Numbers, Revisited

Back in April I suggested that Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, who decided not to play baseball for the Oakland A's because he thought a football contract was worth more money, should pay special attention to the number 3.2. That number is how many times per game the Arizona Cardinals, who drafted Murray, let their quarterback be sacked during the 2018 season.

Well the official 2019 season of National Football League play has begun, and in the first week the Cardinals hosted the Detroit Lions. The Lions were in the middle of league rankings when it came to sacks with 41 on the season for an average of 2.5 per game. Probably a good opponent against whom Mr. Murray could begin to adjust to the greater speed and size of NFL defensive players compared to those in college.

But both 3.2 and 2.5 proved to have no bearing on the 27-27 tie between the Cardinals and Lions, as Murray was sacked once by linebacker Christian Jones (6'3", 250 lbs), once by linebacker Jahlani Tavai (6'2", 250 lbs) and three times by linebacker Devon Kennard (6'3", 256 lbs) for a total of five knockdowns. This one game supplied almost one-sixth of Kennard's career sack total of 19.5. For context, the A's also played Detroit on Sunday, notching a 3-1 win over the Tigers in a game in which not a single Oakland player was knocked flat on his can by a 250-lb man moving at 17 mph.

A 100-count bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol runs for about 11 bucks according to Walmart's website set to Phoenix zip codes. For reference.

(And I am now sad, since the original post was one of those linked to by the late Charles Hill of Dustbury who added his own witty $0.02, but who will do so from now on at a URL we who remain cannot yet read.)