NFL Research offers the best nuggets from each week of games in the NFL. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments of Week 11 of the 2022 NFL season.
1) Cowboys record largest road win in team history behind defense, Tony Pollard
The Cowboys defense dominated the Vikings in a 40-3 win in Week 11, the largest road victory in Cowboys’ franchise history. The 37-point victory was the largest road win against a team 8-1 or better since the 1970 merger, and it was the second-largest home loss in Vikings history (42-point loss vs St. Louis Cardinals in 1963).
The Cowboys' season-high seven sacks were also the most in any game in Kirk Cousins' 11-year NFL career. The Cowboys are the only team to have both five games with five-plus sacks and four players with five-plus sacks this season. The Cowboys snapped Cousins’ streak of 39 straight games with a pass touchdown, which was the longest active streak in the NFL.
Pollard has averaged 154.7 scrimmage yards per game and has six touchdowns since Week 8. Both are the most in the NFL over that span. Pollard and Dan Reeves (1966, 1967) are the only Cowboys running backs with 100-plus receiving yards and multiple receiving touchdowns in a game. It was also the first time in Cowboys franchise history that the team has had one running back score multiple rushing TDs (Ezekiel Elliott) and another running back score multiple receiving TDs (Pollard) in the same game.
2) Micah Parsons chases Reggie White's single-season record
Parsons served a huge role in the Cowboys' lopsided win to the tune of two sacks, five quarterback hits and a forced fumble in Week 11. Parsons has five games with 2.0 sacks this season, the most in the NFL. The single-season NFL record is held by the Hall of Famer White, who had eight such games in a strike-shortened 1987 season. Parsons has eight career games reaching that threshold, one behind Aldon Smith (nine) for the most in a player’s first two seasons all time.
3) Travis Kelce sets another tight end record in prime time
Kelce put up 115 yards and three tuddies against the Chargers on Sunday Night Football. It was his 33rd career game with 100-or-more receiving yards, breaking a tie with Rob Gronkowski (32) for the most by a tight end in NFL history. It was also Kelce’s 19th career game with 100 receiving yards and a touchdown, trailing only Gronkowski (23) at the position.
Kelce leads the NFL with 11 touchdown catches this season. He’s done his best work under the lights; his eight receiving scores in prime time are already tied for the second-most by a player in a single season since 1970. The only other players with eight-plus in a season were Hall of Famers Randy Moss (11 in 2007) and Jerry Rice (eight in 1987).
Kelce also had a walk-off touchdown against the Chargers last season (in overtime). He is just the third tight end in the last 40 seasons to score multiple game-winning touchdowns against a single opponent in the last minute of the fourth quarter or overtime. The other two are Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe (two against the Jaguars) and the Cowboys' Jason Witten (two against the Eagles).
4) New kick return king Cordarrelle Patterson
Patterson had his ninth career kick return touchdown in Week 11, breaking a tie with Leon Washington and Josh Cribbs for the most all time. Patterson has seven career touchdowns of 100-plus yards. No other player in NFL history has more than three. Patterson is the only player in NFL history with at least 15 rushing and receiving touchdowns, as well as at least seven kick return scores.
5) Has Davante Adams already earned a gold jacket?
Teams win football games by scoring points, and Adams scores touchdowns, adding two to his résumé in Week 11. Adams' 83 career receiving scores are the most by any player since he entered the NFL in 2014. Adams scored his second of the day Sunday in overtime to seal the Raiders win over the Broncos in Week 11.
This is his Adams’ sixth career season with double-digit touchdown catches, making him one of six players in NFL history to record as many seasons. The only other players to do so: Jerry Rice (nine), Randy Moss (nine), Marvin Harrison (eight), Terrell Owens (eight), and Cris Carter (six). Each of those players has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Rice is the only player to have more such campaigns (seven) than Adams (six) in a player’s first nine career seasons.
6) Derek Carr and Davante Adams own overtime
Carr won his eighth career overtime game in the Raiders’ 22-16 win over the Broncos in Week 11. The only players with more overtime wins since starts were recorded in 1950 are Drew Brees (13), Tom Brady (10) and Drew Bledsoe (nine). Carr’s .800 quarterback win percentage in overtime games (8-2 career record) is the highest by any player to start 10 such games, right ahead of Brady (.714). It was also Carr’s 32nd career game-winning drive, the most in the NFL since he was drafted in 2014. Carr connected with Adams on the game-winning overtime TD. It was Adams’ third career overtime touchdown, tying Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson for the most in NFL history.
7) Joe Burrow reaches 10,000 career pass yards
Burrow had 355 passing yards and four passing touchdowns against the Steelers in Week 11, his sixth career game with 350 yards and multiple touchdowns through the air, trailing only Patrick Mahomes (eight) and Andrew Luck for the most in a player’s first three seasons all-time. He reached 10,000 career passing yards in his 36th career game, tied for the third-fastest by any player in NFL history. Only Mahomes (34) and Justin Herbert (35) did so in fewer career games.
8) Lions win third straight behind Jamaal Williams and Aidan Hutchinson
The Lions got their third straight win behind some superb efforts by a player on each side of the ball. Williams scored three more rushing touchdowns and became the first player to score multiple rushing TDs in at least five of his team's first 10 games since Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, when he set the single-season TD record with 31. Second-overall pick Hutchinson had another interception. He is the first rookie with two-plus interceptions and five-plus sacks in a season since Shaquille Leonard in 2018, the season he won AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was named first-team All-Pro.
9) Justin Fields on pace to break Lamar Jackson’s QB rushing record
Fields continues to shine, even if the results don’t show in the win-loss column. Fields now has a passing and rushing touchdown in five straight games, which tied Kyler Murray for the longest streak by any player since at least 1950.
Fields had another 85 yards and a touchdown on the ground. He leads the NFL with 640 rushing yards since Week 6 and is on pace for a QB-record 1,288 rushing yards this season. The current record is held by Jackson, who had 1,206 rushing yards in his 2019 MVP campaign.
10) Curtis Samuel’s notable company
Hidden in the Commanders' 23-10 win over the Texans, Samuel became the fourth wide receiver in the Super Bowl era with at least 2,500 receiving yards, 15 receiving touchdowns, 600 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns in a career. The other three are Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, Tyreek Hill and Eric Metcalf.
Bonus: Marcus Jones' 84-yard punt return touchdown was the second-longest go-ahead fourth-quarter TD in Patriots history. The longest was scored by NFL Network’s own Kayla Burton’s grandfather Ron Burton, who had a 91-yard field goal return TD in Week 10, 1962 at Denver. It was the first game in at least the last 40 seasons in which the first TD scored was a defensive or special teams TD in the final minute of the game.
Research shoutouts: Jack Andrade (@RealJackAndrade), Dante Koplowitz-Fleming (@DanteKopFlem), Matt Okada (@MattOkada), Cole Jacobson (@ColeJacobson32), Michelle Magdziuk (@BallBlastEm), Blake Warye (@bwaryeorblake)