Last week's Inside the Numbers focused on some defensive records, milestones and trivia. This week we'll look ahead with some Green & White offensive performers and performances:
Powell on the ProwlBilal Powell is still in his explosive prime. Against Buffalo his big run was a multi-tackle-breaking third-quarter burst for 51 yards to set up Matt Forte's first touchdown of the night.
"You have to give credit to the offensive line and the game plan," Powell said. "I just run to what I see and those guys up front are doing a tremendous job."
Combined with his 75-yard scoring run vs. Jacksonville, Powell is the fifth different Jet to unspool two 50-plus runs in the same season. The others:
Freeman McNeil — 1984, 53 yards at New England, 52 yards vs. Miami in back-to-back games.
Leon Washington — 2008, TD runs of 60 yards vs. Kansas City and 61 yards at Tennessee.
Thomas Jones — 2009, 64 and 71 yards, the latter for a TD, in the same game, the OT loss vs. Buffalo.
Chris Ivory — 2013, 52- and 69-yard runs in back-to-back games vs. New Orleans and at Buffalo, then again in 2015, 54 yards vs. Washington and 58 in the season finale at Buffalo.
Bilal, with one more half-field jaunt, would become the first back in franchise history to break three 50-yard runs in one season.
Meanwhile, Powell's 4.70 yards/carry has him in the ballpark to post the fifth 5.00 yards/carry season (at least 100 rushes) in franchise history. Powell set the Jets/Titans mark with 5.51 yards/carry last season.
More McCownJosh McCown keeps wowing from week to week with his passing accuracy, which we've detailed before. After going 14-for-20 vs. the Bills, he's at 70.4%, which trails only the Saints' Drew Brees (71.6%) in the NFL. And he's the only Jet with better than 70% accuracy through a season's first nine games. (If we set the parameters at the first nine weeks, Chad Pennington would still be ahead of Josh at 70.8%.)
One new distinction (hat tip to ESPN's Rich Cimini) is how McCown keeps "acing his exams" with 100-plus passer ratings. He's done that six times this season, the latest vs. the Bills (106.2), something that only KC's Alex Smith has also done this year.
How about in Jets history? McCown's needs a few more 100s to catch Ken O'Brien, who had nine such games in 1985. Behind KOB, Vinny Testaverde racked up eight 100 passer-rating games in 1998, and Boomer Esiason (1993), Pennington (2002) and Ryan Fitzpatrick ('15) had seven each, with Pennington adding an eighth in the '02 playoffs.
Robby on a RollAnother Robby Anderson touchdown reception, at Tampa Bay on Sunday, would mark the 20th time in franchise history that a Jets receiver caught TDs in four consecutive games and the 16th time it was done in the same season. Robby's got a way to go to get to the franchise record of seven straight games, set by Santana Moss from Games 5-11 in 2003.
