Lamar Jackson’s Ravens Are Unbelievable (and Roger Ayers Is the Hardest Working Ref in Basketball)
Stats of the Week Nov. 19–25
Every week, Connor Groel shares the most fun and impressive sports statistics he’s seen over the past seven days. Share anything unbelievable you find @ConnorGroel on Twitter and enjoy your regular dose of digit-based deliciousness.
There’s a reason why, for the purposes of my stats of the week column, I decided to end my weeks on Mondays and publish late on Monday nights.
Ending the week on Saturday or Sunday, as most of the world does, would either move the NFL to the beginning of the week, making its stats largely outdated by the time my piece comes out, or separate Monday Night Football from the rest of the NFL week.
In my opinion, the sports week ends with Monday Night Football, and by holding out until that final game has been completed, we’re given the opportunity to close things out with a bang.
Tonight certainly didn’t disappoint.
Traveling across the country to Los Angeles, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens put on a near-perfect display against a Rams team that looks less and less like the team that made the Super Bowl last season and more and more like one destined to miss the playoffs in 2019.
The Ravens scored touchdowns on each of their first six(!) drives and still managed a field goal on their seventh, en route to a dominating 45–6 victory. And as you would expect from such a performance, it didn’t take long for the stats to start rolling in.
Let’s begin with their margin of victory — 39 points, following a 34-point win over the Texans just last week.
Throw in the Week 10’s 49–13 win in Cincinnati, and the 2019 Ravens have now won three consecutive games by 34+, the first time that’s happened in the Super Bowl era.
Add the team’s 59–10 victory over the Dolphins during Week 1, and the Ravens have now won four games this season by at least 34 points. Not to mention, they’re also the only team to beat the Patriots, and they did so by 17.
Jackson threw for five touchdowns against the Rams, but, as usual, the team’s dominance started with their run attack. The Ravens entered the game averaging 203.1 yards per game on the ground, more than 50 more than the next-best 49ers (145.6yds/game), and only grew that lead with a 285-yard ground performance.
Every single non-kneel rushing attempt went for positive yardage.
Jackson has now rushed for 876 yards on the season, putting him on pace for 1,274 yards for the season, which would break Michael Vick’s single-season rushing record for a quarterback by over 200 yards.
Jackson has been phenomenal — that much is obvious. But he’s not the only quarterback setting records. Fellow MVP candidate Russell Wilson just became the first QB to lead his team to a winning record in each of his first eight seasons.
The Bucs haven’t seen the playoffs in any of those years, but despite yet another difficult season, Mike Evans just became only the second wide receiver in league history to record 1,000 receiving yards in each of their first six seasons. The other? Randy Moss.
And another Bucs “receiver” made history this week. Everyone loves big man touchdowns, and Vita Vea became the heaviest man to ever catch a TD pass in the league.
To close out the NFL segment, the Redksins have won their second of the season and first in six weeks. You could’ve gone to the game for less than half the price of a stadium beer.
But, of course, why would you? The Redskins are one of the poorest-run organizations in sports and are hemorrhaging fans, even locally.
In the NBA, the big story remains Luka Doncic, the 20-year old superstar (just a day older than me!) who is averaging right around a 30-point triple-double for a Mavericks team that has surprised many with an 11–5 start to the season.
This week, he casually dropped a 40-point, 10-assist game against the Rockets.
He also outscored, outrebounded, and out-assisted the Warriors during the first quarter of a game the Mavs would win by 48.
They would win their following game against the Cavs by 42 for a two-game stretch where the Mavs outscored opponents by 90 points. Those games came as part of a still-active streak of four games in a row with 30 points and 10 assists.
A pair of Rockets are on that list, but it’s another Rocket that shines this week. Clint Capela had a streak of five-straight 20-rebound games, one that would still be active at seven games if not for a 19-rebound performance against the Clippers.
It’s a new-look Western Conference, one where all the teams that seem to have performed well in recent years now find themselves at the bottom of the barrel.
But in a time of change, one man is still going strong — LeBron James, who became the first player to record a triple-double against every team in the league.
Russell Westbrook has done so against everyone but his former team, the Thunder. In his first chance to record a triple-double against OKC, which came a few weeks before LeBron’s feat, he fell just one assist shy.
We close out the recap with college basketball — my favorite sport, and one that’s already produced its fair share of big games, upsets, and statistical marvels.
Interestingly, though, we started the week off with a day where every favorite won.
This week, Merrimack College, D-I’s newest school, made a statement that it belongs in the top ranks.
The South Florida women put on a defensive display of their own, this time against a fellow D-I program.
In the college game, positionless basketball has taken on a whole new meaning.
And ESPN interns occasionally get stuck counting every time a mascot flaps its wings during an entire game.
But instead of talking about the usual — players and coaches — I want to give a shoutout to a referee. Beginning with the Duke-Kansas game during the opening night Champions Classic, Roger Ayers has called a game every single day this season.
It appeared Ayers’ streak would finally end on Sunday, following a night game in Richmond, Virginia. However, Ayers shocked everybody by flying cross-country to do the TCU-Clemson game in Las Vegas as part of the MGM Resorts Main Event.
It marked Ayers’ 20th game in his 14th unique state this season.
Why not add a 21st straight game in a 15th state? Tonight, Ayers was in Kansas City, Missouri for the Stanford-Oklahoma game in the Hall of Fame Classic.
The man just never stops, and he’s making bank along the way.
Oh, and he just happens to be arguably the best ref in college basketball as well.
Respect.
Connor Groel is a writer who studies sport management at the University of Texas at Austin. He also serves as editor of the Top Level Sports publication on Medium, and the host of the Connor Groel Sports podcast. You can follow Connor on Medium, Facebook, and Twitter, and view his archives at toplevelsports.net.
