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

Whether Shonn Greene’s career-rushing day against the Indianapolis Colts, the Cleveland Brown’s seven three-and outs against the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore’s uncanny ability to win games even when allowing back-to-back 200-yards rushers or the Redskins’ Robert Griffin III scoring the longest rushing touchdown by an NFL quarterback since Kordell Stewart back in 2006, Jockspin.com has the all the numbers behind the stories comprising Week 6 in the National Football League.

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Yes, the New York Jets’ Shonn Greene earned a career-high 161 yards rushing against the Colts on Sunday.  What you may not know, however, is that Green collected 103 of those yards between the tackles – including all three of his touchdowns.  The tailback also averaged 2.7 yards before contact on those rushes after averaging just 1.5 yard before contact per attempt in each his first five games of the 2012 season.

All said and done, Greene became just the second player in Jets franchise history to finish a single contest with 150 rushing yards and three scores.  The other? Emerson Boozer, who earned exactly 150 yards and three touchdowns in a 1972 win over the New England Patriots.

Despite lead tailback Darren McFadden averaging just 2.6 yards per carry on 27 total touches Sunday in a 23-20 loss to Atlanta, the Oakland Raiders finished with 149 rushing yards – that’s more than double their NFL-worse weekly average.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan ended Sunday’s victory over Oakland just 12-of-22 passing and with three interceptions on throws deeper than five yards downfield.  That’s a bit surprising, ESPN.com notes, given that prior to today’s contest, Ryan was the only quarterback in the NFL to have surpassed a 70 percent completion rating on such throws through his first five starts of the year.

Despite pulling out a 34-24 victory at home against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday afternoon – the first such win in eleven games dating back to November of last year – the Cleveland Browns were forced to punt after a three-and-out on seven separate occasions, tied for most by any team in a single game to this point in the season.  That figure also ties for the most the Browns have had in a single game over the last 10 seasons.

After making his first two field goal attempts against the Miami Dolphins, St. Louis Rams rookie placekicker Greg Zuerlein improved to a perfect 15-of-15 for the season.  Zuerlein then went on to miss his next three attempts, however, including a 66-yarder on the final play of Sunday afternoon’s game.

Miami may in fact have the league’s top defense against the run, but don’t tell that to St. Louis, who averaged a lofty 6.0 yards per carry in Sunday’s 17-14 road loss.

Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill finished his team’s 17-14 win over the St. Louis Rams 11-of-13 for 105 yards and two touchdowns against at least five pass rushers.  No other quarterback in the NFL now has more passing yards (828) against at least five pass rushers than the rookie passer for the Dolphins.

Despite going just 1-of-5 for 28 yards and an interception on throws of 15 yards or more through the first three quarters of Sunday’s contest between Detroit and Philadelphia, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford finished the final quarter of play 4-of-7 on deep throws for 127 yards and a touchdown.

Tampa Bay’s Ronde Barber earned his 14^th career return touchdown off an interception of Kansas City quarterback Brady Quinn on Sunday, and now has the second-most such scores by an active NFL player behind Chicago’s Devin Hester.

Thanks to Sunday’s 38-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman now has more completions on passes of 15 yards or deeper (55.6 percent) this season than he has on attempts less than 15 yards (55 percent).

The Baltimore Ravens have allowed back-to-back 200-yard rushing games in each of its last two contests, but still managed to beat both opponents (Kansas City last week, Dallas this week) despite that fact.  The franchise is now just the fourth team in NFL history to accomplish such a task.

The Dallas Cowboys tied a season-high 15 penalties in Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, including six which were called during the fourth quarter.  Dallas now leads the league in average fourth quarter penalties with four.

A scary statistic relating to Arizona Cardinals starting quarterback, Kevin Kolb – he has been sacked 22 times over the span of his last three games.

With a stunning come-from-behind victory over the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson became the first rookie since the NFL merger to throw two game-winning touchdown passes in the last two minutes of a game in one season.  He also became just the fifth league passer to do it in the last four years.

Staying on the subject of Wilson – with a 91.4 quarterback rating in Sunday’s victory over New England, Wilson produced the highest such rating for a Seahawks quarterback since Matt Hasselback netted a 97.4 against the Rams back in 2008.  The rookie passer also completed as many passes of 20 yards or better Sunday (five) as he has all season, finishing with an average of 15.2 yards per attempt.

The Patriots defense stifled Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch, holding him to just 41 yards on 15 carries – his lowest total output since Week 8 of last season.

The New York Giants earned three sacks in a 26-3 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, the most since Week 8 of 2011 against Miami.

The 49ers defense, meanwhile allowed 149 rushing yards to the Giants in Sunday’s loss, with 133 coming between the tackles.  The last time San Francisco allowed that many rushing yards on the interior of the line was Week 11 of the 2010 season versus Tampa Bay.

With a 76-yard run in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s match up between the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Robert Griffin III posted the longest touchdown run by an NFL quarterback since Kordell Stewart took in an 80-yard score on the ground for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in 1996.  Grffin’s 138 total yards on the day were also the most by an NFL passer since Michael Vick posted 166 back in 2006.

Matched with Alfred Morris’ rushing touchdown against the Vikings Sunday, Griffin III and Morris find themselves tied for second-most rushing scores by a rookie quarterback or running back in franchise history since 1960.

The Redskins have now scored 49 points off turnovers this season, whereas last year, they totaled 43 the entire year.

In Sunday’s win over the Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers became just the fourth quarterback in NFL history to pass for 330 or more yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions in a single contest.  Rodgers joins Tom Brady, who has done so twice in his career, Mark Rypien and Y.A. Tittle.

The Texans’ Arian Foster may have scored twice in Sunday’s 42-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers, but totaled just 29 yards rushing on 17 attempts – that’s 1.7 yards per carry, the lowest such average of Foster’s professional career.