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https://www.footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2021/trevon-diggs-pursuit-history
The following on Diggs, plus he looks at pass-drop rates (the Cowboys are second-lowest).
Trevon Diggs is chasing a ghost named Tom Morrow.
Morrow holds the all-time NFL-AFL-AAFC record with at least one interception in eight consecutive games. Diggs can tie that record when the Dallas Cowboys face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night. Morrow is also one of five defenders, all of them from the early days of the AFL, to record eight interceptions in the first seven games of the season. Diggs will tie that mark if he can intercept a pass in his next game.
Morrow is a hard player to track down. He recorded 23 interceptions for the Oakland Raiders from 1962 through 1964. He also punted as a rookie. He was a standout for a Southern Mississippi team that went undefeated in 1958. He set the consecutive interception record with picks in the final four games of the 1963 season and the first four games of the 1964 season. He then suffered some sort of career-ending injury and retired to an auto dealership. He passed away in 2018. That was all I could find without tunneling deep into newspaper archives, which is the sort of thing I only have time for in May through July. Morrow is a ghostly shadow in the attic of pro football history.
Here's a list of the other defenders who recorded eight interceptions through the first seven games of a season:
Interestingly, many of these big-interception seasons came early in the defenders' careers. Morrow, like Diggs, was in his second pro season. Gonsoulin and Jaquess were rookies. The logic is easy to follow: young cornerback gets picked on to start the season, grabs some interceptions while getting targeted frequently, then sees his opportunities decrease after he establishes his reputation. It's a little surprising to see such a pattern in the early 1960s AFL, but another variable may have been at work back then.
Read the rest: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2021/trevon-diggs-pursuit-history
The following on Diggs, plus he looks at pass-drop rates (the Cowboys are second-lowest).
Trevon Diggs is chasing a ghost named Tom Morrow.
Morrow holds the all-time NFL-AFL-AAFC record with at least one interception in eight consecutive games. Diggs can tie that record when the Dallas Cowboys face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night. Morrow is also one of five defenders, all of them from the early days of the AFL, to record eight interceptions in the first seven games of the season. Diggs will tie that mark if he can intercept a pass in his next game.
Morrow is a hard player to track down. He recorded 23 interceptions for the Oakland Raiders from 1962 through 1964. He also punted as a rookie. He was a standout for a Southern Mississippi team that went undefeated in 1958. He set the consecutive interception record with picks in the final four games of the 1963 season and the first four games of the 1964 season. He then suffered some sort of career-ending injury and retired to an auto dealership. He passed away in 2018. That was all I could find without tunneling deep into newspaper archives, which is the sort of thing I only have time for in May through July. Morrow is a ghostly shadow in the attic of pro football history.
Here's a list of the other defenders who recorded eight interceptions through the first seven games of a season:
- Austin "Goose" Gonsoulin, 1960: A perennial AFL Pro Bowler and Broncos Ring of Fame inductee.
- Bobby Hunt, 1962: A starter for the Dallas Texans and Kansas City Chiefs in the early AFL days. No relation to the Hunt family which owns the Chiefs.
- Pete Jaquess, 1964: A stunningly obscure player who had one great year for the Houston Oilers before bouncing around the AFL. There's even less about him on the Internet than there is about Morrow.
- Johnny Sample, 1961: By far the most famous player on this list, Sample played for both the 1958 Greatest Game Ever Baltimore Colts and the Jets in Super Bowl III. He set the record while playing for a forgettable Steelers team.
Interestingly, many of these big-interception seasons came early in the defenders' careers. Morrow, like Diggs, was in his second pro season. Gonsoulin and Jaquess were rookies. The logic is easy to follow: young cornerback gets picked on to start the season, grabs some interceptions while getting targeted frequently, then sees his opportunities decrease after he establishes his reputation. It's a little surprising to see such a pattern in the early 1960s AFL, but another variable may have been at work back then.
Read the rest: https://www.footballoutsiders.com/walkthrough/2021/trevon-diggs-pursuit-history
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