8 Amazing Stats from NFL Sunday: Week 17

NFL football is the greatest reality TV program of all time. The Giants and Colts made sure of that back in 1958. Each NFL fall weekend is a completely new and original experience for every player, fan and coach alike. New stories, new personalities, new winners and new losers. And new statistics.

Here are the most important, most intriguing and most bizarre statistics from Week 17 of NFL play:

0-11: Texans record all-time in Indianapolis
The Colts welcomed back head coach Chuck Pagano in style with a physical 28-16 win over the Texans. Houston has now played 11 games in the Midwestern city and has lost every time. This one, however, might be the most costly, as the Texans dropped from the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home field advantage throughout the playoffs to the No. 3 seed and a first round rematch from last year with the Cincinnati Bengals. After starting the year 11-1, Houston enters the postseason having lost three of its last four games — all to playoff teams (New England, Minnesota, Indianapolis). Andrew Luck threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers in the win. He finished his rookie NFL season with a rookie record 4,374 yards, 23 passing touchdowns, 255 yards rushing (second in the AFC by a QB) and five more touchdowns on the ground. Most importantly, the Colts went from 2-14 to 11-5 in one season and will now face the Ravens in the first round of the AFC playoffs. Baltimore has lost four of its last five games and Luck is only beginning his legacy in Indy. 

2,097: Adrian Peterson's No. 2 all-time rushing total
Adrian Peterson simply ran out of time. And that is okay by him and the rest of the Purple People Eaters in the Twin Cities. All-Day Peterson became just the seventh player to rush for 2,000 yards as he fell just nine yards shy of the all-time NFL record set nearly 30 years ago by Eric Dickerson (2,105). But his 199-yard performance carried the Vikings into the postseason in thrilling fashion. In the final seconds, A.D. showed why he is the best running back of this generation as he rumbled 27 yards on his career-high 34th carry of the game one year to the day after his reconstructive knee surgery to set-up the game winning and postseason clinching field goal. I don't care what took place in Green Bay, Denver or New England this season, Adrian Peterson is the Most Valuable Player in the NFL.

6: First- or second-year QBs in the playoffs this year
Andy Dalton, Christian Ponder and Colin Kaepernick are in their second seasons in the NFL and all three have led their team to the postseason. Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson — who finished with a franchise single-season QB rating record of 100.0 — are rookies and have led their teams to the postseason. A lot has been made of this rookie class as no postseason tournament has seen this many rookies, but the second-year guys need to be given just as much credit. Certainly, Ponder had All-Day running the ball for him and Kaepernick didn't even start until midway through the year, but this is already Dalton's second trip to the playoffs, and the 2011 QB class gets overlooked. The last two quarterback classes have been special — and Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Brandon Weeden, Nick Foles and Ryan Tannehill all look like starters next season as well. 

1,613: Alfred Morris franchise single-season rushing record
The Redskins will make the playoffs on the back of its stellar rookie quarterbacks — yes, Kirk Cousins gets plenty of credit for helping Griffin III get Washington back to the postseason. But the star of the NFC East clinching victory over Dallas was the sixth round rookie from FAU Alfred Morris. The first-year back rushed 33 times for 200 yards and three touchdowns to not only clinch a playoff spot but also pass Clinton Portis' single-season Redskins' rushing record. Morris' 1,613 yards rank third all-time by a rookie (Dickerson owns that one too: 1,808 yards in 1983) and he continues Mike Shanahan's legacy of finding workhorse backs late in the draft. He was the 12th running back taken in the 2012 NFL Draft and was the 173rd overall pick.

5: Teams to have made the playoffs after starting 3-6
Speaking of Shanahan, the Skins lost to Carolina at home in ugly fashion in Week 9. Washington was heading into the bye week and the head coach let his feelings fly in the post-game press conference, verbally eliminating his team from postseason play. Since Shanahan's rant, Washington hasn't lost a game and improbably won the NFC East title. Jacksonville (1996), Detroit (1995), New England (1994) and Cincinnati (1970) are the only other teams in NFL history to have started the season with six losses in their first nine games and then gone on to make the playoffs. Griffin III is a transcendent talent whose leadership and maturity is quickly growing into legendary proportions in the greater D.C. area. But this was a team effort all the way and Shanahan — a two-time Super Bowl Champion — deserves a lot of credit for pulling the right strings.

12: Straight combined wins for Seattle and Washington
Two of the three hottest teams in the league will meet in Washington D.C. next weekend when the Seahawks visit the Redskins. Both have coaches who have won multiple championships (in college or the NFL). Both have rookie starting quarterbacks and big, physical running backs. And both are riding winning streaks of at least five games. Seattle has the third longest active streak at five wins in a row after its victory over the pesky Rams. The Redskins have the second-longest active streak with seven straight wins. So something has to give next weekend. And who has the longest active winning streak in the league? That would belong to the AFC's top seeded Denver Broncos as they quietly won their 11th straight game on Sunday. 

727: Matthew Stafford NFL record for passing attempts in a season
In the modern era of the NFL, it's almost shocking that Matthew Stafford became the first player in NFL history to attempt at least 700 passes in a season. He flew past the previous record set by Drew Bledsoe in 1994 of 691 early in the season-ending loss to the Bears. Stafford also sits at No. 4 in the record books with his 663 attempts last season. The huge difference between last year and this for the Lions signal caller? Detroit lost its last eight games to finish 4-12 after what appeared to be a breakthrough 10-win postseason appearance last year. Calvin Johnson, the lone bright spot, finished with five catches for 72 yards to come up just shy of becoming the first player to post 2,000-yards receiving in a single year. He finished his record setting season with an league-leading 122 catches and all-time single-season record 1,964 yards.

4: Titans NFL record return touchdowns against the Jaguars
Neither the Titans of Jaguars fans have had much to cheer about this season. In a bizarre season finale, these two teams combined for eight total touchdowns, only three of which came on offense. Tennessee tied an NFL record with four return touchdowns as Zach Brown returned two interceptions for scores (79 yards, 30 yards) and Darius Reynaud returned two punts for touchdowns (69 yards, 81 yards). No team in the history of the NFL scored four straight touchdowns via the return as the Titans did and only the Seattle Seahawks in 1984 against Kansas City had scored four return touchdowns in a single game. To top it all off, the Jags also scored on a blocked punt returned for a touchdown. The Titans scored 38 points with just 221 yards of total offense.