NFL Research offers the best nuggets from each week of games in the NFL. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments from Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season.
1) Jalen Hurts runs Eagles to comeback, passes Cam Newton
Here are Hurts’ numbers in the first half Sunday against the Bills: 33 passing yards, one interception, 22 rushing yards, one touchdown — and a double-digit deficit.
Now examining Hurts’ performance in the second half and overtime: He achieved 167 passing yards, threw three touchdown passes, made zero turnovers, rushed for 43 yards and scored a decisive touchdown run.
Hurts broke a tie with Cam Newton for the most career games with multiple rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in NFL history, recording his 11th such game.
Hurts has achieved a milestone of 11 rushing touchdowns this season, making it his third straight season with rushing touchdowns in double figures. This is a record in NFL history, as no other quarterback has ever managed to score 10 or more rushing touchdowns in two successive seasons.
2) Josh Allen makes history despite continued overtime misfortune
This article does not feature Allen due to his career record of 0-6 in overtime, which is the third longest starting career overtime losing streak by a quarterback in NFL history.
He is present due to his historical achievement of scoring his eighth ground touchdown this season in 2023. This marks the fourth instance in his career where he has recorded eight or more rushing touchdowns.
This equaled Cam Newton’s record for the most seasons with over eight rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in history.
Allen also tied Drew Brees (11) for the third-most games with at least 300 yards passing and one rushing touchdown in the Super Bowl era. He now trails only Aaron Rodgers (13) and Tom Brady (17).
3) C.J. Stroud‘s 300-yard streak
Stroud made history as the first rookie quarterback in the NFL to throw for over 300 yards in four consecutive games, despite his team losing. His performance was indeed historic.
Stroud also passed Justin Herbert (3,224) for the second-most passing yards in a player’s first 11 games in NFL history. The only player with more in their first 11 games was Patrick Mahomes, with 10 of those 11 games coming in his sophomore season.
Stroud is leading the NFL with six games of passing more than 300 yards, equalling Andrew Luck’s record for the second-highest by a rookie, which is behind Herbert’s eight games. This season marked the fifth instance of Stroud achieving over 300 passing yards and multiple touchdowns in a single game, tying the rookie record set by Luck and Herbert.
4) Lamar Jackson shatters pace for QBs with 5,000 rushing yards
In the history of the NFL only four quarterbacks have rushed for 5,000 yards in their career: Michael Vick, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson — and, now, Lamar Jackson.
Action Jackson reached 5,000 career rushing yards on Sunday Night Football against the Chargers in what was just his 84th career game.
All the other three quarterbacks required more than 100 games to achieve that mark.
With a prime-time win under their belt, Baltimore heads into the bye week holding the AFC’s best record at 9-3.
5) Patrick Mahomes moves past Dan Marino
The Chiefs trailed, 14-0, in the second quarter against the Raiders. They ended up winning by 14 points. I would like to call this a “Mahomes” moving forward.
This was the 66th game where the Chiefs’ superstar had multiple passing touchdowns out of 91 games played. This feat broke the record of Hall of Famer Dan Marino, who had 65 multi-touchdown games in his first seven seasons.
Just a scheduled reminder, Mahomes only played in one game during his rookie season.
6) Travis Kelce becomes fastest TE to 11,000 receiving yards
Although Kelce didn’t receive any of Patrick Mahomes’ touchdown passes, he did accumulate 91 receiving yards in Week 12 against the Raiders.
He increased his total career receiving yards to 11,076, ranking him fourth in NFL history for a tight end, only behind Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates and Jason Witten.
Kelce reached 11,000 receiving yards in his 154th career game. The only other tight end to do so before playing in his 200th career game was Gonzalez — but it took him 191.
7) Mike Evans keeps climbing ranks among gold-jacket pass catchers
Ahead of his impending free agency, Evans is compiling an impressive season.
The 30-year-old wide receiver added two more receiving touchdowns to his career record in Week 12, taking his total to 90.
Evans tied Hall of Famer Don Hutson for the sixth-most receiving touchdowns in a player’s first 10 career seasons. He trails just Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens and 2014 draft-mate Davante Adams.
That is elite, gold-jacket-level company.
8) T.J. Watt is in league of his own with multi-sack games
In a win that will be remembered as the day the Steelers finally totaled 400 yards of offense, Watt recorded two-plus sacks for the 20th time in his career (the most in the NFL since 2017).
Watt has participated in 98 professional games and achieved 91.0 sacks. Since the recording of sacks commenced in 1982, only one other player has accomplished a minimum of 90 sacks within his initial 100 games. That player is Hall of Famer Reggie White, who registered 105.0 career sacks in his first 100 games.
As of Monday, Watt is leading the NFL with 13.5 sacks this season.
9) Derrick Henry finds end zone, Hall of Fame company
The Titans snapped a three-game losing streak with a 17-10 win over the Panthers in Week 12, and both Tennessee touchdowns were scored by Henry.
King Henry matched the record of Hall of Famer Franco Harris and prospective Hall of Famer Adrian Peterson for the seventh highest number of games with two or more rushing touchdowns in the first eight seasons of a player’s career, with 21 such games.
He also made history by becoming the eighth player in NFL to accrue over 9,000 rushing yards and score at least 80 rushing touchdowns within his initial eight seasons.
10) Kyren Williams returns, dominates same Cardinals team he last faced
Williams made his return from injured reserve in Week 12 and did so with a bang, totaling 204 yards from scrimmage and finding the end zone twice in a 37-14 win over the Cardinals.
Williams set a record in NFL history as the first player to achieve a minimum of 140 rushing yards, six catches, over 60 receiving yards, and multiple receiving touchdowns in one game.
This wasn’t the first time the 23-year-old running back had a strong performance against the Cardinals. Furthermore, the last game he played before his ankle injury was also against Arizona.
Williams had 158 rushing yards in Week 6 during that 26-9 win over the Cards.
Williams made NFL history as the first player to play against the same opponent in consecutive games and achieve over 150 scrimmage yards in each game.
Quirky? Yes. But notable nonetheless!
