Eight stats that stand out three weeks into the 2013 NFL regular season…
1. There have been eight games in which the team that was trailing scored the game-winning points in the final minute. In other words, that has happened 17 percent of the time. Unreal.
2. The Patriots might be 3-0, but Tom Brady ranks 24th in the league with a passer rating of 79.4, 26th with a completion percentage of 57.5 and dead last among 33 qualifying quarterbacks with a yards-per-attempt average of 5.5. How is that even possible?
3. Peyton Manning, whom I'll remind you is the NFL's third-oldest position player (after London Fletcher and Tony Gonzalez), is on pace to put up the following final stats: 16-0 record, 73.0%, 6096 yards, 64 TD, 0 INT, 9.4 YPA, 134.7 rating. Everything except the yards-per-attempt average would be a new NFL record.
4. Chip Kelly's Eagles have 627 rushing yards, which is nearly double the league average through three weeks. In the last 28 years, only the 2006 Falcons have rushed for more yards during the first three weeks of the season. Those teams had the same mobile quarterback. Michael Vick had 232 yards rushing for that team. He has 187 this year in Philly. And yes, the Eagles on pace to set a new single-season record for rushing yards.
5. So is LeSean McCoy. With 395 yards out of the gate, McCoy has a 98-yard lead on Doug Martin and is on pace to run for 2,106 yards, which is one more than Eric Dickerson's record of 2,105.
6. Chiefs pass-rushing stud Justin Houston is on pace to record 40 sacks. He has 7.5 through three games. In 1982, the first year the NFL started recording sacks, only five players had more than 7.5 of them all season.
7. Ryan Tannehill is off to a great start, but his pass protection and ball security are still issues. Tannehill has fumbled five times and has been sacked 14 times, leading the league in both categories. He's on pace to take 74 sacks, which would be two short of David Carr's single-season record.
8. Scoring is down slightly from 45.6 points per game last year to 45.2 this year. But this would still be the second-highest-scoring season in NFL history (post-1970 merger). Yet, yardage is up this year. Teams are averaging more yards per game than any other season in NFL history. So why are the points not increasing? Turnovers have increased. There have been 162 turnovers through three weeks this year and 3.4 per game. There were only 148 and 3.1 per game at the same point last season.
