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2012 NFL Stats – Team Explosive Plays Produced By Running Backs & Fullbacks

During the regular season, I write quite a bit about explosive plays of 20 yards or more as it relates to teams winning and losing games, but I have wanted to look at big plays produced by all of the teams running backs and fullbacks for some time now.

The stats below reflect plays produced by running backs and fullbacks by team in 2012 that went for 10 yards or more and these are also broken down by rushes and receptions. These should by no means be considered official, but they should be very, very close.

As you can see, the New England Patriots were tops in the league last season with 85 total plays from their running backs and fullbacks that went for 10 yards or more. A close second were the Minnesota Vikings with 81 such plays. It should be noted, however, that Vikings running back Adrian Peterson had a stunning 61 rushes last season that went for 10 yards or more. To really show how amazing that number is, he carried the ball a total of 348 times during the regular season which means that ever 5.71 times that he carried the football, he gained 10 or more yards. Let\’s also not forget that he suffered a serious knee injury late in the 2011 season in addition.

As far as the Pittsburgh Steelers went in 2012, they had a total of 65 plays that went for 10 yards or more from either running backs or fullbacks. Running back Isaac Redman led the team with 10 receptions of 10 yards or more while running back Jonathan Dwyer led the team with 21 rushes for 10 yards or more. A pleasant surprise last year for the Steelers was fullback Will Johnson, who chipped in 5 receptions of 10 yards or more.

Although the Steelers ranked around the middle of the league as far as total plays went, their average of 15.4 yards per explosive play was near the bottom of the league.

So what do we have to look forward to in 2013 for the Steelers. As I pointed out in a recent post about rookie running back Le\’Veon Bell, in 2012 at Michigan State he had 34 runs that went for 10 yards or more. While I don\’t yet have the number of receptions that he had that went for 10 yards or more, I do know that he had one that went for 15 yards or more of the 32 passes that he caught in 2012.

In case you are curious, in 2011 the Steelers had 43 runs by either a running back or fullback that went for 10 yards or more, but only 10 receptions from those positions that went for 10 yards or more and running back Rashard Mendenhall was responsible for 25 of those 53 explosive plays.

Of course down, distance, field position and score of the game plays a big role in these stats, but hopefully with Bell now in the fold, the Steelers can improve their production in this area of their offense.

Stats below should be sortable by clicking on a column header.

TEAM REC REC YDS AVG TD RUSH YDS AVG TD TOT YDS AVG TD
NE 27 516 19.1 5 58 887 15.3 2 85 1403 16.5 7
MIN 17 248 14.6 0 64 1475 23 5 81 1723 21.3 5
NO 47 780 16.6 2 29 605 20.9 5 76 1385 18.2 7
BUF 24 475 19.8 2 49 913 18.6 7 73 1388 19 9
KC 19 284 14.9 1 53 1081 20.4 5 72 1365 19 6
SF 13 185 14.2 0 59 875 14.8 3 72 1060 14.7 3
NYG 13 245 18.8 1 58 947 16.3 5 71 1192 16.8 6
SEA 16 242 15.1 0 55 936 17 6 71 1178 16.6 6
DEN 23 355 15.4 1 45 692 15.4 0 68 1047 15.4 1
BAL 24 434 18.1 1 43 770 17.9 2 67 1204 18 3
WAS 10 197 19.7 0 57 885 15.5 4 67 1082 16.1 4
DET 37 500 13.5 0 29 454 15.7 2 66 954 14.5 2
PIT 25 401 16 0 40 603 15.1 3 65 1004 15.4 3
OAK 36 693 19.3 2 28 543 19.4 1 64 1236 19.3 3
HOU 9 141 15.7 0 55 960 17.5 4 64 1101 17.2 4
PHI 18 294 16.3 1 45 804 17.9 3 63 1098 17.4 4
CHI 22 372 16.9 1 40 704 17.6 2 62 1076 17.4 3
SD 32 421 13.2 0 30 454 15.1 1 62 875 14.1 1
TB 17 356 20.9 1 43 829 19.3 6 60 1185 19.8 7
STL 21 328 15.6 0 39 669 17.2 0 60 997 16.6 0
MIA 25 388 15.5 2 34 627 18.4 6 59 1015 17.2 8
CAR 24 461 19.2 3 31 544 17.5 4 55 1005 18.3 7
NYJ 14 208 14.9 0 39 584 15 2 53 792 14.9 2
DAL 28 437 15.6 2 24 406 16.9 2 52 843 16.2 4
ATL 22 373 17 1 29 507 17.5 2 51 880 17.3 3
CLE 25 421 16.8 1 23 366 15.9 4 48 787 16.4 5
IND 11 205 18.6 1 37 546 14.8 2 48 751 15.6 3
JAC 17 302 17.8 0 27 456 16.9 2 44 758 17.2 2
TEN 9 133 14.8 0 30 683 22.8 5 39 816 20.9 5
ARI 16 238 14.9 0 21 376 17.9 2 37 614 16.6 2
CIN 11 143 13 0 25 574 23 0 36 717 19.9 0
GB 16 258 16.1 0 20 299 15 2 36 557 15.5 2
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