Miles Sanders, Jake Elliott, Brandon Graham and more in a bye week edition of 10 Crazy Eagles Stats!
SANDERS DOING IT ALL: With 336 rushing yards, 305 receiving yards and 314 kick return yards, Miles Sanders is the fourth player in NFL history with 300 yards rushing, receiving and kick returning in his first nine career games. The others are Abner Haynes of the Dallas Texans in 1960, Hall of Famer Gayle Sayers in 1965 and Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson in 1969.
CRAZY AVERAGES: Sanders is also only the third player in NFL history to average over 13 yards per catch and 4.4 yards per carry in his first nine career games (with minimums of 2.0 catches and 8.0 rushing attempts per game). The other two are Billy Sims of the Lions in 1980 and Ezekiel Elliott of the Cowboys in 2016.
FIRST 100 GAMES: Zach Ertz played his 100th career game on Sunday. Here are the most catches by tight ends in their first 100 games in NFL history:
497 … Kellen Winslow Sr.
485 … Jimmy Graham
483 … Zach Ertz
469 … Rob Gronkowski
458 … Kellen Winslow Jr.
457 … Jason Witten
452 … Travis Kelce
443 … Jeremy Shockey
CHASING HAROLD: Ertz is now only 106 receptions behind Harold Carmichael, whose franchise record of 589 catches has stood for 36 years. At his current pace of 5.7 catches per game since 2015, Ertz would need 19 more games to pass Carmichael. So if he stays healthy he’s on pace to break Carmichael’s long-standing mark in Week 12 of next year.
TYING A RECORD: Jake Elliott is 12-for-12 on field goal attempts this year, tying the longest streak of made field goals to open a season by an Eagles kicker. David Akers was 12-for-12 to open the 2003 season before missing a 55-yarder against the Jets at the Linc in the eighth game of the season. The next-longest streak in Eagles history belongs to Eddie Murray, who made his first nine attempts in 1994.
MOVING UP THE LIST: With his 12 consecutive field goals, Elliott has jumped from 23rd in accuracy in NFL history entering the season at 83.9 percent to 7th-highest in history at 86.5 percent.
NFL’S TOP TANDEM: With Jordan Howard and Sanders both averaging 4.4 yards per carry, this is the first time in 41 years the Eagles have had two running backs at at least 4.4 yards per carry nine games into a season (minimum 75 carries). The only other time it happened was 1978, when Mike Hogan had a 4.6 average and Wilbert Montgomery a 4.9 average after nine games. The Eagles are the only NFL team with two RBs averaging 4.4 yards per carry. Lamar Jackson (6.4) and Mark Ingram (5.1) of the Ravens are the only other duo at 4.4 or higher.
NINE IN A ROW: Carson Wentz has at least one touchdown pass in all nine games so far. This is only the fourth time in franchise history a QB has opened the season with at least one touchdown pass in the first nine games. Norm Van Brocklin did in the 1960 NFL Championship season, Ron Jaworski did it in the 1980 Super Bowl season and Wentz did it in the 2017 Super Bowl season. Wentz opened the 2017 season with a TD pass in all 13 games he played. Only 14 QBs in NFL history have thrown a touchdown pass in all 16 games.
B.G. GETTING AFTER IT: Brandon Graham has 6.0 sacks in the Eagles’ last five games. It’s the first time in his 10-year career he’s had six sacks in any five-game stretch. Graham had 4.0 sacks in his previous 21 games. The 6.0 sacks is already the 3rd-most of Graham’s career behind his 9½ in 2017 and 6½ in 2015. The only NFL players with more sacks over the last five games are Joey Bosa and Chandler Jones with 6½ each.
TWO IN A ROW: Jordan Howard is the first Eagles running back with consecutive games with 80 rushing yards, a 4.4 average and a touchdown since LeSean McCoy did it against the Titans and Cowboys in 2014. Howard never had two such consecutive games as a Chicago Bear. Howard now has the second-most rushing yards in the NFL over the last four years, behind only Elliott.