Week 8 Score Report: Over The Edge, Off The Cliff, and TILT!!!

Let's start with the 600-pound gorilla in the room.  New York Giants vs. New Orleans Saints.

• The 101 total points in the game represent only the 3rd NFL game (there was 1 AAFC century-game and 1 AFL contest) since 1940 (Pro Football Reference - be careful for required surveys!), the 2nd since 1966, and the first since 2004 that a professional football contest broke the 100-point barrier.  The NFL and pro football record is a 72-41 win by Washington over the Giants on November 27, 1966, for a total of 113.

So that skews the numbers a bit, and here they are:

• Weekly per game average:  46.57 PPG, of which an entire touchdown of that was the 101 point game.  There were three games which didn't break 30, and two more didn't make 40.  (49 1/3 PPG for Week 8 last year.)
• 8 week per game average:  46.597 PPG (Last year:  46.653)
• Home teams 8-5 for the week, 69-47 for the season.  (.595)  (Last year:  9-5 and 74-44-1 (.627))
• Over was 7-7 for the week, 60-54-5 to 60-58-1 for the year.  (7-8 and about the same range of percentage (62-58-1 to 56-57-8) last year)
• Favorites started the week 4-1...  and then cratered.  Green Bay's exposition as frauds helped favorites fall to 6-6-2 (one game went a pick, one pushed) for the week.   Vegas is loving chalk bettors this year:  50-59-10.  (A one-unit bettor on every one of the favorites of the 119 games played would now be -13 1/2 units!)
• Penalties for the week:   194, about the same number as the last two weeks.
• Cliffhangers...  Cliffhangers...  WOW...  Try six of them, and three of them had multiples.  Overtime field-goal for Tampa to win, field goal for Seattle to win at 1:06.
• There were FOUR games this week that had field goals at the regulation gun!  Baltimore beat San Diego with it.
• And three of the four had multiple scores in the last two minutes or overtime.  The 52-49 win for New Orleans had New Orleans score 10 points in the last 36 seconds (aided by a three and out, two Giant timeouts, and a 15 yard face-mask on the punt return to set the field goal at the gun -- that wasn't rigged...  NAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!).  Minnesota scored 10 in the last 1:49 including a winning field goal at the gun.  And the Monday nighter was a QUADRUPLE CLIFFHANGER:  Field goal at the gun to send the game to overtime for Indianapolis, and then the maximum three field goals in overtime to get Carolina to the spot of NFC favorite and 7-0.  $Cam Newton Lives!
• It's gotten so ridiculous with the Cliffhangers, I'm giving them a Special Report.
• Only two other games were competitive in the 4th quarter and only one of those was decided by one score.
• So this means Cliffhangers are now 29/119 (24.37%)  (Last year also had six cliffhangers for the week, 26/121 for the year (21.49%))
• Games decided by one score:  62/119 (52.1%)  (Last year 41.32%)
• Games within one score at some point in the 4th quarter:  80/119 (67.22%, getting close to the 68% average from two years ago)  (Last year 63.64%)