Nothing is as cool in a game as a long time-eating drive that results in a touchdown. It can be demoralizing to the opponent and tire out their defense.
The 49ers had were the top team in the 2021 regular season for number of drives that traversed the full field starting at the 25 yard line or back and achieved a touchdown.They had 32 such drives in the regular season and the league average was 22 drives. The 49ers were tops in net yards per pass attempts at 7.7 yards per attempt. San Francisco had the longest drive time-wise of the season in a game against the Jaguars on Nov 21. They started on their own 11 yard line and drove down to the Jaguars 2 yard line before settling for a field goal. The drive took 13 minutes and 5 seconds. It consisted of 6 pass plays and 13 run plays.It was the first drive of the game and took almost the whole first quarter. They also had the second longest drive against the Rams the week before. That drive was 5 pass plays and 13 run plays and took 11 minutes and 3 seconds. It started on their own 7 yard line and resulted in a touchdown.
San Francisco rookie running back Elijah Mitchell was a key part of the 49ers success on running play. The sixth round draft pick stepped up big time when injuries depleted the running back corp. The team went 6-1 when Mitchell rushed for more than 75 yards in a game. Mitchell averaged 4.7 yards per rush attempt. He was extremely efficient on 1st downs averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
However the Packers were the top team in the percentage of drives that started at the 25 yard line or back that resulted in a touchdown. The Packers had a touchdown on 27% of those drives for 30 touchdown drives, The league average was 19%. The Packers were tops in the average time of their offensive drives. taking 3 1/4 minutes.
Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers was the top quarterback in passer rating, TD%, Int% and adjusted net yards per pass attempt. He was also helped by receiver Davante Adams. The Packers had the lowest drop % in the league. Adams had the second most receiving yards per game with 97 in 2021. It will be interesting to see how Rodgers does in 2022 since Adams has moved on to the Raiders.
The Bengals were the top AFC team in number of drives starting at the 25 yard line or back that resulted in a touchdown.They had 29 drives. Bengal quarterback Joe Burrow had the top On Target % in the league with 82.8% and the lowest Bad throw % at 10.7%. Burrow had the second highest completed air yards per pass attempt and the second highest yards after the catch per completion. He had the highest completion percentage at 70% and the second highest passer rating. Burrow led the league in yards per pass attempt.
Bengals rookie receiver Ja’Maar Chase was second in the league in yards per reception (18.0) and yards per target (11.4). Bengal running back Joe Mixon had the
If you draw a line at drives that took half a quarter (7:30) the top teams with 7 such drives are the Bears, Lions, Colts and Chiefs. The Chiefs had the most of those result in a touchdown with six.The Colts and Lions had none of those 7 drives result in a touchdown. The Bears had three.
With less than three weeks to go till the 2022 season kicks off with the Hall Of Fame Game, it should not be long before we could be watching some 2022 long drives!
