In front of a nationally-televised audience (on more than one major broadcasting station), the Patriots made history. By defeating the New York Giants 38-35, the Patriots completed their historic run at a perfect season. Now, as Tedy Bruschi put it, "the exhibition season is over," and it's time to for the team to prove they're as hardy as the teams of dynasty years past and bring home the win that matters. For now, let's take a look at all the records the Patriots broke this season:
Team
Most TDs scored, season: 75 (prev. record: 70, 1984 Miami Dolphins)
Most points scored, season: 589 (prev. record: 556, 1998 Minnesota Vikings)
Longest reg. season streak: 19 (prev. record: 18, 2003-04 New England Patriots)
Largest point differential, season: +315 (prev. record: +284, 1999 St. Louis Rams)
Most wins, season: 16 (prev. record: 15, various teams)
Individual
Most TD passes, season: 50, Tom Brady [2007] (prev. record: 49, Peyton Manning [2004])
Most TD receptions, season: 23, Randy Moss [2007] (prev. record: 22, Jerry Rice [1987])
Most TD connections, QB-to-WR, season: 23, Tom Brady-to-Randy Moss [2007] (prev. record: 18, Dan Marino-to-Mark Clayton [1984] and Brett Favre-to-Sterling Sharpe [1994])
I was a bit surprised that Montana-to-Rice wasn't up there on the last one, but the site I found the stat on went on to explain that Rice caught only 13 of his TDs that year from Montana, 8 from Steve Young, and the last from RB Harry Sydney. Go figure.
What an amazing, belief-defying season we just witnessed.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Perfect Pats!
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5 comments:
Jerry Rices 22 TDs were also in a strike-shortened year of 12 games... so, that's still probably more amazing than anything else
I'm aware, and I agree, the fact that he caught that many in such a short season speaks to the fact that he's a great receiver... and was probably the only guy on that 1987 team properly capable of catching a pass. To catch a touchdown pass, a receiver has to get the ball thrown to him first.
Or maybe, he was just so great, it was considered automatic, I'd throw to Jerry Rice/Marvin Harrison... etc a million times if it was possible
Alright, I did a little investigation on the 1987 season and compared it with Moss's season. Rice only played in 12 games, and while it's hard to be sure, I assume he caught at least 1 TD pass in all of those games. During Moss's 2007 season, he caught TD passes in 13 of the 16 games (he could have sat out against the Jets, Browns, and Eagles and he still would have gotten the record). I'd say his season is at least as amazing as Rice's, seeing as he caught 1 more TD pass than Rice did.
Also, a lot of Moss's multi-TD games came when he was running through double and triple coverage.
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