Week 14 NFL Top Performers
Posted: Tuesday December 08, 1998 01:00 AM
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Taylor-made player: Taylor broke his own team single-game record with 183 rushing yards in Jacksonville's win over Detroit AP |
You want big plays? Week 14 had big plays. Seven different receivers caught
touchdowns of 66 yards or longer.
Three of the four longest pass plays of 1998 came on Sunday. Only Johnnie Morton's 98-yard
grab from in Week 5 is longer than Sunday's triumvirate: New Orleans' Kerry Collins found Andre Hastings for 89
yards, the Giants' Kent
Graham found Tike Barber for 87 yards and New England's Drew Bledsoe connected
with Terry Glenn on an
86-yard scoring strike.
There were, by comparison, short gains like 49ers tailback Garrison Hearst's 71-yard
touchdown run, his third run of 70 yards or longer this season. Hearst
entered 1998 with a career-long of 57 yards, but he now has runs of 70, 71
and that Week 1 96-yarder in overtime.
In other game-breaking plays, Seattle's Jon Kitna found Joey Galloway for
touchdowns of 70 and 57 yards, Buffalo's Doug Flutie and Eric Moulds connected for
another 70-yarder, Jaguars QB Jamie Martin fired a
67-yard touchdown to Keenan
McCardell and Baltimore's Jim Harbaugh hit Floyd
Turner for 66 yards.
That doesn't even count Dwayne Rudd's 94-yard
interception return in Minnesota or Brian Mitchell's 101-yard
kickoff return in Washington. Top Ground Gainer
Jaguars rookie Fred
Taylor broke his own team single-game record with 183 rushing yards in
Jacksonville's 37-22 victory over the Lions on Sunday. Taylor became the
first Jaguar to rush for 1,000 yards in a season after breaking James Stewart's team
single-season rushing record on his first carry of the day. Late in the
game, Taylor broke Jimmy
Smith's team record for total yards from scrimmage in a season,
finishing the day with 1,348. That's three team records in one day.
Taylor now has 12 rushing touchdowns in his first NFL season, putting him
in position to rank among the best rookie runners ever. Only five NFL
rookies have rushed for 14 touchdowns or more: Gale Sayers had 14 in 1965,
Barry Sanders had 14 in
1989, Curtis Martin had
14 in 1995, Ickey Woods had 15 in 1988 and Eric Dickerson had 18 as a
rookie in 1983. Offensive Outburst Award
It's hard to overlook Randy
Moss' second straight three-touchdown game, but we'll give this week's
honor to Broncos quarterback John Elway, who reached 400
yards passing in a game for only the second time in his 16-year career, the
first time since 1985. More amazingly, Elway reached 400 yards on just 32
passes -- that's an average of 12.5 yards per pass attempt. He had
passes of 24 yards or longer to five different Broncos -- Rod Smith had a 58-yarder,
Willie Green caught a
50-yard pass, Ed
McCaffrey had a 48-yard catch, Terrell Davis took one
pass 25 yards and Shannon
Sharpe caught the game-winning 24-yard score. He completed 22 passes, a
season high, and threw for two touchdowns in the Broncos' wild 35-31 win
over Kansas City. Losing Effort Award
Seattle quarterback Jon Kitna is honored here, only because an NFL official
decided that Vinny
Testaverde reached the end zone on the winning touchdown run on fourth
down in the Jets' 32-31 heartbreaker. Kitna, with help from those two big
passes to Galloway, threw for 278 yards on just 24 attempts, again an
impressive 11.6 yards per attempt. Kitna completed 17 of those passes --
70.8 percent -- and threw for two touchdowns against a defense that had
allowed just 11 in its first 12 games. The Jets were one of 11 teams that
entered the weekend having not surrendered a pass play of 70 yards or
longer, but they no longer hold that distinction. Kitna has four touchdowns
in his two starts this season, as many as Warren Moon had in the
previous five games. Kitna has three weeks left to convince Seattle he's
their QB of the future. Top Rushing Performances Fred Taylor,
Jaguars, 32 carries, 183 yards
Garrison Hearst, 49ers, 20 carries, 139
yards
Gary Brown,
Giants, 25 carries, 124 yards
Jamal Anderson, Falcons,
30 carries, 122 yards
Terrell Fletcher, Chargers, 34 carries, 122
yards
Barry Sanders, Lions, 18 carries, 103 yards
Karim Abdul-Jabbar,
Dolphins, 19 carries, 94 yards
Terrell Davis, Broncos, 24 carries, 88
yards
Ricky
Watters, Seahawks, 18 carries, 84 yards
Tim Biakabatuka, Panthers,
22 carries, 81 yards
Top Passing Performances Vinny
Testaverde, Jets, 42-63, 1 INT, 2 TD, 418 yards
John Elway, Broncos,
22-32, 1 INT, 2 TD, 400 yards
Randall Cunningham, Vikings,
21-31, 1 INT, 4 TD, 349 yards
Drew Bledsoe, Patriots, 21-34, 3 INT, 1
TD, 327 yards
Doug Flutie, Bills, 18-30, 3 INT, 2 TD, 319 yards
Steve Stenstrom, Bears,
25-42, 1 INT, 1 TD, 303 yards
Chris Chandler, Falcons,
20-28, 1 INT, 2 TD, 297 yards
Jon Kitna, Seahawks, 17-24, 2 INT, 2 TD,
278 yards
Jake
Plummer, Cardinals, 18-40, 2 INT, 1 TD, 263 yards
Brett Favre, Packers,
29-41, 0 INT, 2 TD, 262 yards
Charlie Batch, Lions,
14-33, 0 INT, 2 TD, 250 yards
Top Receiving Performances Eric
Moulds, Bills, 6 catches, 196 yards
Terry Glenn, Patriots, 9 catches,
193 yards
Rod Smith, Broncos, 8 catches, 165 yards
Bobby Engram, Bears, 9
catches, 140 yards
Tony
Martin, Falcons, 7 catches, 140 yards
Joey Galloway, Seahawks, 2
catches, 127 yards
Andre Hastings, Saints, 4 catches, 122 yards
Herman Moore, Lions, 7
catches, 116 yards
Keyshawn Johnson, Jets, 9
catches, 114 yards
Jimmy Smith, Jaguars, 7 catches, 112 yards
Floyd
Turner, Ravens, 4 catches, 108 yards
Randy Moss, Vikings, 8 catches,
106 yards
Tim Brown,
Raiders, 9 catches, 104 yards
Ed McCaffrey, Broncos, 6 catches, 103
yards
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