National Football League

Struggling NFL offenses lead to lowest-scoring week since 2014

Published Oct. 18, 2023 10:54 a.m. ET

The NFL hadn't experienced a week of inept offenses like it did this past weekend in nearly a decade.

With superstar quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen unable to generate even 20 points in their games, top defenses for the Browns and the Jets shutting down high-powered attacks from the 49ers and the Eagles and young QBs struggling across the league, the NFL had its lowest-scoring week since 2014.

Teams across the league scored an average of just 18.4 points in Week 6 for the lowest-scoring week in the NFL since Week 15 of the 2014 season, when teams averaged 18.2 points.

Only two teams — the Dolphins and Jaguars — scored at least 27 points for the fewest in any week since the 1995 season. The 23 teams held to 20 points or fewer were the most in any week ever in the NFL.

Mahomes and the Chiefs scored only 19 points in a win over the Broncos for his second victory this season without scoring 20 points. Mahomes won only three starts without Kansas City scoring at least 20 points in his first five seasons as a starter.

The Bills beat the Giants 14-9 to tie for their fewest points in a win since Allen's rookie season in 2018.

Eight other teams won last week without scoring more than 21 points, including the Browns in a 19-17 win over the 49ers and Jets in a 20-14 victory over the Eagles. The 10 winning teams that scored 21 points or fewer were tied for the most in any week. That last happened in Week 13 of the 1993 season.

Poor passing production was the biggest culprit as teams across the league combined for a passer rating of 78.6 — the lowest in any week since Week 14 of the 2016 season (77.5).

Surprising leaders

The 1972 Dolphins got to celebrate their annual tradition — a season's lack of undefeated teams — a little earlier than usual.

San Francisco lost to Cleveland and backup quarterback P.J. Walker and Philadelphia fell to the New York Jets and backup QB Zach Wilson, marking the first time since 2017 that every team lost at least once in the first six weeks.

According to the NFL, it was the first time since QB starts began being tracked in 1950 that two teams 5-0 or better lost to backup quarterbacks in the same week.

The losses by the Eagles and Niners put them in a tie with Kansas City, Miami and Detroit for the best record in the NFL at 5-1.

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This is the first time since Week 11 of the 1993 season that the Lions have at least a share of the best record in the NFL this late in the season. They were one of five teams tied at 7-2 that season before finishing 10-6.

Marvelous Miami

While most offenses are struggling, the Dolphins still rolling at an incredible clip after beating the Panthers 42-21 to give them 223 points on the season.

Only five teams in NFL history have scored more in the first six games, with the 2013 Broncos (265 points) the last to do it.

The Dolphins have done it through the air and on the ground, joining the 1958 NFL champion Colts as the only teams to have at least 15 TD runs and passes in the first six games of a season.

Raheem Mostert has scored 11 of those TDs, becoming the eighth player in the Super Bowl era to score that many in his team's first six games. Mostert has scored more touchdowns by himself than 11 teams have this season.

Tyreek Hill has 814 yards receiving this season for the second most ever at this point of the season behind Don Hutson's 819 in 1942.

New yuck

Perhaps no team has struggled to score as much as the Giants, as evidenced by their 14-9 loss to Buffalo last week that featured drives ending on the 1-yard line in each half.

New York became the third team in the last 13 seasons to go three straight games without an offensive touchdown. This is just the second time in the Super Bowl era the Giants have done that, with the team going four straight games without an offensive touchdown in 1976.

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New York's two TD passes are the fewest through six games since the 2009 Raiders had two with JaMarcus Russell at quarterback, and the Giants are the first team since 1998 to score no offensive touchdowns in the first half of the first six games.

New York came close Sunday night, driving down to the 1 in the closing seconds of the first before getting stopped on a running play and letting the clock run out. The game ended with the Giants throwing an incomplete pass on an untimed down from the 1.

It was the first time a team reached the 1 on two drives without scoring on either since the Broncos did it in the 2022 opener at Seattle last season. Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams both lost fumbles to end those drives.

Turnaround team

The Bills managed to win that game against New York despite being held scoreless in the first three quarters.

It was the second time this season a team got shut out at home in the first three quarters and came back to win, with the Packers doing it in an 18-17 victory over the Saints in Week 3.

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That hadn't happened once in the previous 10 seasons.

The last time the Bills won a home game after being held scoreless in the first three quarters came during a replacement player game in 1987 when they beat the Giants 6-3.

Reporting by The Associated Press.