Goff's perfect night and Daniels' fast start contribute to record pace for completion percentage

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Jared Goff and Jayden Daniels have put up record-breaking performances in recent weeks when it comes to completing passes at a high rate.

They are far from alone as it has never been easier to complete a pass in the NFL in part because the throws are getting shorter and shorter.

Goff completed all 18 passes he threw in Detroit's 42-29 victory over Seattle on Monday night, shattering the record for most passes in a game without an incompletion set in 2005 when Kurt Warner had 10 in a game against Houston before leaving in the second quarter with a knee injury.

According to NextGen stats from Zebra Technologies, the odds that a QB would have completed all of those passes based on the completion probability of each attempt was 0.69%, or 1 in 145.

The performance came a week after Goff completed all 12 passes in the first half against Arizona, making him the first starting QB since at least 1991 to have back-to-back perfect first halves in completion percentage. The only other player in that span to do it was receiver Mohamed Sanu, who was 1 for 1 in Weeks 2 and 3 of the 2014 season for Cincinnati.

The only other pass thrown by the Lions was a touchdown from Amon-Ra St. Brown to Goff — marking the eighth time in NFL history a player threw a TD pass and caught a TD pass from the same teammate in a game, according to Sportradar. It has happened just three other times since 1930: Jacksonville's Blake Bortles and Marquise Lee in 2016, Chicago's Walter Payton and Jim McMahon in 1985 and Detroit's Gary Danielson and James Jones in 1984.

If Goff and St. Brown can do it again they will match the exploits of Eddie Kaw and Benny Boynton who did it twice in a three-week span in 1924 for the Buffalo Bisons.

Daniels' impressive run has gone on longer, as he has completed 82.1% of his passes in the first four games of his rookie season and has led more scoring drives (23) than the number of incomplete passes (19) he has thrown. Daniels has the best completion percentage in a four-game span of any QB since 1950 with at least 100 attempts, topping Peyton Manning's mark of 81.8% in 2008.

There are six other quarterbacks completing at least 70% of their passes so far this season — a mark hit only 15 times in NFL history for an entire season with QBs with at least 350 attempts.

In all, the completion rate of 66.1% this season is on pace to be the best ever, topping the previous high of 65.2% in 2020 thanks in part to the average pass being thrown 7.4 yards downfield — the lowest mark since air yards were first tracked by Sportradar in 2006.

Patrick Mahomes' prolific pace has been unmatched by any other QB in history.

Mahomes made his 100th start on Sunday in Kansas City's 17-10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, extending his own records for production to begin a career.

Mahomes won for the 78th time, threw his 225th career touchdown pass and increased his yardage total to 29,328 — tops in all three categories for any player in his first 100 starts.

The previous highs in those marks since the NFL first tracked quarterback starts in 1950 was 76 wins for Tom Brady and Roger Staubach, 222 TD passes for Aaron Rodgers and 27,980 yards for Matthew Stafford.

Mahomes already joined Brett Favre as the only QBs to win two MVPs at age 27 or younger and is tied with Joe Montana for the second most Super Bowl MVPs with three — two shy of Brady's mark.

Mahomes has gotten this far with an amazing knack at pulling off comebacks. Kansas City overcame a 10-0 hole to beat the Chargers on Sunday for Mahomes' 18th career win in the regular season or playoffs after trailing by double digits. Mahomes is 18-14 (.563) in those scenarios, while all other QBs in the Super Bowl era have a .149 winning percentage with no one else having a winning record with at least 10 tries.

A change of scenery has helped Sam Darnold transform himself from one of the NFL's least effective quarterbacks to one of the best in the opening month of this season.

The No. 3 overall pick by the New York Jets in 2018 had the worst passer rating among 39 quarterbacks with at least 1,000 attempts over his first six seasons. He spent three years as mostly a starter in New York, then had two seasons in Carolina when he started 15 times and then one season spent mostly as a backup in San Francisco.

Darnold then signed a one-year, $10 million deal with Minnesota that looks like a bargain. Darnold leads the NFL with a 118.9 passer rating and 11 TD passes for the undefeated Vikings.

This is just the eighth time in NFL history that a player threw at least two TD passes and had a passer rating of at least 105 in each of the first four games of the season. In five of those previous seven instances, the player ended the season as MVP with Aaron Rodgers winning in 2011 and 2020, Tom Brady in 2007, Peyton Manning in 2013 and Matt Ryan in 2016. Brady also did it in 2015 and Russell Wilson in 2020 without winning MVP.

The New York Giants and Jets drew more than 160,000 fans to their home games in Week 4 and none of them got to see a touchdown for the home team.

The Giants kicked five field goals in a 20-15 loss to Dallas on Thursday night and then the Jets had three field goals in a 10-9 loss to Denver on Sunday.

This was the 57th time both the Giants and Jets were home in the same week since the Jets moved to the Meadowlands in 1984. This was the only time in those weeks that neither New York team scored a touchdown, with the previous low being one TD in Week 3 of the 2022 season when the Giants scored one TD in a 23-16 loss to the Cowboys and the Jets kicked four field goals in a 27-12 loss to Cincinnati.

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

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) walks off the field after playing against the Dallas Cowboys in an NFL football game, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) is sacked by Denver Broncos defensive end Zach Allen (99) during the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold (14) looks to throw a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes throws during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, left, leaps into the end zone for a touchdown as Arizona Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson (34) defends during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) throws under pressure from Arizona Cardinals defensive end L.J. Collier (91) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, left, celebrates his rushing touchdown with teammate Amon-Ra St. Brown, who threw to Goff, during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) passes during the first half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched ground operations and carried out airstrikes in a hard-hit city in southern Gaza overnight, killing at least 51 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday.

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets across Gaza nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack ignited the war in the Palestinian territory, and even as attention has shifted to Lebanon and Iran. Israeli ground troops have carried out incursions into Lebanon against Hezbollah, and Tehran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles on Israel late Tuesday.

The escalation on multiple fronts has raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East that could draw in Iran — which backs Hezbollah and Hamas — as well as the United States, which has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.

Hezbollah, widely seen as the most powerful armed group in the region, said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in two places inside Lebanon near the border. The Israeli military said ground forces backed by airstrikes had killed militants in “close-range engagements” without saying where.

The military also announced its first combat death since the start of the latest operations, saying a 22-year-old captain in a commando brigade had been killed in combat in Lebanon.

The Israeli military has warned people in around 50 villages and towns to evacuate. Hundreds of thousands have already fled their homes as the conflict has intensified.

Meanwhile, Israel lashed out at the United Nations on Wednesday, declaring Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata, or banned from entering the country. Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused him of failing to unequivocally condemn the Iranian attack.

Guterres had released a brief statement after the barrage that read: “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict, with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a cease-fire.”

The move deepens an already wide rift between Israel and the United Nations.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said at least 51 people were killed and 82 wounded in the operation in Khan Younis that began early Wednesday. Records at the European Hospital show that seven women and 12 children, as young as 22 months old, were among those killed.

Another 23 people, including two children, were killed in separate strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Residents said Israel had carried out heavy airstrikes as its ground forces staged an incursion into three neighborhoods in Khan Younis. Mahmoud al-Razd, who had four relatives among those killed, described heavy destruction and said first responders had struggled to reach destroyed homes.

“The explosions and shelling were massive,” he told The Associated Press. “Many people are thought to be under the rubble, and no one can retrieve them.”

Israel carried out a weekslong offensive earlier this year in Khan Younis that left much of Gaza's second largest city in ruins. Over the course of the war, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to areas of Gaza as militants have regrouped.

On Oct. 7, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage. Some 100 have not yet been released, around 65 of whom are believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but says a little more than half were women and children. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for a series of devastating blows Israel has landed in recent weeks against Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began in solidarity with Hamas.

Israelis scrambled for bomb shelters as air raid sirens sounded and the orange glow of missiles streaked across the night sky.

The Israeli military said it intercepted many of the incoming Iranian missiles, though some landed in central and southern Israel and two people were lightly wounded by shrapnel.

Several missiles landed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where one of them killed a Palestinian worker from Gaza who had been stranded in the territory since the war broke out.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate, saying Iran “made a big mistake tonight and it will pay for it.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of Israel and that he’s discussing with aides what the appropriate response should be.

Iran said it would respond to any violation of its sovereignty with even heavier strikes on Israeli infrastructure.

Iran said it fired Tuesday’s missiles as retaliation for attacks that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and its own paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It referenced Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, both killed in an Israeli airstrike last week in Beirut. It also mentioned Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader in Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran in a suspected Israeli attack in July.

Israeli media reported infantry and tank units operating in southern Lebanon after the military sent thousands of additional troops and artillery to the border. Israeli airstrikes and artillery have been pounding southern Lebanon as Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets, missiles and drones into Israel, where there have been few casualties.

The Lebanese army said Israeli forces had advanced some 400 meters (yards) across the border and withdrew “after a short period,” its first confirmation of the incursion.

Israel has said it will continue to strike Hezbollah until it is safe for tens of thousands of its citizens displaced from homes near the Lebanon border to return. Hezbollah has vowed to keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza with Hamas.

Israel has warned people in southern Lebanon to evacuate to the north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war. The border region has largely emptied out over the past year as the two sides have traded fire.

Israeli strikes have killed over 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past two weeks, nearly a quarter of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Palestinians mourn for relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn for relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn for relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian woman mourns a child killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn for relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Flames rise from an apartment which caught fire after an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Civil defense firefighters try to extinguish the fire on an apartment following an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Civil Defense remove debris from a destroyed complex hit in Israeli airstrikes in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man takes pictures by his mobile phone of a destroyed building hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man passes in front of a destroyed building that hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from a destroyed resident complex hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Workers remove broken glass from a damaged building that was hit during Iran's missile attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A woman looks from a damaged building that was hit during Iran's missile attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Broken wine glasses are seen in a damaged restaurant that was hit during Iran's missile attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man takes pictures with his mobile phone of a destroyed resident complex where he lives that hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises a neighborhood that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises from neighbourhoods hit by Israeli airstrikes in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese soldiers stand in front of an apartment which caught fire after an Israeli airstrike in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli soldier covered in a prayer shawl prays at a mobile artillery position in northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A Middle East Airlines airplane flies over Beirut as smoke rises from Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

An Israeli tank maneuvers in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

People take cover on the side of a road as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran on a freeway in Shoresh, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A cleric clenches his fist as he celebrates Iran's missile strike against Israel in an anti-Israeli gathering at Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israelis take cover as projectiles launched from Iran are being intercepted in the skies over in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)