Analysis: NFL is still a passing league despite early rise in running

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Analysis: NFL is still a passing league despite early rise in running

2024-09-27 18:10 Last Updated At：19:32

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The NFL isn’t going back to old-school, smashmouth running football.

Even though rushing yards are up and passing numbers are down over the first three weeks of the season, it’s too soon to call it a new trend.

“It’s still early with the sample size,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “But it is something that we looked into because it is noticeable, and it is a really big difference. But we’ll continue to monitor that and what we are trying to do, though, is be efficient on offense. Hit your explosive plays. Take care of the football. Those things will never change. Not give up sacks.”

NFL teams are averaging 119.5 yards rushing per game, up from 112.7 last season. But the league average was 121.6 yards per game in 2022. Teams actually aren’t running more; they’re just having more success. Average rushing attempts per team per game this season going into Week 4 is 26.9 vs. 26.8 last year.

Twenty players are on pace for 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Twelve players accomplished that feat in 2023, down from 16 in 2022. There were only seven in 2021, the first year the NFL went to 17 games in the regular season.

Five teams are averaging 150 yards rushing per game and 13 are averaging 125. Only the Baltimore Ravens were above 150 in 2023 and nine teams averaged 125.

One reason why running backs are having better success is that more defenses are geared toward stopping the pass. They use lighter, more athletic linebackers and play two-high safeties. Offenses can be physical against those defensive sets and attack on the ground.

“You always try to keep defenses honest and they’re doing the same thing back to you, so it’s a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game on the number of people in the box,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “It’s (the run game) been productive, so we’ve got good, positive yards from it.”

Even with Patrick Mahomes under center, Kansas City is only 12th in passing and 15th in rushing this season.

Overall, teams are averaging 201.2 yards passing per game, down from 218.9 last year. It’s the fewest yards since 2003 when the season average was 200.4.

Seventeen teams are averaging 200 yards passing per game, down from 22 last season. Ten teams are averaging 225, down from 16 last year. Only the Cowboys and 49ers are above 250 yards per game. Five teams reached that total last season.

Once defenses adjust and start to take away the run again, passing yards should increase.

“I do think that the sample size is small right now but there’s been a shift,” Titans coach Brian Callahan said of the run-pass ratio. “I think statistically, as you look at it, teams are more intently running the football than maybe they were two years ago. So yeah, I think you’re seeing a slight shift in process because it’s hard to throw the ball all over the place against some of these defenses and how they play, and they make you earn it and they put a lot on the quarterback to be able to complete seven, eight balls a drive for six to nine drives a game.

“We all understand the philosophy of what that means, and so I think the run game is something that is probably more in vogue now at this early part of the season than it was the last couple of years. I think the numbers would bear that out.”

Another reason why passing numbers are down beyond defensive strategy is the inexperience of quarterbacks. The average age of starting QBs in Week 1 was 27.6, the youngest during the Super Bowl era. In 2020, the average age was 29.5. Since then, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger have retired.

Plus, injuries may have contributed to the decline in passing so far. Miami's Tua Tagovailoa, who led the NFL in yards passing, has missed one start. Green Bay's Jordan Love has missed two games. Pittsburgh's Russell Wilson hasn't played.

NFL teams are paying quarterbacks a ton of money — Dak Prescott makes $60 million per season with Dallas and 15 others are earning at least $40 million — to win games throwing the football. Wide receivers are getting paid — 22 are earning at least $20 million per season — to catch passes and make big plays. It's a passing league.

The numbers will increase. It’s just a matter of time.

Prescott (221) and Daniel Jones (281 yards) combined for 502 yards passing on Thursday night in the Cowboys’ 20-15 win over the Giants. The two teams totaled 106 yards rushing.

It's already started to turn around.

AP Pro Football Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed to this report.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

From T-shirts to thongs, how indie film merchandise became a hot commodity

2024-11-29 22:49 Last Updated At：22:51

LOS ANGELES (AP) — On a recent Saturday afternoon, hundreds of “Anora” fans lined up for hours on Los Angeles' Melrose Avenue, hoping to snag exclusive merchandise inspired by Sean Baker’s latest film about a stripper who marries the son of a Russian oligarch.

The one-day-only pop-up from distributor Neon followed the success of a similar event in New York, hosted at the strip club at which the winner of the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was filmed.

Elated film buffs — many already wearing clothes inspired by movies like fellow Cannes hit “The Substance” and the Nicolas Cage horror flick, “Longlegs” — relished the fruits of their labor at the front of the line, admiring their T-shirt and thong underwear purchases.

“Exclusive is a buzzword, but it really is. It’s an exclusive event because we all waited in line,” said Nathan Zakim, who arrived at 10 a.m. for the 3 p.m. pop-up. “We all saw the movie. I think the movie merch mania should go on for as long as it can.”

Movie-themed merchandise is nothing new. Who can forget the iconic “Vote for Pedro” T-shirt from “Napoleon Dynamite” that was seemingly everywhere in the early aughts?

But in recent years, movie-inspired streetwear has exploded in popularity among film lovers, thanks in part to viral marketing campaigns put on by independent film studios. The result is clothing, often made in collaboration with popular brands, promoted as trendy and in limited supply.

“Being this film buff type of person, I buy Blu-rays, I buy 4Ks. And that’s not something that you can just pop out to someone and be like, ‘I have this Criterion,’” said Natanael Avilez, who drove more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) for the “Anora” pop up. “Merch is the second-best option of saying like, ‘I do love movies and this is the way to express that.’”

T-shirts are by far the most common form of merch, be it for Neon's Oscar-winning “Parasite” (2019) or, more recently, A24's “We Live in Time,” with the infamous carousel horse emblazoned across the front.

Some films, however, lend themselves to a more thematic marketing approach.

“First Reformed” fans flocked to the sold-out denim hat featured in Paul Schrader's 2017 film about a pastor's descent into despair over the environment. The J. Hannah gold locket inspired by Sofia Coppola's “Priscilla” (2023) is still on the market for $1,480.

One catalyst in the trend’s rise can be traced to 2018, when the clothing brand Online Ceramics and A24 joined forces. The brand, founded by artists Elijah Funk and Alix Ross, began with the idea of making bootleg T-shirts inspired by the Grateful Dead. Ross recounted two serendipitous moments in the company’s history: One was watching Pete Davidson wearing a “Good Time” T-shirt on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” in 2018.

“I was really jealous that we didn’t make that,” Ross recalled of Davidson’s shirt, adorned with a poster image of Robert Pattinson and co-director Benny Safdie.

The other was knowing, after just seeing the trailer, that Online Ceramics had to make “Hereditary” T-shirts — with or without A24’s permission. Thanks to a mutual friend, they managed to get in touch with the studio just before the film’s release and got A24's stamp of approval.

Hopeful online shoppers today will be disappointed as they scroll through dozens of Online Ceramics x A24 items, inspired by films like “MaXXXine,” “Midsommar” and “Love Lies Bleeding,” only to find each one sold out.

Watching movies — following a pandemic and the rise of streaming — has become less of a collective experience in recent years. For many fans, repping their favorite films in public is a way to combat that.

“It’s so fun knowing that everyone loves the movie so much to go stand in line for multiple hours. I got here three hours before it even opened and there’s probably, like, 30 people in front of me,” said Sabrina Bratt. “Physical keepsakes are just so cute and fun.”

For studios, the benefit is multifaceted. Not only is it an additional revenue source in a time of slowed production in Hollywood, it also is a way to engage with the fans that help keep their films in the zeitgeist long after they leave the theater.

“People, and particularly younger people, they want to be a part of something. And wearing a shirt for a movie is no different to wearing a shirt for the band that you just went to see. There’s a cachet to it. There’s a value to it. It’s a sign of who I am,” said Neon Chief Marketing Officer Christian Parkes.

Alex Ng is the co-founder and creative director of the Los Angeles-based brand Brain Dead, which also owns a movie theater on Fairfax Avenue. As the film industry continues to evolve out of necessity, Ng contends this intersection of fashion and film will play an increasingly important role in Hollywood.

“What people want is like a token or a souvenir. They go to Disneyland and they get a Mickey, right? So, if you go to an arthouse cinema, there’s not a lot of things or souvenirs you could take away from a film that you love,” he said. “I want to connect those pieces. And I think that’s the new era that we’re seeing as a movie-going experience.”

As the demand has grown for merchandise, studios and brands have sought to take advantage for films old and new.

Searchlight Pictures recently released a handful of products to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Alexander Payne’s buddy comedy for oenophiles, “Sideways,” including tees, hats and, of course, wine keys.

Brain Dead has done a handful of movie collaborations with studios like A24, Focus Features and, more recently, MUBI and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.

Some products are odes to cult classics, like “Being John Malkovich” and “The Big Lebowski,” while others commemorate newer releases. Within days of announcing a limited-edition, long-sleeve shirt for “The Substance” — complete with a 30-day trial for MUBI — Brain Dead had sold out of the product online.

Although Ng bristles at the idea of “hype,” arguing it suggests something’s popularity isn’t sincere, he appreciates the ways in which demand for movie merchandise has grown: “I think when we can speak to someone who loves films in that, that’s really cool to me.”

Ross, too, is ambivalent about how popular merch has become.

“I cringe at seeing how many movie companies are trying to rip off what we did,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s just kind of like, ‘Damn.’ Like I can’t believe it got to this point.”