Last week I wrote a lot about those "what if" decisions that haunt us. Most of you should be steeped in fantasy playoff anxiety. Though for some leagues, you might still be battling things out in the regular season. Whatever the case may be, this NFL season continues to mystify and drive us fantasy owners crazy - be it for the good or the bad. Here are some of this past week's numerical blood pressure boilers:
3 - The number of times Marvin Harrison has scored Monday night. If you had him in your lineup, you were all smiles. If your opponent did, you were not at all happy. And if you were hoping for a similar output from his Bengals counterpart, Chad Johnson, you were really annoyed to hear he was in the locker room a good part of the game hydrating himself with an IV.
35,000 - Number of dollars Terrell Owens was fined for disgracefully spitting in the face of an opponent early in Saturday's game. Sure T.O. went on to score two touchdowns and apologize after the game, but there's no excuse for that behavior.
22 - Number of touchdown passes Rex Grossman has thrown this season. He's had seven great games where his passer rating has been over 100, and he's had four dismal games where it was below 50. Despite his 17 picks, Grossman's 22 TDs speak volumes. Just Carson Palmer (24) and Drew Brees (25) have more passing TDs this year.
31 - Total points scored by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday against that formidable Chicago Bears defense. It was their biggest offensive output of the season. Tim Rattay rallied the Bucs and mounted a comeback where they scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. It wasn't good enough for the win, though, as the Bears pulled out the W in OT and clinched home field advantage in the playoffs. But you can be sure offensive coordinators across the league will be requesting that game film.
98 vs. 396 - Total yards of offense for the Tennessee Titans compared to their Week 15 opponents, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Vince Young and the Titan offense didn't muster a single TD, but their defense did. In fact, they found paydirt three times and led the Titans to a 24-17 victory. That's five wins in a row and seven of the last nine. Now standing at 7-7 this team still has an outside shot at the playoffs. You've got to love the NFL!
8 - Number of times budding star running back Frank Gore has surpassed the century mark this season in rushing yards. He might only have six rushing touchdowns to his name, but this guy is for real. With another 144 yards Thursday evening, he's tallied 1,491 yards this season and ranks third behind the likes of LaDanian Tomlinson (1,626) and Larry Johnson (1,516).
140.8 vs. 142.5 - Passer rating in Week 14 for J.P. Losman compared to his rating in Week 15. It was no fluke. Sure he looked sharp against the New York Jets pass defense, but things would be different when going up against the Miami defense this past week, right? Wrong. That Miami defense that befuddled Tom Brady just a week ago was dismantled by Losman. With the Bills sitting 7-7 heading into Week 16 against the 7-7 Titans, we've got one great matchup brewing.
33 - Points that separate the NFL's top scoring place kicker this season Robbie Gould from the number-12 man, Josh Brown. Although, Brown shares the 10 through 12 rankings with Jeff Reed and Shayne Graham. If you stretch those 33 points out over the course of 15 weeks, you've got just over a two-point difference per week. Besides the luck of the draw each week, which hopefully balances out over time, just remember this stat when drafting next season.
4.5 - Sacks this season by last year's number one draft pick Mario Williams. That's not even good for the top 30 in the league. The future might be bright for Williams in Houston, but the reality of the immediate success this season for Reggie Bush and Vince Young must have Texans fans wondering "what if". Hey, at least the Texans got it right in the second round. Linebacker DeMeco Ryans now has an NFL-best 113 solo tackles on the season.
4,974 - In his NFL career, that's how many times Brett Favre has launched, flipped, or tossed a football forward and had it caught by someone from his team. And that doesn't include the playoffs. Favre surpassed Dan Marino this weekend as the all-time completions leader in NFL history. With 8,132 attempts, Mr. Favre has a career completion percentage of 61.2. If he comes back for another year of fun, the records are going to crumble.
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