the Cincinnati Bengals. Garoppolo has also thrown a touchdown pass to 10 different pass-catchers in 2019, and that is the most of any NFL team this season.

Player Receiving Touchdowns
George Kittle 2
Dante Pettis 2
Emmanuel Sanders 2
Kendrick Bourne 1
Matt Breida 1
Tevin Coleman 1
Marquise Goodwin 1
Richie James 1
Raheem Mostert 1
Deebo Samuel 1


Garoppolo will look to stay hot in Week 10 as the 49ers have an NFC West showdown with the Seattle Seahawks. This iteration of the Seahawks are not a patch on the old "Legion of Boom" and have allowed four quarterbacks to amass at least 300 yards against them in 2019, with both Andy Dalton and Matt Schaub going over the 400-yard mark.

Zach Ertz Had 100 Yards Receiving

After a record-breaking 2018 season, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz hadn’t really got going in the first eight weeks of the 2019 campaign. After a seven-reception, 65-yard game against the Green Bay Packers in Week 4, Ertz had seen his yardage total drop in four straight games. He had just one touchdown on the year, too. But he showed signs of emerging from his slump this past Sunday.

Ertz saw 11 targets in Week 9, converting these looks into nine catches and 103 yards. The targets were the second most he had seen in 2019, while the nine grabs were a season high. It was the 10th time in Ertz career that he had at least 10 targets in a game, extending his own record for such games since he entered the NFL in 2013. Ertz also scored his second touchdown of the season in the win against the Chicago Bears.

Sunday was Ertz’s 100th NFL game. He ranks third all time among tight ends in receptions in the first 100 games of their career.

Ertz finished the week with 25.3 PPR points, the most he has scored in a game this season. It was also the fourth most points he has scored in a single game, though it is some way off his career best of 40.5, which he managed against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 10 of last season. Sadly for Ertz owners in fantasy, his upturn in form has come at the worst possible time as the Eagles are on their bye in Week 10.

Lamar Jackson Amassed 28.6 Fantasy Points

Despite Lamar Jackson's magical start to the season, some people had doubts as to how much success Jackson would have against the dominant New England Patriots defense. Jackson took those doubts and absolutely shredded them on Sunday Night Football.

Jackson had a fairly pedestrian day as a passer, completing 17 of his 23 pass attempts for 163 yards and a touchdown. But he was his usual electric self as a runner, earning 62 yards on 16 attempts with two rushing scores. Jackson now holds the record for the most rushing yards by a quarterback through his team's opening eight games of a season, surpassing the 576 Michael Vick amassed in 2006.

Jackson also became only the second player in the Bill Belichick era to pass for a touchdown and run for at least two in the same game against the Patriots. The last player to do so was Ronnie Brown for the Miami Dolphins in 2008 in the game made famous by the Dolphins unveiling of the “Wildcat." Jackson is also the first quarterback to rush for two touchdowns against the Patriots since Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos in Week 15 of the 2011 season.

Through eight games, Jackson has 637 rushing yards and is on pace for 1,274 rushing yards this season. The all-time mark for quarterback rushing yards is 1,039 and is currently held by the aforementioned Vick (2006). Next up for Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens is a matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, who Jackson rushed for 152 yards against in Week 6. Another huge game could be in store.

Mitchell Trubisky Averaged -0.23 Passing NEP Per Drop Back

It would be something of an understatement to describe Mitchell Trubisky's current form as shaky. Quite simply, he's been abysmal in the last few weeks, and this trend continued against the Eagles on Sunday.

Trubisky completed 10 of his 21 pass attempts for 125 yards, with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions on Sunday. To put his numbers into sharper focus, 83 of his yards came on just two passes. Sunday marked the fifth time in seven games this season that Trubisky has failed to throw a touchdown pass.

As bad as Trubisky's counting stats were, his per-play numbers make for pretty horrific reading. Trubisky averaged a dismal -0.23 Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per drop back on Sunday, the second lowest mark of all players with at least 20 pass attempts. The Eagles have been bad against the pass so far this season, as the numbers below can attest to, and this makes Trubisky's showing all the more disheartening,

Game WeekQuarterbackTeamPassing NEP per Play
1Case KeenumWashington0.53
2Matt RyanFalcons0.16
3Matthew StaffordLions0.19
4Aaron RodgersPackers0.22
5Luke FalkJets-0.84
6Kirk CousinsVikings0.73
7Dak PrescottCowboys0.37
8Josh AllenBills-0.08
9Mitchell TrubiskyBears-0.23


When the only player who has done worse than you against a pass-funnel defense is Luke Falk, who isn't even on an NFL roster following his horror showing, then something clearly isn't right.

On his current form, Trubisky is a long way off the fantasy radar. With that said, there's so many teams on a bye heading into Week 10, desperate times may call for desperate measures for quarterback streamers, and the Bears will be facing a Detroit Lions defense that has allowed at least 250 passing yards in every single game this season as well as multiple touchdown passes in all but two games.

But Trubisky had a cake matchup last week, and look what happened there. Tread lightly.

Josh Jacobs Rushed for 120 Yards and 2 Touchdowns -- Again

One of the season's rookie success stories has been Oakland Raiders running back Josh Jacobs. He had another game to remember on Sunday as he helped his side to a 31-24 win over the Detroit Lions.

Jacobs rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions. This was the second such game for Jacobs this year, making him the fifth rookie in the Super Bowl Era to manage the feat twice in his first eight career games. He is in quite distinguished company.

Player Team Rookie Season Games With 120+ Yds and 2 TDs
Billy Sims Lions 1980 2
Eric Dickerson Rams 1983 2
Julius Jones Cowboys 2004 2
Adrian Peterson Vikings 2007 2
Josh Jacobs Raiders 2019 2


It was also Jacobs' third game with two rushing touchdowns this season. He is the first rookie since Ickey Woods of the Bengals in 1988 to have three two-score games in his teams first eight games of the season. He is also the first running back with at least three games of multiple rushing touchdowns in his first season since Ezekiel Elliott back in 2016. Indeed, as per Josh Dubow, the Raiders have 11 touchdowns from rookies so far this season. In Jon Gruden's first five years coaching the Raiders before 2019, rookies had scored exactly two touchdowns.

Jacobs has 740 rushing yards through the Raiders' first eight games of the year. No other Raiders rookie running back has rushed for more yards in the first eight games of his first season. Hall of Famer Marcus Allen managed "only" 571 yards in his first eight games of the 1982 campaign.

Jacobs has not had fewer than 15 carries in any of his last five games, and while it would be nice to see him more involved in the passing game (he has just 11 receptions on the year), his rushing volume makes him almost irresistible to fantasy owners on a weekly basis. Next up for Jacobs and the Raiders is a divisional clash with the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday. The Chargers have allowed three 100-yard rushers already this season, with six backs taking at least 60 yards off Gus Bradley's unit in 2019.