In NFC, AFC, East is beast
Two years after no team in the NFC East won more than seven games, all four have pulled off the trick with six weeks to go.
The Commanders (7-5) beat the Falcons on Sunday to join the Eagles (10-1), Cowboys (8-3) and Giants (7-4) with at least seven wins, giving the division a combined winning percentage of .711 for the best mark through 12 weeks by any division since the merger.
Making the performance more impressive is the turnaround from 2020, when the Commanders won the NFC East with a 7-9 record.
The AFC East isn’t far behind this season, with all four teams in that division also posting winning records. The Dolphins and Bills are tied for first at 8-3, followed by the Jets (7-4) and Patriots (6-5).
Before this season, the only times since the league went to eight divisions in 2002 when all four teams in a division had winning records through 12 weeks came in the 2021 AFC West, the 2014 AFC North, and the AFC East and NFC South in 2008.
The NFC South is at the other end of the division standings, with the Buccaneers (5-6) in the lead despite having a losing record. The only other times since 2002 when every team had a losing record through 12 games came in the 2020 NFC East, the 2015 NFC East, the 2014 NFC South and the 2010 NFC West.
According to projections from Football Outsiders, there’s a 16% chance that the entire NFC East makes the playoffs and a 15% chance that happens for the AFC East. It’s more likely both divisions will have four teams with winning records, with the NFC East doing that 52% of the time and the AFC East 60% of the time.
Football Outsiders projects all four NFC South teams to have a losing record 35% of the time.
300 club
Josh Jacobs punctuated the best day of his career in memorable fashion.
Jacobs scored on an 86-yard run in OT to lead the Raiders past the Seahawks for the fourth-longest scrimmage TD in OT, trailing only Ron Jaworski’s 99-yard TD pass to Mike Quick for the Eagles in 1985, Garrison Hearst’s 96-yard TD run (49ers, 1998) and Teddy Bridgewater’s 87-yard TD pass to Jarius Wright (Vikings, 2014).
Jacobs finished with 224 yards rushing and two TDs and 74 yards receiving, becoming the sixth player to gain at least 300 yards and score multiple TDs from scrimmage in a game, joining Cloyce Box (1950), Billy Cannon (1961), Stephone Paige (1985), Priest Holmes (2002) and Adrian Peterson (2007).
Jacobs is the only player since at least 1950 to rush for at least 225 yards and have at least 70 yards receiving in a game.
Double trouble
The Eagles’ Jalen Hurts threw for 153 yards and ran for 157 in a win Sunday night over the Packers.
The only other players to rush and pass for at least 150 yards in the same game are Lamar Jackson, Michael Vick and Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick did his in the 2012 playoffs against the Packers.