The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)

Double threat part II

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and thrown for a TD pass in the same game. The only other time someone did that twice in a season was 1924, when Eddie Kaw and Benny Boynton did it for the Buffalo Bisons.

Beckham also threw a 57-yard TD this season and has as many TD passes of at least 49 yards as Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck and Jared Goff this season.

Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey had 55 yards receiving and 106 yards rushing last week in a loss to Tampa Bay. That marked his fifth straight game with at least 50 yards on the ground and as a receiver, the longest streak in NFL history.

No takeaways

The 49ers have gone four straight games without generating a takeaway, one shy of the post-merger record accomplish­ed eight times previously, including the Jets this season. San Francisco has just five takeaways through 12 games, the fewest since the merger after 12 games. The previous low was seven for Jacksonvil­le in 201

Rare blown lead

Steelers fans could be forgiven for feeling pretty confident with a 23-7 halftime lead last week against the Chargers. Pittsburgh had been 174-0-1 all-time at home when leading a game by 16 points. The Steelers had lost only two road games when leading by at least 14 at halftime, blowing a 21-7 lead to Dan Marino and the Dolphins on Nov. 1, 1987, and a 20-3 lead to the St. Louis Cardinals on Oct. 13, 1963. Jackie Smith caught a 55-yard TD pass in that comeback for St. Louis. Smith would be remembered more for another play against the Steelers — a dropped TD pass for Dallas in his final career game in the Super Bowl in 1979.

High-scoring losses

The Raiders and Steelers became the latest teams to end up on the losing end of a game when scoring at least 30 points. In all, 20 teams have lost this season despite that high point total, one short of the postmerger record for a season set in 2013. Atlanta, Indianapol­is, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Tampa Bay all have two losses when scoring 30 or more points.

Triple crown

Oakland spent a fifthround pick on punter Johnny Townsend, one of just 20 punters taken in the first five rounds this century. The move isn’t paying dividends as Townsend is on pace for a not-so-spectacula­r Triple Crown. He ranks last among all qualifying punters in gross average (43 yards), net average (37.4 yards) and percentage of punts downed inside the 20 (19.6 percent).

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