With last week's Memphis loss, we lost our big story of the season so far, so we're back to the grind. Week 7 is in the books and we're almost at the midpoint of 1987 so I thought we'd look at some statistical races. I thought I would do this real quick, but it's getting quite long so this is Part 1.
Among QB's, we have 5 over 2,000 yards and 2 over 2,200 and 20+ TD's, Baltimore's Jon Snow and New Jersey's Ric Flair. There are 3 starting QB's over 8 ypa, Snow, Flair, and Memphis QB David Allen. We have 7 QB's with 10+ INT's led by Florida's Sidney Maggard and Denver's Andrew Brewer with 15 each.
Looking at ball carriers, Memphis RB Mark Lambert leads the league with 711 yards, more than 100 ahead of second place Rudi Johnson of New Jersey (596). The next 2 leading rushers are listed as WR's, Cleveland's Samuel Draper (572) and Portland's Timothy Roquemore (547). Nobody else has topped 500 yards rushing. Houston RB Ryan Dearing paces the league with 5 rushing TD's, seven are tied for second with 4.
We have 4 players over 50 receptions, Tampa Bay RB Paul Meade has 58, Oakland's Oliver Thomas (RB) has 57, RB Ronald Boatman of Honolulu has 52 and Washington WR Cory Martin has 51. Memphis WR Willie Howland leads the league in receiving yards with 780 but New Jersey's Corey True is hot on his heels with 772. Houston WR Gabriel Ahrens rounds out the top 3 and the 700 club with his 716 yards. Corey True is tied with Birmingham's Jeffrey Zimmer for the league lead in TD receptions with 9. True (30.9) and Gabriel Ahrens (29.8) are the top 2 in yards per catch among those with more than 1 reception. Arizona RB Desmond Kirkland almost literally catches everything thrown his way. Among players with 10+ receptions, he has the highest catch % at 96.6% (28-29).
We have had 5 kickoff return TD's, one each by Oliver Thomas (Oak), Robert Bonfiglio (Char), Dane Britt (LA), Chris Cornell (STO), and Arthur Strickland (Fla). Britt's return is listed as 110 yards while Thomas and Cornell's were 108. There have been no punt return TD's and 2 average double digit yards with double digit returns, New Jersey's Aaron Paul (12.5 avg, 11 returns) and Oklahoma's Leroy Jenkins (11.1-17).
If the kicking keeps pace, we'll have a new All Pro PK this year as John Bazile isn't as prolific as in past years. Oakland's John Hensley leads the league with 22 FG's, and 5 others have made 100% of their FG's (10+ attempts), including former Generals and current Oklahoma Outlaws K Roger Ruzich, whom I cut long ago for not being accurate enough ironically. Ruzich is a league best 6 for 6 from 50+. Punting wise, Cleveland's Thomas Brott has a league best 46.7 net avg and 29 of 48 punts inside the 20.
Florida's Ramon Carter and Michigan's Alton Pastor pace the league with 5 sacks while Portland's Thomas Miller and Memphis's Shawn Hicks are tied with a pair of New Jersey Generals with 4 each. One General is Len Bias, who leads all DT's with his 4 sacks, the other General is Indiana Jones. Jones leads the league with 14 hurries in his first year as a DE after spending his first 6 seasons at MLB.
Mr. Low Catch % 1986, Thomas Welker is at it again. The All Pro Hawaiian has regressed, but it's hard not to regress from 16.2%. I'm sure trslick isn't complaining about his current 25% rate. Looking only at the first page of the players most thrown at, only Welker was below 30% and just 3 more were under 40%: Honolulu's Robert Skinner, Portland's Christopher Schneider and Houston's Robert Sokol.
The interception leaders with 5 each are: Oakland's Ralph Hooks, Oklahoma's Jeffrey Danko, and New Orleans CB Robert Shuler. 8 players are tied with 4 apiece. We have had 5 INT returns this season: Herbert Brigham, Chicago, Joseph Walton, New Orleans, Timothy Hall, Oklahoma, Robert Givens, Denver, and Christopher Landreneau, Shreveport. Jacksonville's Tony Morrisson leads the league with 18 knockdowns (71 thrown at) but the two in second place knock passes down much more frequently. Steven Minton (Bir) has 17 knockdowns in 38 passes while Cleveland's Brandon Johnson has his 17 in 42 passes.
Boston's Ronnie Waltz leads the league with 6 fumbles but Jacksonville has 2 players in the top 4 and 3 of 9. Not surprisingly, a Jacksonville OL leads the league in recovered fumbles, RT Rodrigo Stephens. Too many are tied at 2 to list them all. Portland WLB James Waggoner and (NY) Stars MLB Alfred Payeur lead with 3 forced fumbles each. Again, too many tied at 2 to list.
Washington center Eddie Long has allowed 6 sacks while his cousin Isaac Long of Charlotte has given up 5. Detroit center Mark Daniels paces the league with 6 penalties and 44 penalty yards are also tops(?).
The top 3 in overall yardage are Arthur Strickland (Fla) 1,279, Oliver Thomas (Oak) 1,159 and Rudi Johnson (NJG) 992. The league's TD leader is James Sheckler of New Orleans with 10, one ahead of Jeffrey Zimmer (BIR) and Corey True (NJG), and two ahead of Tim "Donut Mogul" Horton of Memphis.
WEEK 7 Part 2: The Games will be out this evening
