Week 11 started with a bang, thanks to one of the craziest endings to an NFL game in living memory, and ended on a high...quite literally, with Monday Night Football played at considerable altitude in Mexico City. Both one-loss teams bounced back after reverses in their previous games, with the San Francisco 49ers beating their NFC West rivals the Arizona Cardinals and the New England Patriots holding off the sluggish Philadelphia Eagles.
Here are five other stats to know -- both traditional and via our advanced statistics -- from Week 11 of the season.
Joe Schobert did EVERYTHING for the Browns on Defense
Most of the postgame attention following Thursday Night Football was focused on the actions of Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, as well as those of fellow pass rusher Larry Ogunjobi. That's unfortunate, as those moments of madness overshadowed a stellar outing from another Cleveland defender.
Browns linebacker Joe Schobert was absolutely everywhere against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Schobert had ten combined tackles, four passes defended, two interceptions, and two tackles for loss. He became just the second player this century to have these stats in the same game, and the first since Darren Sharper of the Green Bay Packers managed it in Week 4 of the 2000 season against the Arizona Cardinals. Just for good measure, Schobert also had a sack.
With Garrett and Ogunjobi suspended (Garrett for an indefinite period), the Browns will need players like Schobert to continue to perform at a high level on defense for the rest of the season. Next up for the Browns and Schobert is a game against the suddenly feisty Miami Dolphins . Five players have had ten or more combined tackles in games against the Dolphins so far this season.
Dak Prescott Passed for 400 Yards Again
Considering the Dallas Cowboys offense “runs through Ezekiel Elliott” was the popular narrative, they’ve certainly come to rely on the arm of their quarterback Dak Prescott in 2019. This reliance manifested itself again on Sunday in the Cowboys' victory over the Detroit Lions.
Prescott completed 29 of his 46 pass attempts for 444 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Cowboys' 35-27 win. It was the third game in a row in which Prescott had thrown at least three touchdown passes. This is the third time Prescott has strung together back to back to back three-touchdown games and moves him into a tie for the most such streaks in Dallas history with the man he initially replaced as the Cowboys starter, Tony Romo.
Prescott's numbers were impressive in of themselves, but his efficiency was also something to behold. Prescott averaged 0.51 Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per drop back on Sunday, his second-best game of the season. This mark led all quarterbacks in Week 11 (min 30 pass attempts).
Sunday was also the third time this season that Prescott had thrown for at least 400 yards in a single game, tying a franchise record for the most such games in a single season. Romo managed three 400-yard games back in 2012.
Prescott has four games this season with at least 375 yards and 2 touchdown passes, moving him into a tie with Joe Montana (1990) for the most such games in a team's first ten games in NFL history. Prescott now has 3,221 passing yards this season, making him the first Cowboys quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards in the first ten games of a season.
Dak will be hard-pressed to repeat his recent run of success in Week 12 when the Cowboys take on the New England Patriots. The Patriots have allowed one quarterback to pass for more than 200 yards since Week 1, and have only allowed four passing touchdowns all season.
Josh Allen scored 33.8 Fantasy Points
If there’s one thing Josh Allen has truly enjoyed since coming into the NFL, it has been playing against the Miami Dolphins. This enjoyment shone through again on Sunday, as Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a 37-20 win over their AFC East Rivals.
Allen had a season-high 256 yards passing and 3 touchdowns for the Bills, while also adding 56 yards and another score on the ground. This was the third game in a row with a rushing touchdown for Allen and marked his fourth score in those games. Allen finished the game with 39.84 fantasy points, the second-highest tally of his career. He managed 40.5 in Week 17 of the 2018 season…also against the Dolphins.
Allen joins Cam Newton as the only players with at least 10 passing touchdowns and 7 rushing scores in consecutive seasons in NFL history. Allen’s rushing score against the Dolphins was the 15th of his career and came in his 22nd NFL game. Among quarterbacks, only Newton took fewer games to score 15 rushing touchdowns. Newton managed it in 18 games.
Allen and the Bills take on the Denver Broncos next, and Allen may not have as much success against Vic Fangio's unit as he did against Miami. The Broncos have allowed the fifth-fewest passing yards per game this season, while only two quarterbacks have rushed for more than eight yards against the Broncos in 2019. Our editor in chief JJ Zachariason has Allen as a "sell" candidate in his latest 15 Transactions column.
Jameis Winston Threw FOUR Interceptions
There is a belief within the NFL that “the contract year is undefeated”, with a whole host of examples of players upping their game considerably with an eye towards free agency following the season. It would appear that Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston has never heard of this phenomenon.
Winston certainly moved the ball through the air against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, finishing with more than 300-yards for the fifth game in a row. This is the longest current streak in the NFL. However, Winston also threw four interceptions as Tampa fell to a 34-17 loss. This was the third time in 2019 that Winston had at least three interceptions in a single game, tied for the second-most games in a season since 2010. Eli Manning had four such games during the 2013 season. Winston still has six games in which to match or exceed this record.
Coming into the 2019 season, Winston had thrown four pick-sixes in his career. The interception that Saints defender Marcus Williams returned for a touchdown on Sunday was Winston's fourth pick-six of the season.
Winston leads the NFL with 18 interceptions this season, which is already tied for the most he has thrown in a season in his career. There have only been 25 instances of a quarterback throwing 18 or more interceptions in a team's first 10 games of a season, and only two of those instances have occurred this century -- Winston in 2019 and Jay Cutler in 2009 for the Chicago Bears.
Winston could certainly extend his 300-yard streak next week against the Atlanta Falcons, who are surrendering 261.7 passing yards per game in 2019. Though, the real question is whether or not he can keep the ball out of their hands, especially as the Falcons are coming off a game in which they intercepted four passes of their own against Kyle Allen and the Carolina Panthers.
D.J. Chark Scored 30.4 PPR Points
The return of Nick Foles wasn’t terribly momentous for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, as the team fell 33-13 to the Indianapolis Colts. But having the former Super Bowl MVP in the lineup was good news for at least one Jaguars pass catcher, namely D.J. Chark.
Chark saw 15 targets against the Colts and converted these looks into 8 receptions for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns. This output gave him 30.4 PPR points and marked the second time in 2019 that Chark had cleared 30 PPR points. He had 36.4 against the Panthers in Week 5. Chark joins Jimmy Smith (2000) and Allen Robinson (2015) as the only Jacksonville wide receivers with two 30-point games in a season in Jaguars history, trailing only the three games Smith had in 1999.
Chark has two games with two receiving touchdowns this season, after finding the end zone twice against the Panthers. Marcedes Lewis and Allen Robinson jointly hold Jacksonville's franchise record with three multi-touchdown games in a single season. Lewis achieved his feat in 2010, while Robinson’s came in 2015.
The Jaguars take on the Tennessee Titans next, and they have started to become a more welcoming opponent for wide receivers of late. A wide receiver has gone over 100 yards against the Titans in each of their last three games, while they have allowed nine receiving scores to wideouts so far. Mike Evans had two touchdowns against them in Week 8.