17. Stats, Speed and Shocking Playoff Rankings

0:22I'm Victoria. I am Giovanna. The game's on. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. Welcome back to another episode of your favorite football podcast by the girls for everyone, the game. We are in our second week of doing three episodes per week. So a yap and recap, chatty, covering all of the storylines that we love on Tuesdays. Now we are in our stats episode for Thursday. And then tomorrow we have Isabel Sewell. Her plus one is Penny Sewell on the Lions. So he has a long-term contract with the Lions and she talks a lot tomorrow about motherhood and making friends moving and a lot about just not being ashamed about the choices that she's made as a woman, which we absolutely love.

1:10So we cannot wait for you to hear that episode tomorrow. But for today, again, we are on our stats focused episode. So talking a little bit more about the ins and outs, a little bit more numbers, a little bit more play calling, et cetera. So let's just get right into it. We are doing this episode for downs. So every down is a different topic and it is a bite-sized stats episode for you. If there's certain stats that you love, please DM us on Instagram or TikTok at the game, the podcast, or you can always DM me at Hey Victoria Henderson. And thanks for being here. We love having you and we love chatting with you.

1:45And if you're not in the sub stack chat, the game podcast.substack.com Tell us your opinions. Okay. First down, the stat king who is dominating right now, spotlighting a player that is owning the league. James Cook running back for the bills is second in overall rushing yards at 968 yards and seven touchdowns. I feel like people love James Cook because they love Josh Allen, but I feel like James Cook can stand alone. Sans Josh Allen. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree. James Cook was like one of those things walking into this season. I don't think I would have expected him to be as dominant. He's a good running back, but I think it was a little surprising for me to see how dominant he's been outside of other running backs like Jonathan Taylor.

2:34Like I feel like James Cook is up there. Maybe I would like rank maybe Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, James Cook. Cook is up there with like B.J. Robinson. What's also interesting about James Cook is the Buffalo Bills lead the league in rushing yards right now. Total rushing yards averaging per game, and that's 147, which I thought was really interesting. 147 yards, 0.6 per game. Bills. A lot of points. But when you look at that and then see how, like I said, dominant James Cook has been, makes sense. Makes sense. I do feel like it's a year for breakout running backs. Like we talked a couple, we talked last week about just how much the run game is so important in the NFL now.

3:18And it's, you know, becoming even more important year over year. But I feel like James Cook and Jonathan Taylor were two people that we were not expecting to be one and two in rushing yards.

3:36And total. And he's about to hit that with, you know, we're not even halfway. If the bills do end up going into the playoffs, do end up going, making a super bowl run. We're just about at the halfway, I guess we are at the halfway mark and he's already produced, you know, what is that like 50 yards less than what he did all season last season. Yeah. Averages 5.3 yards, which is also up from last year. He had 4.9 yards per carry. He did have a lot of touchdowns last year, 16. He's now at seven. So he'll need to up those touchdowns if he wants to beat that stat. But I think yards alone, he's obviously producing and being a big part of what's making the bills great this year.

4:21One stat that I have just become aware of and started to love. Okay. So I love a broken tackle. I feel like a broken tackle is so hot. Like if you can break two tackles and score, like wow i'm into that you're athletic and uh he has 635 yards after contact so yeah wow i know crazy i know this stat is crazy and we need to look into like what does contact actually mean it doesn't mean like an attempted tackle but just like contact being pushed, being touched. Um, but 635 yards after contact and his total yards is 968. So that's a large percentage of his yards after he's getting a hand on. Yeah. I do like that.

5:10I like that set a lot. Cause I feel like you hear about like some of the best receivers, even the best running backs too, in the league. We talk a lot about like yards after catch. So like after you catch the ball, after you receive the ball, how many yards are you producing? And are you, you know, making that play into a touchdown, making that play into, you know, a conversion on fourth down. So yards of the contact, I feel like that has to mean after you've been touched or like you said earlier, missing, breaking those tackles. It's really awesome for me to also look at running backs when they're quite literally being pulled down by like 200, 300 pound linemen and their legs are still going.

5:49Like they're still turning. And it's awesome for me to see. yeah also one of my favorite things to watch is like a big man leading the way who's like super fast there is a cardinals oh my gosh a cardinals o-lineman who's just an absolute animal just like barreling people down and their running backs are just like trotting along cutely behind them until they can like make a breakaway i'm gonna have to find him and bring him up next week because I was watching his, like some of his plays and I would just, yeah. Yeah. Because like a big man who can move is insane. And I feel like it's like the athleticism is just absolutely wild.

6:31Yeah. Shout out to the O-line. People forget how, people forget how important they are. Justice for offensive linemen. Honestly, justice for linemen in general, because we hear all the time about like safeties making plays. We hear all the time about wide receiver and running backs and blah, blah, blah. And literally none of that would happen if your linemen don't do their job. At all. Quarterback can't get the ball out. Your running backs are not going to have the holes to hit. So it's very important. Very, very important. Very, very important. On James Cook. So 23 rushes over 10 yards this season.

7:08I love a breakaway. I feel like obviously that's so fun to watch. Okay. And then I also have a second new favorite stat and it is runs over 15 or 20 miles an hour. So last year, Jameer Gibbs got a ton of good press for going over 22 miles an hour in a breakaway touchdown last year, but they have the stats for speed over 15 and 20 miles an hour for all players. So James Cook has 30 runs over 15 miles an hour and two over 20 miles an hour, which I just think is so badass, but 30 runs over 15 miles an hour. That's so fast. No. Have you, maybe you haven't done this, but have you ever like got with your friends and like try to run past the, like the, the signs that like mark your speed?

8:03Like when you're driving, you know have you ever done that before no okay just me okay never mind but um i i've done that with my friends and i don't think people understand how impressive it is to get to that top speed and also the amount of seconds it takes you to literally go from zero to 100 and this is why these running backs are dominating in their respective you know positions because the top speed and getting there is just elite. Yeah. So a 15 mile per hour pace is a four minute mile. Yeah. And then a 20 mile per hour pace is about three minutes per mile, which has never been done. And now I want to look up mile time world records because how fast are we really going here?

8:59because for that long of a distance, which is, I mean, a mile is not crazy long, but. Okay. So the men's, this feels wrong, but men's world record is three minutes, 43 seconds, 43.13 seconds. It looks like El Garouge of Morocco in 1999, while the woman's mile world record is 407 by faith kip yogan of kenya in 2023 which is yeah this is confirmed in multiple sources moroccan athlete three minutes 43 seconds that is so insane that's fast that is fast that is so fast and to to put this into perspective if you go to orange theory the old treadmills at Orange Theory only go up to 12 and the new treadmills at Orange Theory go up to 15.

9:52So that's a four minute mile, but you never see anybody doing anything except like sprinting on them. So it's just absolutely wild. So on that note, I was like, okay, well, that's pretty fast. He's pretty fast, but like, who's the fastest, you know, like who are our top guys who have run 20 miles an hour or more multiple times this season. So Jonathan Taylor has the most over 20 mile per hour runs. We don't have the exact MPH numbers. We just know that it's 20 plus Jonathan Taylor six times. And then Derek Henry, Saquon, Derek Henry is on running back on the Ravens, Saquon running back on the Eagles, Jameer Gibbs running back on the Lions all have four runs over 20 miles an hour.

10:39Then we have a Brees Hall running back on the Jets, Keaton Michael running back on the Ravens. And this is my favorite one of them all. Did you read my note? Do you know who the next person? Dang it. I wanted you to guess. I know I was nosy. I'm sorry. No, no, it's okay. I never would have guessed this, but Kayla Williams quarterback. back are you kidding me yeah three runs over 20 miles an hour that's insane i don't think any any anybody could have like ever guessed that and you also i mean we know keel williams can run and we see him run a lot but not we we're not like putting him up there in like one of the best elite dual threat rushing quarterbacks.

11:27So that's what makes that stat kind of crazy and impressive. Yeah. And it's like the Bears quarterback. The Bears. The Bears. The Bears. Just absolutely crazy. So that's like stat of the week for me is Caleb Williams has had faster runs than the majority of running backs in the league, which obsessed with that for him. Okay. That's all I have for our first one. James Cook is killing it. I'm excited to see him almost double his stats from last year. Hopefully he stays healthy. Maybe he'll be able to break into this 20 mile an hour or more crew that we have going on here. But let's talk about second down, conference check-in.

12:17Second down. Right on time. Let's do it. Right on time. Let's go. Who's separating? Who's slipping? You want to take it away on this one? Yeah. And before we actually get into the sauce, because we mentioned it last week on our stats episode, guys, the Chiefs are seriously not looking good right now. Like, they actually might miss the playoffs. I don't know. I feel like I can't say that yet. It's too early because it's the Chiefs. But after this week's loss, the Broncos, I am genuinely worried for them. Like, they have to turn it around. They got to figure it out. Patrick Mahomes is the fourth best quarterback in passing leaders.

13:02You know, he has 2 ,625 passing yards, which is really good. And he's still up in the top five. But that is just crazy. And speaking of the Broncos, both teams are sitting at 9-2, which is obviously amazing. Colts, we talked about them last week. They're at 8-2 as well. So it's just crazy. And the Broncos, the Broncos. Wow. I'm shook. I actually think they do lead the league in sacks right now, which, again, speaks to my point about their defense just being absolutely insane. It's a gauntlet. Yeah, they lead the league in sacks with 49. The number two team is the Atlanta Falcons with 34. So there's a pretty good gap right there.

13:4949 sacks, like in the season right now, that's a lot of sacks. Like they're getting up in the quarterback's face, which is why they're winning games. Getting up in the quarterback's face. They are. I'd be scared. I think one of their linemen is like his name is Benito or something. Man's a dog. Absolute dog. absolute dog yeah you know it's i don't know we'll see that's how i feel about the chiefs like i feel like i can't predict anything because my last prediction failed this week so now i'm like i'm gonna keep my mouth shut i'm not gonna keep my mouth shut but i feel like they're a closing team and they couldn't close it and that's embarrassing for them also okay swifties don't get mad at me but there's like something that i've started to love about Travis Kelsey missing passes and just how upset he gets.

14:40That's crazy. Literally preying on this man's downfall. No, I don't. You guys, I love Travis, but I just feel like there's like this like, man, like. The snap. It was a snap for me. It's like his least manly moment is like when he misses a pass and he's like bummed about it. This is why guys are dramatic. Big and like sexy and like whatever. And I feel like when he misses a pass, there's just something like, so like he was like childish about it or almost like his like, his like weird dancing in the kitchen side kind of feels like it comes out. So that's not on stats. I have literally no numbers on that.

15:19So I apologize, but I apologize. Just have to put it out there for everyone to. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, you mentioned the Patriots and the Broncos both with nine and two. And I know that buys are involved, but now their records are better than the Colts record at eight and two. So the Colts have been kind of like an unabashed leader that everyone's been talking about. And I heard another girl on like a podcast clip. It was like a girl and a guy and they were chatting and they were saying that they loved how the Colts were like acting essentially because they were like, well, they're not expecting to win.

16:00They're just enjoying it while it's happening. Like Carly's enjoying it. She's like wearing her outfits and the boys are enjoying it and they're not like so caught up in it yet, which I think is maybe why I'm like kind of thinking that it's funny because the Chiefs are caught up in it and have the external pressure where the Colts can just like kind of win. I feel like it's like the Colts are a startup, right? Like they just had a big change. They're like going through all of these changes. They're like learning each other. They're having a great time. They're celebrating. They have some like breakout guys.

16:34They've like raised some funding. I mean, they haven't raised any funding, but like in the startup world, like they have their series A, they're like raising for their series B and they're like super excited about it. But the chiefs are like the meta of it all facing the adversity of being on top. And so I just liked the way that she talked about it. So broke it down, broke it down, but yeah, Patriots and Broncos, both with that nine and two Patriots coming up Bengals, Giants, Bills, Ravens, Jets, Dolphins. I cannot imagine the Patriots falling below second at this point. I mean, Bills, Patriots, I feel like it's going to be absolutely bonkers, but here's the thing though and i said this last week the patriots like even though their record reflects a really good record they're how they win and it's similar to the broncos how they win games is kind of suspect and also when you look at the patriots i can't say about this but the broncos because the broncos are in the top five and are like are leading in sacks but the patriots when it comes to sacks turnovers passing yards rushing yards overall total offensive yards they're not in the top five in any of those categories.

17:47No, they're literally not in the top five for anything. Exactly. And so when you think about that, well, I mean, unpredictable. And W is a W. And like your record, y 'all got those wins. I'm proud of you. I do like the Patriots. I love Drake May. And it's really interesting because everyone, have you been seeing the tea with him and his girlfriend? So I just followed his girlfriend like yesterday, but they've been together since they were 12. Yeah. and it's funny because she like loves cooking and so she'll make all we have to have her on the show but she makes all this kind of stuff and and people have really flocked to drake may and like become really big fans of drake may this season and so all the comments on her tiktok and her instagram are like we hope you take good care of drake may tonight we hope you know he's eating right it's it's so funny it's it's so funny but back to our stats focus things yeah patriots not Not leading or not in the top five in any categories.

18:45Not even on the chart. Not even on the chart. They're a sleeper. They're a sleeper. Like the Colts are not sleepers right now. The Colts are in the top five in, you know, many of these categories. Rushing yards, passing yards, and total yards. They're in the top five on defense. They're not on the map at all. but the Patriots are sleepers. And I mean, really looking at this list, like, okay, so Broncos are leading in sacks with 49 and they're leading in defensive yards allowed, 274.4 yards allowed. The Texans are number one in that category. Broncos are three. Texans are one with 258.1 yards allowed, which is great defense.

19:35Great defense. They have one of the best defenses in the league year in and year out. Their defensive coordinator is a great mind. But yeah, the Texans. Are you talking about Texans or Broncos? The Texans. The Broncos, they have a good defensive coordinator too, but the Texans specifically have just a very good defense. You know what I feel like the surprise stat in the leaders is? Cleveland Browns. Yeah, low-key. Cleveland Browns on defense. It's because of Miles Garrett, though. Yeah. But, I mean, still, 273.5 second in yards allowed and fourth in sacks with 32 tied with the Seahawks. I don't think they were going to be on this list.

20:22Miles Garrett just puts the team on his back. Miles Garrett's like, don't worry, guys. I'm the whole team. No sweat here. No panic here. Okay. So going on to the NFC, Eagles and Rams are both 8-2. I feel like the Rams did, like, I've known the Rams are good, but they were kind of sleeping in my mind just a little bit. Obviously, they faced the Seahawks this weekend, beat the Seahawks. That was a huge win for them to put them at the top of the West. But now they both are... Very big win. Very big win. Sitting at 8-2. Nice close game there. Rams coming up. Bucks, Panthers, Cardinals, Lions, Seahawks, Falcons, Cardinals.

21:02Cardinals. So we'll see how they hold up against Bucks, Lions and Seahawks again. But that's only three of their games that I'm really looking at thinking, could those be closer games? I'm not really concerned about the Panthers, Falcons or Cardinals, although the Panthers, you never know. Don't you can't sleep on them. Can't sleep on them. And then Eagles coming up. Eagles are here in Dallas, where I am currently this weekend facing the Cowboys and then Bears, Chargers, Raiders commanders bills so I feel like they kind of have even schedules on potential to to kind of stay at the top yeah I feel like and again the NFC we talked about on our last episode the NFC is so wide open right now so literally anything can happen yeah yeah it's definitely like the more exciting conference in terms of shift unpredictability then yeah yeah I'm I'm rooting for the Rams, though.

21:59Other than the Rams? I am rooting for the Rams. I like the Rams a lot this year. Yeah, I need to go up to SoFi and go to a Rams game. I've only been to Chargers games at SoFi. And Chargers games are like okay at SoFi. I think they need to like build them up a little bit more. I just feel like... Do you feel like the Rams team is low-key? Like, can you say that there's like a better team in LA? Like not looking at stats, but just looking at fan engagement, looking at community, looking at like, who do we think Rams or Chargers? I feel like Rams. Honestly. Or is it the same? Okay. This is how I really feel.

22:41I feel like LA doesn't really care about either of them, to be honest. I feel like Southern California cares more about other sports than they do about the NFL. Like I feel like Southern California cares more about baseball than they do at baseball and basketball than they do the NFL. That's fair. And I feel like having two blue and yellow teams that play in the same stadium that are both like neither of them have really had any Super Bowl promise over the last what? Like, I don't know. Not that many years. Well, I mean, we just had us. The Rams just won a Super Bowl like not too long ago. Yeah.

23:19When was their win? I'm pretty sure that won in like 20 that was COVID year I believe oh 2020 okay well my you know what that was irrelevant so but I don't know I don't know maybe LA girls tap in because I I mean I'm from San Diego we had the Chargers Chargers went up to LA they lost a huge fan base in San Diego even though it's not like Buffalo that's all I have to say it's not like Buffalo and it's not like Dallas where everyone's a fan and everyone cares about it and everybody's in it like there's so many cities that are so much more into the NFL than LA is. And that's why I feel like both of them, like they have their fans and their fans are great and lovely and wonderful and awesome.

23:59And I'm sure we'll meet so many girls that are fantastic, but it's just not the same kind of culture around the NFL that I feel like you can find in other cities, Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, like you cannot put a Chargers tailgate against a Green Bay tailgate. Yeah. I feel like it's also the competition in the state of California alone. You'll have three NFL teams. Like that's insane. We have three NFL teams. We also were four hours away from Vegas where the Raiders are. You have the Seahawks right above us. Like the Cardinals, I could drive to the Cardinals stadium. Like it's a lot, a lot going on.

24:37Like pretty chill. So it could just be like an East coast, West coast thing, except game times are definitely better on the West Coast. Like I miss, since I've not been in San Diego, like I miss waking up at like 8.30, going for a walk for an hour and then coming back and sitting on the couch with my coffee. Now it's like noon. I'm like, you want me to eat lunch while I'm watching the game? That's insane to me. Speaking of Vegas, let's talk about this Cowboys Vegas game on starting off our third down, which is just what's interesting this week. And we're going to talk about how stats combine with storylines, but I want to start introducing betting on this episode and what's interesting about Vegas calls.

25:20Cowboys played the Raiders first drive of the game. Cowboys are in offense. CD lamb and George Pickens are not out on the field. They are benched, which if anybody knows that is unheard of. Why are your number one and number two receivers sitting on the bench and the first drive of your game reports come out. They're getting benched because they're being punished for something. There's also people saying that, oh, this is a Vegas call. Anybody that has money on CD and George Pickens scoring on the first drive, their money's fried. So it's interesting to look at the difference between like, okay, are you really getting benched because the coach has a problem with you or bad behavior?

26:00Or did you get benched because Vegas made a call and there's a lot of money on these players on this game so you can't you know play them so it's interesting to see there have been reports that have come out now that said that cd and george were spotted at casinos partying doing that in the morning because they were in vegas which is why they got benched but i don't know i don't know okay i do not think that the majority of things happen because of outside of football action like if you listen to players they're like i don't give a shit about fantasy like they don't care about fantasy and so a lot of people say like and like i feel like i've just seen more players come out and be like that it just doesn't matter because it like fantasy has no stake in the game i feel like money though i don't want to believe that players are acting based on external forces often.

26:58I think there are crooked people. In every sport, there's a scandal about a ref messing up the play calling, et cetera. But I don't want to believe that betting and money is impacting on the field play because I just think it's like annoying and depressing. And I think it's like kind of righteous of the betters to be like, what we want matters. And it's like, relax. If you want what you want to matter, pay off a politician like everyone else? I feel like there's two sides of the spectrum. I do feel like in the league, there are some like, and it's not necessarily you're betting on it and you need to make a call to make it happen.

27:36It's really the opposite. And I feel like if you, if there's, let's say if there's a million people that have put$10 on C.D. Lamb scoring a touchdown in the first drive, it is more than likely that Vegas is going to make a call for him not to do that because they don't want to pay out that money or they don't want, you know. So I do feel like those things happen in the league. Is the team playing out? Who's paying out the money? Okay, guys, I don't know anything about sports betting to be completely honest. I've never sports bet before. I don't know how to do a parlay. Maybe next year I will, but Giovanna's taken on the betting side of this full-heartedly because just straight up, I don't spend my money on sports.

28:15It's not like, I mean, there's so many different avenues to use bet And it's not like there's one singular person paying out, but they're, I mean, you have all these different apps, Vandal, DraftKings, like all those different apps. Every app and they're not all run by the same person. Then how is like. Because it's still, it's still like a Vegas call. Like it's still people. It's confusing. but when you look at where the money is coming from and how it's getting put to these people, it kind of goes back to the same place. This is, this is my question. Where is the money coming from? I mean, I don't really know where each person is getting like each.

28:58It's like, how can this like, I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. I'll do, I'll do my research. I don't think there's like one person that's like, I don't know if there's an answer to that question, but I see where you're coming from. Is there like a group text of like the FanDuel owner and the owners of whatever else that's saying like bench CD because we don't want to pay this out, but also people are paying money into it. So it's like you want more people. Okay. Well, that makes sense. When you're addicted, when you're addicted, but when you have all these people that are like into sports betting and that bet consistently, when they lose, you're actually making more money because then they're mad about them losing.

29:42And so they're going to continuously bet until they hit. Okay. So, but then that makes sense that they bench, then it makes sense that they bench CD so he doesn't score so that they lose so then they put more money. Correct. Which hypothetical situation, it can happen to anybody, any player. But this is also why in the NBA, we've seen scandals about, you know, refs, coaches, players conspiring. Oh, my homeboy plays in the NBA. hey, listen, I just put a million dollars on you to not cover the under or to get your under. So like, let's say you have 260 passing yards and I bet on you to have 265 passing yards.