
Billy ballTitans QB Volek throws for record yardage in first seven startsPosted: Wednesday December 22, 2004 2:04PM; Updated: Wednesday December 22, 2004 2:04PM
Dan Marino didn't do it. John Elway didn't either. Joe Montana wasn't even close. Steve Young? Tom Brady? Brett Favre? Nope. Nobody in NFL history has done what Titans QB Billy Volek has done. No quarterback has been close. Volek, who was 0-for-3 passing in his first two NFL seasons, has thrown for 2,305 yards in his first seven NFL starts, by far the most passing yards in NFL history by a quarterback in the first seven starts of his career. The previous seven-game best to open a career was 1,866 passing yards by Kurt Warner. Volek broke that record by 439 yards. Neither Warner nor Volek were drafted. Volek has more passing yards in his first seven starts than Steve Young and John Elway combined (1,891). He's already thrown for 334 or more yards three times. It took Tom Brady 40 starts to do that. He's already thrown for 426 or more yards twice. Favre has started 202 games and has never thrown for 426 yards. He's already thrown for 492 yards once. Montana, Young, Peyton Manning, Daunte Culpepper, Bart Starr and Troy Aikman never did that. Volek on Sunday passed for 492 yards against the Raiders a week after he threw for 426 yards against the Chiefs. Sure, the Titans lost both games, but we don't care. Because around here, it's not about whether you win or lose the game, it's about what kind of stats you pile up. And Volek's 918 passing yards the last two weeks are the most in a two-game span in 19 years and second-most in NFL history. On Oct. 6, 1985, Giants QB Phil Simms threw for 432 yards against the Cowboys and seven days later passed for 513 yards against the Bengals. In the last two weeks, Volek had two more games with 426 or more yards than the entire NFL from opening day last year through Week 7 of this year. He's the first QB with consecutive 400-yard games since Simms in 1985 and the first QB in NFL history with back-to-back games of 400 or more yards with four touchdowns. Only one other quarterback in the past decade has even had two 426-yard games in the same season -- Matt Hasselbeck in 2002. Volek's 492-yard total against Oakland is 10th-best in NFL history. He's the first quarterback in NFL history with a game of 492 or more yards, 67 percent completion percentage and more touchdowns (four) than interceptions (one). There have been 12 games of 400 or more passing yards this year -- all in the last 11 weeks. That's one shy of the NFL record of 13 400-yard games, set in 1986 (by Tommy Kramer, Ken O'Brien, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Boomer Esiason, Tony Eason, Jay Schroeder, Bernie Kosar and Steve Grogan -- Marino three times, O'Brien twice and Kosar twice). Despite only starting seven games in his career, Volek already ranks 16th in NFL history with two 400-yard passing games. During the 70 years from 1933 through middle of 2003, there were only 10 occasions of a QB throwing for 426 or more yards with four TDs and a 66.7 completion percentage. Volek did it twice in eight days. Only six other quarterbacks have had two games with 426 or more yards and four or more touchdowns in their career -- Marino, Montana, Randall Cunningham, Tommy Kramer, Ken O'Brien, Dan Fouts and Peyton Manning. But only O'Brien did it twice while completing two-thirds of his passes. O'Brien had both his games in 1986 for the Jets, one against Seattle and the other in overtime vs. Miami. Volek had more such performances in an eight-day span than the entire NFL had during the 13 years from Oct. 1, 1989, through Nov. 9, 2002. The only other QBs in NFL history with consecutive 400-yard games are Fouts (444 and 435 in 1982) and Marino (470 and 404 in 1984). Top that, Elias! More obscure, bizarre and ridiculous from the NFL's Week 15 Last week, T.J. Houshmandzadeh became the first NFL wide receiver in nine years -- since Jerry Rice the last two weeks of 1995 -- with consecutive games with at least 10 catches and 145 yards. He's already not even the last NFL wide receiver to do that. Titans WR Drew Bennett has put together consecutive games with at least 12 catches and at least 160 receiving yards, the first receiver in at least 20 years to do that (little help, Elias?). Bennett was 12-for-233 two weeks ago against the Chiefs and 13-for-160 Sunday against the Raiders for 25 catches for 393 yards in a two-weeks span. That's the most receiving yards in a two-game span in 15 years, since John Taylor of the 49ers was 5-for-162 against the Falcons on Dec. 4, 1989, and then 11-for-286 against the Rams on Dec. 11, 1989. Bennett's eight TDs in a two-game span tie the NFL record set in 1987 by Rice and tied in 1993 by Rice. In the last 10 weeks, Bennett is the only receiver who has caught 12 or more passes for 160 or more yards in a game. And he's done it twice in eight days. Before Monday night, the last time A.J. Feeley started a football game and did not throw an interception was Nov. 6, 1999, his junior year at Oregon, when the Ducks beat Washington State, 52-10. Feeley on Monday threw 35 passes without an INT in the Dolphins upset win over the Patriots. Meanwhile, Patriots QB Tom Brady -- who had thrown just four interceptions in his last eight games -- threw four in the span of 30 minutes, 25 seconds. In odd-numbered games this year (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13), Favre has 17 touchdowns and three interceptions. In even-numbered games (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14), he has eight TDs and 15 interceptions. Favre threw three interceptions against the Jaguars Sunday, the third time in his last seven games he's thrown three. He had three INTs three times in his previous 27 games ... The Eagles and Cowboys have played 91 times. The Eagles' 49-21 win on Nov. 15 was the highest-scoring game ever in the series. The Eagles' 12-7 win just 34 days later was the lowest-scoring game ever in the series ... The Browns have been shutout in their home finale two years in a row ... Chiefs QB Trent Green needs 142 yards for his second straight 4,000-yard passing season. Only Peyton Manning (six straight years), Brett Favre, Warren Moon (twice) and Marino (four straight) have ever registered consecutive 4,000-yard seasons.
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