One of my favorite boxscores comes from a Steelers-Texans game in 2002. The Jets played at 4:15 that day, and I was living in Pennsylvania at the time, so I got to watch that game in its entirety. And the game was baffling on every level.
The expansion Texans had just three first downs the entire game. Three! David Carr completed 3 of 10 passes for 33 yards, with all three going to tight end Billy Miller. He was sacked four times, so Houston had 10 net passing yards on 14 dropbacks.
The Texans weren’t much better on the ground, running 26 times for 37 yards. That’s 47 total yards of offense with no touchdowns! In an entire game! And when you hear that the final score was 24-6, one would have to assume that Houston lost. But the didn’t. They won! They won 24-6!! In a game where they had 47 yards of offense and no touchdowns! That remains the fewest yards ever gained by a team in a winning effort. Steelers linebacker Joey Porter said it best:
Hold a team to under 50 yards offense, you’d think you’d have a chance to win at least….To get blown out when that happens, it’s tough.
Houston, of course, scored three defensive touchdowns, including two by former Jet Aaron Glenn. But what made watching the game even more confusing was that the Pittsburgh was pretty productive on offense, with 422 yards. Then again, the Steelers also had 15 drives and a whopping 95 plays, thanks due Houston recording eight 3-and-outs.
So why am I bringing that game up now? After watching the crazy Seahawks/Cardinals game last week, I was stunned by how Arizona was somehow kept out of the end zone all night. The Cardinals ran a whopping 90 plays, but the game ended in a 6-6 tie.
So I ran the numbers, and guess what? The only time in NFL history that a team ran more plays and failed to score a touchdown was Pittsburgh in that game against Houston.
The table below shows every game in NFL history where a team had 80 plays and zero offensive touchdowns:
| Team | Year | Opp | Wk | Boxscore | Plays | W/L | PF | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT | 2002 | HOU | 14 | Boxscore | 95 | L | 6 | 24 |
| ARI | 2016 | SEA | 7 | Boxscore | 90 | T | 6 | 6 |
| IND | 2012 | BAL | 18 | Boxscore | 87 | L | 9 | 24 |
| NYG | 1977 | CHI | 14 | Boxscore | 87 | L | 9 | 12 |
| BAL | 1974 | DEN | 9 | Boxscore | 87 | L | 6 | 17 |
| NYG | 2003 | NWE | 6 | Boxscore | 85 | L | 6 | 17 |
| ARI | 2002 | DAL | 7 | Boxscore | 85 | W | 9 | 6 |
| KAN | 1997 | JAX | 11 | Boxscore | 85 | L | 10 | 24 |
| NYG | 1987 | BUF | 6 | Boxscore | 85 | L | 3 | 6 |
| CLE | 2011 | SEA | 7 | Boxscore | 84 | W | 6 | 3 |
| SDG | 1999 | GNB | 7 | Boxscore | 84 | L | 3 | 31 |
| NWE | 1995 | SFO | 3 | Boxscore | 84 | L | 3 | 28 |
| WAS | 1985 | SFO | 13 | Boxscore | 84 | L | 8 | 35 |
| KAN | 1989 | CLE | 11 | Boxscore | 83 | T | 10 | 10 |
| BUF | 1979 | DEN | 14 | Boxscore | 83 | L | 16 | 19 |
| CIN | 2004 | BAL | 3 | Boxscore | 82 | L | 9 | 23 |
| NWE | 1999 | PHI | 15 | Boxscore | 82 | L | 9 | 24 |
| ATL | 1977 | WAS | 2 | Boxscore | 82 | L | 6 | 10 |
| PIT | 1975 | GNB | 6 | Boxscore | 82 | W | 16 | 13 |
| CHI | 2016 | GNB | 7 | Boxscore | 81 | L | 10 | 26 |
| NYJ | 2010 | MIA | 14 | Boxscore | 81 | L | 6 | 10 |
| NWE | 1994 | CLE | 10 | Boxscore | 81 | L | 6 | 13 |
| BUF | 1993 | NYJ | 8 | Boxscore | 81 | W | 19 | 10 |
| BUF | 1987 | NYG | 6 | Boxscore | 81 | W | 6 | 3 |
| SFO | 1986 | WAS | 11 | Boxscore | 81 | L | 6 | 14 |
| CLE | 1981 | HOU | 2 | Boxscore | 81 | L | 3 | 9 |
| BAL | 2000 | TEN | 8 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 6 | 14 |
| NWE | 1995 | DEN | 6 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 3 | 37 |
| SFO | 1981 | CLE | 11 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 12 | 15 |
| NOR | 1975 | SFO | 10 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 6 | 16 |
| DET | 1975 | HOU | 6 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 8 | 24 |
| CLE | 1975 | DEN | 5 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 15 | 16 |
| CRD | 1942 | WAS | 9 | Boxscore | 80 | L | 0 | 28 |
Believe it or not, Arizona wasn’t the only offense from week seven to make the list: Chicago ran 81 plays against Green Bay on Thursday night, but none of those ended in with the Bears in the endzone.