GAME-DAY NOTES
Facts, figures and storylines for Week 6: TOM BRADY and Aaron Rodgers have combined to play about 500 NFL games, yet meet for only the third time when Green Bay visits Tampa Bay (4:25 p.m., WPGH). The Packers are favored by 1 on the road and ride in on an historic wave. They are the first team to score at least 150 points and commit no turnovers through the first four games of a season. KYLER MURRAY plays just his 22nd NFL game when the Cardinals visit the Cowboys, yet is 6-0 at Dallas’ AT&T Stadium. Huh? He was 5-0 playing there as a Texas high school QB and 1-0 while at Oklahoma.
INCREDIBLY, it’s only Week 6 and the Jaguars will use their fifth kicker. Josh Lambo injured a hip in Week 2. Brandon Wright and Aldrick Rosas were injured in the next two games, and Steven Hauschka was cut after missing two field goals last week. Next up: practice squad promotee Jon Brown. LAST WEEK, Colts QB Philip Rivers tied Bruce Matthews for the fourth-longest streak of starts in NFL history. Sunday, he passes him when he starts for his 230th consecutive game.
JOHN CLAYTON, veteran NFL reporter for more than 40 years, ranked his top Super Bowl contenders in his weekly Washington Post column this week:
1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Green Bay Packers
4. Baltimore Ravens
5. PIttsburgh Steelers WASHINGTON and the New York Giants pay for the 177th time in a series that dates to 1932.
THE BEARS have been the NFL’s comeback kings. They joined seven other teams with three wins in the first five games after trailing by 10 or more points, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Their victims: Tampa Bay (down 13), Detroit (17) and Atlanta (16). WITH DAK PRESCOTT out, Ben DiNucci (Pine-Richland) is now the backup QB in Dallas behind Andy Dalton.
CHIEFS QB Patrick Mahomes is one 300-yard passing game from becoming the fourth player with at least 21 in his first four NFL seasons. He would join Kurt Warner (26), Dan Marino (22) and Andrew Luck (21).
REMEMBER when a quarterback running the ball meant danger? NFL QBs have run for 2,621 yards and 36 touchdowns, the most through five weeks in NFL history.
RAVENS P Sam Koch, a sixth-round pick out of Nebraska in 2006, will play in his franchise-record 230th game.
AND FINALLY
… Cardinals QB Kyle Murray is the fourth QB since 1970 with at least five rushing TDs Stewart in the first five games of the season. It’s no surprise that Cam Newton (2011) and Kordell Stewart (1997) are on that list. But the fourth might make you pause — Terry Bradshaw in 1972.