Previously:
The Buffalo Bills pulled off one of the most remarkable upsets in NFL history in week 3, beating the heavily-favored Vikings 27-6. That game was notable for a lot of reasons on the Bills side, but here’s something interesting on the Minnesota side: the Vikings had just six rushing attempts all game, including just one in each of the final three quarters of the game. Minnesota running backs finished the day with just four carries:
| Tm | Opp ▲ |
Quarter | Time | Down | ToGo | Location | Score | Detail | Yds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vikings | Bills | 1 | 7:24 | 1 | 10 | MIN 25 | 0-10 | Latavius Murray right guard for 2 yards (tackle by Matt Milano) | 2 |
| Vikings | Bills | 1 | 6:46 | 2 | 8 | MIN 27 | 0-10 | Mike Boone left tackle for no gain (tackle by Lorenzo Alexander and Jordan Poyer) | 0 |
| Vikings | Bills | 1 | 4:38 | 2 | 7 | MIN 28 | 0-17 | Mike Boone left tackle for 11 yards (tackle by Micah Hyde) | 11 |
| Vikings | Bills | 2 | 6:11 | 1 | 10 | MIN 17 | 0-27 | Latavius Murray left tackle for -1 yards (tackle by Tremaine Edmunds) | -1 |
| Vikings | Bills | 3 | 14:33 | 2 | 1 | MIN 31 | 0-27 | Kirk Cousins for 1 yard. Kirk Cousins fumbles, recovered by Kirk Cousins at MIN-26 | 1 |
| Vikings | Bills | 4 | 15:00 | 1 | 10 | MIN 31 | 0-27 | Kirk Cousins left end for 2 yards (tackle by Micah Hyde) | 2 |
The Vikings had 59 passing plays, on the other hand, which means over 90% of all Minnesota plays in week 3 were passing plays (in fact, the two Cousins runs were one scramble and one fumbled snap, so the Vikings ended the day with only four designed running plays). How remarkable is that? Well, it’s the first time in the history of the NFL that it’s happened! The Vikings ran on just 9.2% of all plays (again, generously counting the two Cousins runs as running plays), breaking the previously low of 10.3%, set by the Cardinals against the… 2006 Vikings.
Also super pass-happy in week 3: the Indianapolis Colts, despite (or because?) Andrew Luck setting a career low in yards per completion. The Colts-Eagles game was tied after the 1st and 3rd quarters, with Philadelphia holding just a 3-point lead at halftime. In other words, this was a really close game…. and yet Indianapolis passed on 77% of its plays! That is quite unusual, and represents an extremely pass-happy game (albeit one where the passes were mostly short passes that operated as runs).
The full week 3 Game Scripts data:
| Team | H/R | Opp | Boxscore | PF | PA | Margin | Game Script | Pass | Run | P/R Ratio | Op_P | Op_R | Opp_P/R Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUF | @ | MIN | Boxscore | 27 | 6 | 21 | 21.2 | 25 | 38 | 39.7% | 59 | 6 | 90.8% |
| KAN | SFO | Boxscore | 38 | 27 | 11 | 12.7 | 39 | 28 | 58.2% | 34 | 29 | 54% | |
| WAS | GNB | Boxscore | 31 | 17 | 14 | 11.6 | 20 | 35 | 36.4% | 48 | 17 | 73.8% | |
| LAR | LAC | Boxscore | 35 | 23 | 12 | 8.8 | 37 | 35 | 51.4% | 32 | 20 | 61.5% | |
| PIT | @ | TAM | Boxscore | 30 | 27 | 3 | 8.4 | 41 | 22 | 65.1% | 53 | 16 | 76.8% |
| DET | NWE | Boxscore | 26 | 10 | 16 | 7.9 | 37 | 33 | 52.9% | 28 | 19 | 59.6% | |
| SEA | DAL | Boxscore | 24 | 13 | 11 | 7.8 | 28 | 39 | 41.8% | 39 | 19 | 67.2% | |
| NYG | @ | HOU | Boxscore | 27 | 22 | 5 | 7.5 | 33 | 27 | 55% | 43 | 19 | 69.4% |
| BAL | DEN | Boxscore | 27 | 14 | 13 | 4.9 | 42 | 28 | 60% | 37 | 24 | 60.7% | |
| CAR | CIN | Boxscore | 31 | 21 | 10 | 4.1 | 25 | 42 | 37.3% | 48 | 13 | 78.7% | |
| TEN | @ | JAX | Boxscore | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1.5 | 24 | 35 | 40.7% | 37 | 19 | 66.1% |
| PHI | IND | Boxscore | 20 | 16 | 4 | 0.5 | 42 | 35 | 54.5% | 43 | 13 | 76.8% | |
| NOR | @ | ATL | Boxscore | 43 | 37 | 6 | 0.3 | 50 | 27 | 64.9% | 38 | 22 | 63.3% |
| MIA | OAK | Boxscore | 28 | 20 | 8 | -2.8 | 24 | 15 | 61.5% | 43 | 32 | 57.3% | |
| CLE | NYJ | Boxscore | 21 | 17 | 4 | -5.4 | 41 | 33 | 55.4% | 33 | 30 | 52.4% | |
| CHI | @ | ARI | Boxscore | 16 | 14 | 2 | -7.1 | 38 | 31 | 55.1% | 30 | 18 | 62.5% |
The big comeback of the week came in Arizona, where the Bears came back from a 14-0 first quarter deficit to beat the Cardinals, 16-14. In the last 13 years, Chicago has won just two games when trailing by 14+ points after the first quarter. Both of those games came in Arizona. So I guess Chicago really is who we thought they were.