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Thursday 1 december 2022
Beasts of East: All 8 NFL teams in East divisions above .500

By JOSH DUBOW 2002 when all four teams four teams with winning
AP Pro Football Writer in a division had winning records, with the NFC East
Two years after no team records through 12 weeks doing that 52% of the time
in the NFC East won more came in the 2021 AFC and the AFC East 60% of
than seven games, all four West, the 2014 AFC North, the time. Football Outsiders
have pulled off the trick and the AFC East and NFC projects all four NFC South
with six weeks to go. South in 2008. teams to have a losing re-
Washington (7-5) beat At- The NFC South is at the cord 35% of the time.
lanta on Sunday to join Phil- other end of the division 300 CLUB
adelphia (10-1), Dallas (8-3) standings, with Tampa Bay Josh Jacobs punctuated
and the Giants (7-4) with (5-6) in the lead despite the best day of his career
winning records, giving the having a losing record. The in memorable fashion.
division a combined win- only other times since 2002 Jacobs scored on an 86-
ning percentage of .711 for when every team had a yard run in overtime to
the best mark through 12 losing record through 12 lead the Raiders past the
weeks by any division since games came in the 2020 Seahawks for the fourth-
the merger. NFC East, the 2015 NFC longest scrimmage touch-
Making the performance East, the 2014 NFC South down ever in overtime,
more impressive is the turn- and the 2010 NFC West. trailing only Ron Jaworski’s
around from 2020, when Washington Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller (29) According to projections 99-yard TD pass to Mike
celebrating his interception against the Atlanta Falcons with his
Washington won the NFC teammates near the end of the second half of an NFL football from Football Outsiders, Quick for the Eagles in
East with a 7-9 record. game, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, in Landover, Md. there is a 16% chance that 1985, Garrison Hearst’s 96-
The AFC East isn’t far be- Associated Press the entire NFC East makes yard TD run for the 49ers in
hind this season, with all the playoffs and a 15% 1998 and Teddy Bridgewa-
four teams in that division falo tied for the top spot at Before this season, the only chance that happens for ter’s 87-yard TD pass to Ja-
also posting winning re- 8-3, followed by the Jets (7- times since the league the AFC East. It’s more like- rius Wright for the Vikings in
cords, with Miami and Buf- 4) and Patriots (6-5). went to eight divisions in ly both divisions will have 2014. Jacobs finished with
224 yards rushing and two
TDs and 74 yards receiving,
becoming the sixth player
ever to gain at least 300
yards and score multiple
touchdowns from scrim-
mage in a single game,
joining Cloyce Box (1950),
Billy Cannon (1961), Ste-
phone Paige (1985), Priest
Holmes (2002) and Adrian
Peterson (2007).
Jacobs is the only player
since at least 1950 to rush
for at least 225 yards and
have at least 70 yards re-
ceiving in a game.
GO FOR 2
The Chargers and Jaguars
took late-game gambles
that paid off in a big fash-
ion. Los Angeles coach
Brandon Staley and Jack-
sonville coach Doug Ped-
erson both opted to go for
2-point conversions in the
closing seconds when trail-
ing by one.
Both teams delivered,
making this the first week
since the NFL added the
play in 1994 that two teams
won on a 2-point conver-
sion in the final two minutes
of regulation.
The Chargers scored with
15 seconds left and the
Jaguars did it with 14 sec-
onds to play. Before Sun-
day, only two teams in
NFL history had scored on
a game-winning 2-point
conversion in the final 15
seconds, with the Vikings
doing it in 2002 and the
Chargers in 2018. q