TODAY’S SPORTSTAT — In the NFL, fast starts pay off

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By JERRY TAPP

The Green Bay Packers scored 17 points in the first quarter of their August 16 preseason game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers (a game the Pack eventually won, 51-34).

Scoring 17 or more points in the first quarter of an NFL game is usually a good sign, especially in a regular season contest. Here are six stats you may not know about NFL teams that score 17 or more points in the first quarter of an NFL regular season game (for the sake of this article, the stats reflect regular season games in the Super Bowl era… 1966-2017).

  1. NFL teams are 310-43-1 (a .877 winning percentage) in regular season games where they scored 17 or more points in the first quarter.
  2. The Denver Broncos have scored 17 or more points in the first quarter of an NFL regular season game 24 times since 1966, most in the league. They are followed by Cincinnati (18), Dallas and Kansas City (17 each) and Miami (16). Fewest games with 17 or more points in the first quarter are the Houston Texans with only two. Baltimore and Tampa Bay are next with three each; Jacksonville follows with five.
  3. Seven teams are undefeated in regular season games when they score 17 or more points in the first quarter: San Francisco, 14-0; Minnesota and the New York Giants, 12-0; San Diego 7-0; New Orleans, 6-0; Baltimore, 3-0; and Houston, 2-0. Only one team does not have a winning record in such games… Cleveland is at .500 with a 3-3 record.
  4. The Green Bay Packers are 12-1 (.923 winning percentage) in regular season games since 1966 when they tally 17 or more points in the first quarter.
  5. The team with the most losses when they score 17 or more points in the first quarter are the Detroit Lions with five.
  6. NFL teams are a perfect 17-0 in playoff games in the Super Bowl era when they can put 17 or more points on the board in the first quarter.

Follow Jerry on Twitter @StatsonTapp

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About The Author

Jerry Tapp is a freelance writer from Racine, WI with a major concentration on sports statistics and numbers that define sports teams and players. He began his foray into sports stats-focused writing as a regular contributor to the “Numbers” column in Inside Sports magazine in the mid-1980’s and then began writing a weekly “Stats on Tapp” column for the Racine Journal Times. That column was eventually nationally syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. He later wrote sports stats items for the Washington Post under the “Stat of the Day” heading. After launching his blog, www.statsontapp.com in 2011, Jerry turned his sports stats attention to sports websites. He wrote regularly for Bleacher Report, BallHyped, football.com and Heavy.com. Today he keeps busy writing weekly columns of stats-centric articles for three sports websites, Today’s Pigskin (NFL), Today’s Knuckleball (MLB) and Today’s Fastbreak (NBA), and as a monthly contributor to the Milwaukee Brewers “GameDay” publication that is distributed to fans attending games at Miller Park.