NFL 2022: Five Key Statistics for Week 18

Be it football or sports in general, there are always lots of statistics to contemplate. Some of are the historical variety and some have to do with what we are seeing this season. Here are a series of numbers that may or may not open some eyes as the National Football League enters the final weekend of the 2022 regular season.

28

It’s a pretty impressive set of numbers. The Kansas City Chiefs have scored at least 28 points in their last nine encounters with the rival Raiders. As for the raw numbers, they read 40, 35, 28, 40, 32, 35, 41, 48 and 30. That adds up to 329 points and a brisk 36.6 points per contest. More importantly, Andy Reid’s club is 8-1 in those nine contests. The Chiefs kick off Week 18 at Las Vegas looking to make it five straight wins over the Silver and Black.

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2

A season ago, three teams that finished last in their respective divisions in 2020 reached the playoffs in 2021. The Eagles grabbed a wild card berth, the 49ers did the same and reached the NFC title game and the Bengals won the AFC North and wound up in Super Bowl LVI. With one week to play, the Giants and Ravens (both last-place teams in 2021) are playoff bound. That could also be the case for the Jaguars (with a win) and Lions (win and some help).

10

After 17 weeks and 255 regular-season contests, there have been 65 different starting quarterbacks for the 32 NFL teams in 2022. That’s counting five-year pro Baker Mayfield (Panthers and Rams) twice. A total of 10 clubs have started at least three different signal-callers. That number will swell to 12 teams after Sunday as the Commanders send out rookie Sam Howell vs. the Cowboys and the struggling Bears start Nathan Peterman at Minnesota.

68

The NFC East-leading Philadelphia Eagles have totaled an imposing 68 sacks in 16 contests and still have one game to play. The NFL record for sacks in a season belongs to the 1984 Chicago Bears (72). The only other clubs to amass at least 70 QB traps in a campaign are the 1989 Minnesota Vikings (71) and the 1987 Bears (70), the latter playing in 15 games during the league’s strike-interrupted campaign. Four Eagles’ players have at least 11 sacks this year.

12

The Green Bay Packers will be headed to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season if they could knock off the Detroit Lions on Sunday night at Lambeau Field. The team’s recent revival has been a combination of balanced offense, opportunistic defense and good special teams play. During its disappointing 4-8 start, Matt LaFleur’s club managed only 12 takeaways. In their last four games, all wins, the surging Packers have forced a dozen turnovers.