Five Fun NFL Tidbits from the 2012 Season

As the regular season closed its books yesterday, I thought I'd take a look at five random little facts, stories, tidbits, whatever they may be about the 2012 season. Le'ggo:

1. If you were a Titans fan and only watched two games all year (Week 3 versus the Lions and Week 17 versus the Jaguars), you would have seen seven return touchdowns--three punts, two interceptions, one kick and one fumble. In that same Lions game, you also would have seen two touchdowns scored against your team in the final 18 seconds, including a deflected Hail Mary. And of course, there were blunders aplenty by the officiating crew, since this was still during the era of the replacement refs.

2. If you combined Mark Sanchez and Philip Rivers into one person, Marlip Sanvers would have had an astonishing 15 lost fumbles and 33 interceptions, or just about three turnovers a game. Ironically enough, Sanchez had one touchdown compared to eight picks in the month of December, while Rivers played quite well, throwing 8 scores and just one interception. Of course, they still continued to fumble like a teenager on a first date, with the Sanchize fumbling the ball four times and Rivers an even more impressive six. They each lost three of them.

3. Christian Ponder barely had more yards per pass attempt (6.1) as Adrian Peterson did per carry (6.0). The next closest QB in YPA that started all 16 games is Ryan Fitzpatrick, with 6.7. Coincidentally, his main running back, C.J. Spiller, also averaged 6.0 yards per carry. Seems like a trend. If you average Brady Quinn and Matt Cassell together, the Chiefs QBs averaged about 6.2 yards per pass, while their RB Jamaal Charles posted a 5.3 YPC average. Definitely seems like a trend--bad QBs make great rushers look even more amazing.

4. Of players with at least 50 catches, only four had 5 or fewer catches that weren't first downs or touchdowns: Vincent Jackson (72 receptions, 61 1stD, 8 TD), Lance Moore (65 receptions, 55 1stD, 6 TD), James Jones (64 receptions, 45 1stD, 14 TD), Malcolm Floyd (56 receptions, 47 1stD, 5 TD), Brandon Gibson (51 receptions, 43 1stD, 5 TD) and Josh Gordon (50 receptions, 40 1stD, 5 TD). Only one of those players--James Jones--is on a team going to the playoffs, yet four--the others, save for Josh Gordon--are on teams that won seven games this year. The Bucs, Saints and Chargers all went 7-9, while the Rams finished 7-8-1. So...mediocrity wins?

5. Only four teams performed better on the road than they did at home: Again, we find the Chargers, Bucs and Saints on this list, but they're also joined by the Bengals, who were a surprising 6-2 on the road, compared to 4-4 at home. My beloved Bears also have the dubious distinction of posting a +98 point differential, yet still failed to make the playoffs, highest in the league for a team missing out on the postseason. On the other end of the spectrum, the Colts are the only team, at -30, to get into the playoffs with a minus-point differential. That's the power of Chuckstrong.

Enjoy the postseason, everyone, and kick some butt in 2013!