Sideline Synopsis: Notes of Interest Coming Out of Week Seven of the NFL’s Regular Season

From record days on the ground for Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson to Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall accounting for nearly 40 percent of all receptions to this point in the year, JockSpin.com’s Jason Roberts breaks down the numbers behind the games comprising Week Seven of the NFL regular season:

With an 83-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of Sunday’s game between the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills, tailback Chris Johnson earned an NFL-record fourth career rushing touchdown of more than 80 yards.  Johnson now moves ahead of Ahman Green, Hugh McElhenny, Barry Sanders and O.J. Simpson.

Staying on the subject of Johnson:  With 18 carries for 195 yards, the second-highest rushing total of his professional career, Johnson joined both Earl Campbell and Eddie George in becoming the franchise’s third player to have 30 100-yards games, while also breaking 6,000 yards rushing.

The defensive woes for the Buffalo Bills continue to mount, with the team now having given up 937 rushing yards to opposing ball carriers.  Since Week 4, no other team has allowed more than 665 yards rushing, and, at this pace, Buffalo will allow some 3,240 rush yards for the year.  That, notes ESPN.com, would break a record set by the franchise back in 1978, when the Bills surrendered 3,228 rushing yards in a single season.

Cleveland Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden has now thrown five of his nine total touchdowns on the year off play-action passes.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who completed 30-of-37 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns Sunday in a 30-20 win over the St. Louis Rams Sunday, broke Dan Marino’s NFL record of fewest interceptions thrown while passing for 150 career touchdowns. Marino had 69 at the time he reached that milestone; Rodgers, just 42.

Rodgers also finished Sunday’s victory with a 95.5 quarterback rating, the second-straight week he’s exited a contest with a rating over 95.  Over the last five years, he is the only player to accomplish the feat in two road games and the fourth to do so overall.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb finished Sunday’s win over St. Louis a perfect 8-of-8 as a receiving target, the second time this year (the first, a perfect 9-of-9 in Week 1 against San Francisco) he’s caught every ball thrown his way in a single contest.

With a 23 carry / 153 yard game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson became the NFL leader in most games of 100 yards from scrimmage this season with five.  Trailing him with four are teammate Percy Harvin, Baltimore Ravens tailback Ray Rice and New England Patriots wideout Wes Welker.  Peterson also ended up tying Robert Smith’s franchise record with his 29^th career 100-yard rushing contest.

LaRod Stephens-Howling, running back for the Arizona Cardinals, ended Sunday’s game against the Vikings with 20 carries for 104 yards rushing.  In doing so, he became the first 100-yard rusher for Arizona since November of last year.

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning engineered his eighth game-winning drive since 2011 in a 27-23 win over the Washington Redskins on Sunday, the most for an NFL quarterback over that same period of time.

Rookie tailback for Washington, Alfred Morris, rushed for a career-high 120 yards Sunday against the Giants, with 112 of those yards coming between the tackles.  That, according to ESPN.com, is the most rushing yards allowed on the interior of the line by New York since Week 16 of 2009.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw for four touchdowns in a Sunday win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, earning him his 18^th career game with at least four scoring passes in one game. He also posted his 62^nd career game with at least 300 yards passing, tying Brett Favre for third on the all-time list behind Dan Marino and Peyton Manning.

Brees has now thrown for at least 325 yards in five of the Saints’ six games this season, including 377 Sunday against the Bucs.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman continued to find success throwing the ball downfield in Sunday’s loss to New Orleans, completing 9-of-16 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown on passes of at least 10 yards.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo completed 24-of-34 passing for 227 yards and a touchdown in a much-needed win for the franchise over Carolina, and in doing so, finished with a quarterback rating of 85.1 – his highest to this point in the season and the first time all year he’s topped 80 in a game since a season-opening over the Giants. Romo’s completion rating of 86.4 was also his highest in a game since the start of 2008, when he went 19-of-22 in Week 11 against the Arizona Cardinals.

Dallas’ defense was effective in taking away the deep throw of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton, holding his average completion against at least five pass rushers to just 5.4 yards, the second-lowest average throw distance of his career against added pressure.

Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson played in his 129^th career game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, a franchise record.

Talk about a rough game – Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco finished with a 0.3 total quarterback rating against Houston on Sunday, the lowest such single-game rating in the NFL for the past five years.

Houston quarterback Matt Schaub, meanwhile, remained poised under pressure in Sunday’s 43-13 win over the Ravens, completing 8-of-8 passing for 85 yards and a touchdown when Baltimore sent five or more pass rushers.

Thanks to two field goals of 51 and 54 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens placekicker Justin Tucker now holds a franchise record having made four field goals of 50 yards or better in a single season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, who fell to the Oakland Raiders 26-23 on the road Sunday afternoon, have now failed to score on their first drive for 17 straight games.

On the bright side, Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee reach 178 career field goals in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders, surpassing the franchise mark of 175 set previously by Mike Hollis.

The New England Patriots gained at least 350 yards for the 16^th straight regular season game in a 29-26 overtime win over the Jets on Sunday, tying the 1999-2000 St. Louis Rams for the most in NFL history.

The Patriots secondary continues to be an Achilles heel, with New England entering Week 7 allowing the most completions in the AFC on throws of at least 15 yards, then giving up the most such passes (nine) in five years to the New York Jets’ Mark Sanchez on Sunday.

The Patriots rushed for 131 yards in Sunday’s win over the Jets, the fourth time this season they’ve topped the century mark on the ground.  In all four of those games, New England emerged victorious, whereas in contests in which Patriots’ rushers fail to reach 100 yards so far this season, the team is 0-3.

In catching just three of 11 total targets in Monday night’s loss to the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson finished with 34 yards, the first time in five consecutive road games he’s failed to total at least 90 receiving yards.

The Lions continue to struggle to hold on to the ball in the red zone, with Detroit surrendering turnovers on three of 12 plays inside Chicago’s 20-yard line on Monday night.  The Lions now lead the NFL with five such turnovers on the season.

Brandon Marshall, who caught six of the Chicago Bears’ 16 completions Monday night in a 13-7 win over Detroit, has now accounted for 38.7 percent of the team’s catches to this point in the season – that’s the highest of any receiver in the NFL.