GAME-DAY NOTES

Facts, figures and storylines for wild-card Sunday:

DID THEY fast forward to the Super Bowl in Dallas? A standing room only ticket for the wild-card game against San Francisco at AT&T Stadium was going for $167 on StubHub at mid-week. A good, lower-level seat? $2,400. TWENTY-ONE years separate Tampa Bay QB Tom Brady (44) and Philadelphia QB Jalen Hurts (23) when they meet Sunday in Tampa, the largest gap between starting QBs in NFL playoff history.

A WRITER for the San

Jose Mercury News, in ranking the 14 playoff QBs, slotted Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger 12th, ahead of only New England rookie Mac Jones and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts. Wrote Jerry McDonald of Big Ben: He’s “surviving like an aging former power pitcher on slow curves and changeups.”

FANS KNOW the numbers. Yet it still amazes the eye to see them in print. Tom Brady in the postseason: 34-11 record, 12,449 yards passing and 83 TD passes. For the fun of it, his postseason passing yards alone would place him 173rd on the NFL’s all-time passing charts — just behind Don Majkowski (12,700) and just ahead of Colin Kaepernick (12,271).

GOING INTO San Francisco’s game vs. Dallas, 49ers WR Deebo Samuel (1,760 yards from scrimmage, 14 TDs) is averaging 18.2 yards a reception and 6.2 yards a carry. He is the first to average 18 and 6 in a season since Lenny Moore, pictured, in 1958. PLAYOFF-BOUND Rams WR Cooper Kupp joins Jerry Rice (1990), Sterling Sharpe (1992) and Steve Smith Sr. (2005) as the only players to lead the NFL in receptions (145), yards receiving (1,947) and TD catches

(16) since 970.

SCORING in the regular season dropped 1.8 points a game for teams, falling from 24.8 in 2021 to 23.0 this season. The drop represents the second-biggest singleseason decline since 1970. ONLY SEVEN backs rushed for 1,000 yards this season, tying the single-season low set in 1991 and equalled in 2015.