NFL Offenses Off to Historic Start 3 Weeks Into Season

Through three weeks, teams have combined for 51 points per game

NFL Offenses Off to Historic Start 3 Weeks Into Season
Josh Allen of the Bills celebrates his team's touchdown against the Rams in Week 3.
Getty Images

If you are going to place a wager on the NFL this week like 33 million Americans planned to do before the start of the season, consider taking the over.

Three weeks into a 2020 campaign that kicked off without any preseason games being played due to COVID-19, teams in the NFL are combining for 51 points and 738.2 yards per game, both high marks for this point of a season. Quarterbacks are also combining for a 96.3 passer rating, another high.

One reason scoring is up is because penalties on offense are way down. Teams have been penalized 283 times on offense this season, down from 443 at the same point last year, according to The Associated Press.

Another reason is, due to the lack of crowd noise in stadiums, quarterbacks do not have to rely on silent snap counts to communicate with their offensive line, leading to better protection and more time to throw.

Quarterbacks like Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes have all had great starts to the season, but no one has been hotter than Seattle QB Russell Wilson to start the year.

Entering Week 4, Wilson has back-to-back games with five TD passes and has set a record with 14 through three games, breaking the record Mahomes set in 2018.

“He’s just on it,” said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. “You’re watching a great football player do what he does best. I’m just really excited about what happens next time we go out.”

The high for points scored in an NFL season was 11,987 in 2013. Through the first three weeks that year, teams put up 2,171 points. Through three weeks this year 2,446 points have already been scored, according to Axios.

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