NFL Research offers the best nuggets from each week of games in the NFL. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments of Week 6 of the 2022 NFL season.
1) New York makes another GIANT comeback late
The 5-1 -- yes, 5-1 -- Giants have trailed in each of their six games this season, with their five comeback wins leading the league in 2022. It's the seventh time in the Super Bowl era the Giants have won at least five of their first six games, including the 1986 and 1990 seasons that ended in Super Bowl XXI and XXV victories.
The Giants trailed 20-10 in the fourth quarter before scoring 14 unanswered points to beat the Ravens in Week 6. Three of the Giants' five wins have come in games they trailed by 10 or more points in, tied for the most in a single season in team history. The other seasons the Giants made three such comebacks each hold some sentiment. In 2016, the Giants made their last playoff appearance. In 2007 and 2011, the Giants hoisted the Lombardi Trophy with Super Bowl XLII and XLVI wins over Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Saquon Barkley has been vital to the Giants' turnaround. In a contract season, Barkley leads the NFL with 771 scrimmage yards this season. After accumulating 627 rush yards and two rush touchdowns in his last 15 games prior to this season, Barkley has 616 rush yards and four touchdowns in six games in 2022. He could have had another walk-in touchdown late against Baltimore but opted to give himself up after gaining the first down inside the five to seal the Giants win.
2) Bailey Zappe helps Bill Belichick make more history
An unheralded, late-drafted quarterback guiding Bill Belichick's Patriots to wins. Pretty sure we've all read this story before. In his Week 6 win against the Browns, a Zappe-led team helped Belichick win his 324th career game, including playoffs. This ties Hall of Famer George Halas for the second-most wins by a head coach in NFL history.
Don Shula is the only head coach with more wins (347) than Belichick (including playoffs). This win also tied Belichick (Patriots) with Shula (Dolphins) for the second-most regular-season wins with a single franchise in NFL history with 257. Halas sits atop that list as all of his 318 career regular season wins came with the Bears franchise.
Making his own form of history, Zappe became the first rookie to win his first two career starts and have a 100+ passer rating in each of those games since Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen in 1957. The only other rookies to post a 100+ rating in each of their first two starts since 1950: Dan Marino and Andy Dalton.
3) Eagles' second-quarter dominance and undefeated season remain intact
The Eagles scored 20 points in the second quarter to build a 20-3 lead against the Cowboys at halftime. It gave the Eagles 112 second-quarter points this season, the most by any team in any quarter in the first six games of a season in NFL history. Entering Monday Night Football, the Eagles have scored more points in the second frame than 11 teams have scored total in 2022. That list includes the division-rival Cowboys, the defending Super Bowl-champion Rams and the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers.
The last time the Eagles started 6-0, they rode their hot start to a Super Bowl XXXIX appearance. Since Week 15, 2021, Jalen Hurts is 9-0 as a starting quarterback, the best record in the NFL. The NFL's last remaining unbeaten, Philadelphia's next three games come at home against the Steelers, on the road at the Texans, then back at Lincoln Financial Field for the Commanders. Those three teams have a combined record of 5-11-1 in 2022.
4) Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce do Hall of Fame things in loss to Bills
Mahomes threw an interception with under a minute remaining, sealing the Chiefs' Week 6 loss to the Bills. Outside of the giveaways, Mahomes was productive in the stat sheet against the Bills' top-five pass defense.
Mahomes had his 33rd career game with 300-plus pass yards and added two scores in Week 6. The contest moved him passed Hall of Famer Dan Marino (32) for the most such games in a player's first six seasons. After the pair of touchdown tosses, Marino is the only player Mahomes trails for the most pass touchdowns (196) in a player's first six campaigns. Mahomes (168) passed Peyton Manning (167) for the second-most over that span on Sunday. Keep in mind, Mahomes played one game as a rookie in 2017. He did not record 300 yards or a pass touchdown in that game. It's essentially been through five seasons for the 2018 NFL MVP.
Mahomes found Kelce for 108 of his 338 yards, which was the tight end's 31st career game with 100 or more receiving yards. He tied Hall of Famer and fellow Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez for the second-most such games by a tight end in NFL history. His next contest over the century mark will tie Rob Gronkowski for the most games (32) at the position all-time.
5) Matt Ryan climbs another spot on the all-time passing list
Ryan had a season-high 389 pass yards and three touchdowns in a 34-27 win over the Jaguars in Week 6. In the effort, Ryan passed Hall of Famer Dan Marino for seventh place on the NFL's all-time passing list. Ryan has 61,500 career pass yards and needs 1,941 pass yards to move ahead of Philip Rivers for sixth all-time. At his current clip of 294.2 pass yards per game, Ryan is on pace to finish the season with 64,735 career yards, which would also move him past Ben Roethlisberger for the fifth all-time spot. The only players standing ahead of him at that point: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Brett Favre.
6) Christian McCaffrey showcases dual-threat ability
The Panthers struggled again in a 24-10 loss to the defending Super Bowl-champion Rams in Week 6. There have been rampant trade rumors coming out of Carolina, with much of them focused on their All-Pro running back. McCaffrey had 69 rush yards and a season-high 89 receiving yards against Los Angeles. McCaffrey had 158 scrimmage yards in Week 6; the rest of the Panthers had 54 combined.
It was his 18th career game with 150-or-more scrimmage yards, the most in the NFL since he entered the league in 2017. It was his 24th career game with at least 50 yards on the ground and through the air, passing LaDainian Tomlinson and Tiki Barber for the second-most by any player in NFL history. The only player with more? Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk with 41.
7) Tariq Woolen created his own Legion of Boom
Woolen wowed the collective football world with a 4.26-second 40-yard dash -- at 6-foot-4 -- at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine. However, the former wide receiver turned cornerback fell until the fifth round in the draft. Woolen is paying back the Seahawks' commitment, with interest, in 2022. Woolen leads the NFL with six takeaways and his four interceptions are tied with Pro Bowler Jordan Poyer for the most in the NFL. Woolen is just the third rookie since 2000 with an interception in four straight games, joining Jairus Byrd (2009) and Joe Haden (2010).
If Woolen seems like déjà vu to Seattle faithful, it could be because The 12s have seen another wide-receiver-turned-college cornerback who stood 6'4", was drafted in the 5th round, and became a turnover machine: five-time Pro Bowler Richard Sherman. Sherman was the 154th pick in the 2011 NFL Draft and had four interceptions as a rookie, Woolen was the 153rd pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and has four interceptions in his first six NFL games.
Even more eerily, Woolen is the first rookie defensive back with four interceptions in his first six career games since Sherman's fellow Legion of Boom member Earl Thomas matched that mark in 2010. Woolen is building is own Legion of One for Seattle this season.
8) Ja’Marr Chase shows out in Caesars Superdome homecoming
Joe Burrow knew it was going to be that kind of day. Burrow rocked teammate Chase’s LSU jersey from the duo’s 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship win in the same stadium they'd meet the Saints in Week 6: the Caesars Superdome. Chase is from Metairie, Louisiana which is just outside of New Orleans. With the latter's family in attendance, Burrow found Chase for a season-high 132 yards and two touchdowns, including the game's deciding 60-yard score -- the team's longest play of the season -- in the Bengals' 30-26 win over the Saints.
All told, the final stat line in Chase's last two true "home" games in the Superdome: 16 receptions, 353 yards, and four touchdowns. His quarterback's numbers aren't too shabby either. Burrow had 763 yards, eight passing touchdowns, no picks, and two rushing scores.
9) Mr. Aloha Marcus Mariota meets Sweetness
It took until his final attempt for a Mariota pass to hit the turf on Sunday. Mariota completed his first 13 passes of the game and finished with the second-highest completion percentage of his career as a starter (92.9). In the Falcons' Week 6 win over the 49ers, Mariota became just the second player since 1950 with at least two pass touchdowns, 50 rush yards, one rush touchdown, and one-or-fewer incompletions in the same game. The other was "Sweetness" Hall of Famer Walter Payton.
Mariota also threw 2021 fourth-overall pick Kyle Pitts his first touchdown on American soil. Pitts matched his career touchdown total in Week 6, catching the second of his career. His first came in Week 5, 2021 against the Jets at Tottenham Stadium in London.
Bonus: Tyreek Hill leads the NFL with 701 receiving yards in 2022, his most through the first six games of a season in his career. There have been six instances of a player recording at least 10 receptions and 150 receiving yards in a game this season. Hill has three of them, including the Dolphins' Week 6 loss against the Vikings. The rest of the NFL has three combined. Hill and teammate Jaylen Waddle each rank top five in receiving yards this season, and their 1,234 combined yards leads all teammate duos. They are the only teammate duo with three 100-yard receiving games each in 2022.
Research shoutouts: Jack Andrade (@RealJackAndrade), Dante Koplowitz-Fleming (@DanteKopFlem), Joel Smyth (@FFSmyth), Matt Okada (@MattOkada), Blake Warye (@Bwaryofme).
