The 2023 Regular NFL Season Part 2 Quiz

Answer: Baker Mayfield

Across both conferences in 2023, from 32 teams in the league, 16 had used multiple starting quarterbacks. Over the regular season, 54 different quarterbacks in total played in the NFL in 2023

The New York Giants lost franchise quarterback Daniel Jones to a neck injury in Week 5. When he returned in Week 10 against the Cowboys he tore his ACL and was ruled out for the season. The Giants lost their two games against divisional rivals the Cowboys 89-17. Hopes of repeating 2023 where they won a playoff game seeded sixth were dashed with the absence of Jones and they finished 13th in the NFC with a 6-11 finish.

The Vikings were 4-4 when Kirk Cousins suffered a season-ending Achilles injury at Lambeau Field in week 9. His replacements Joshua Dobbs and Nick Mullen could only manage 3-6 between them. The Vikings finished out of the playoffs 7-10, a big swing from 13--4 in 2022 when they clinched NFC North

Kyler Murray sustained a knee injury in the latter part of the 2022 season. He made his debut in week 10 when the Cardinals were 1-8. They finished 4-13 to end up fourth in NFC West. However, three of their four wins were against teams that made the playoffs: Cowboys, Steelers and Eagles.

Baker Mayfield was somewhat of a journeyman quarterback with stints at Cleveland, Carolina, and the Rams before arriving at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023 on a one-year contract. He earned the starting QB position at training camp. He started all 17 games in the regular season and finished the regular season with 28 touchdown passes, 4,044 passing yards and a 64.3% completion rate. These were all career highs.

Answer: 2022 season Super Bowl Winners - Kansas City Chiefs

The National Football League Kickoff game is a big deal. It marks the official start of the National Football League (NFL) regular season. A single game is usually scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day. Since 2004, it has been hosted by the current Super Bowl champions with a couple of exceptions. In 2023 this meant the game was scheduled at Arrowhead Stadium hosted by the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 2023, the Detroit Lions went into the season having not won a playoff game since the 1991 season. They were the only NFC team to never play in the Super Bowl in previous seasons. However, in 2022 they won 9-8 to record their first winning season since 2017.

In the kickoff game, they surprised the Chiefs in the first quarter by scoring a 14-play 91-yard touchdown and kept the Chiefs scoreless. In the second quarter, the Chiefs fought back scoring two touchdowns and not allowing the Lions to score. In the second half, the Lions restricted the Chiefs to a field goal each quarter, whilst scoring a touchdown in each quarter themselves. Lions won 21-20.

The Lions finished the regular season with a 12-5 record, easily winning their division and ended up in a three-way tie in the NFC with the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys for the best record.

Answer: Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles narrowly lost the previous season's Super Bowl 38-35. At the start of the 2023 season, they were mooted to be contesting it again in February. This looked good in week 12 when they were at 10-1, better than any other team in both conferences.

However, they faded and lost five of their last 6 games. Some of their losses were blowouts. In week 14 they lost to divisional rivals Cowboys, 33-13. The week before they lost to the 49ers 42-19. They finished second in their division at 11-6 which was enough for them to be seeded fifth in the NFC playoffs.

Answer: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC South has some unusual statistics. Between 2002 when the current teams formed NFC South, and 2023, each team won at least three divisional titles and reached the Super Bowl at least once yet each team had an overall losing record. Their respective stats were
Tampa Bay: 6, 2 (2002,2020), 267-424-1
New Orleans: 7, 1 (2009) 375-438-5
Atlanta: 4, 1 (2016) 365-461-6
Carolina: 5, 2 (2003, 2015) 195-204-1
NFC South is the only NFC conference that does not have any of the 12 franchises that predate the American Football League in 1960.

In 2023, there was a closeness in competition between three of the teams. The Saints had led the first half of the season leading 5-4 to the Buccaneers and Falcons at 4-5. On the last game of the season against the Falcons, the winner was still a chance of making the playoffs if other results went their way. The Saints won 48-17, finishing with 9-8 knocking the Falcons out of the playoffs. The Buccs were inconsistent: they had a good start at 3-1, lost four straight and six out of seven but then won six out of their last seven finishing the same as the Saints on 9-8. Both had 4-2 records for their division but Tampa Bay had a better conference record: 7-5 against Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Atlanta, Carolina, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Indianapolis, while New Orleans is 6-6 against the same teams. Tampa Bay was seeded fourth in the playoffs, and New Orleans finished ninth behind Seattle who also finished 9-8.

Answer: Baltimore Ravens

In 2022 the Rams went 5-12 for the season and looked to be having a similar season in 2023 when they were at 3-6 going into their bye week. However, in their last eight games, they beat all three of their divisional rivals. This included a week 18 one-point win over divisional leaders the 49ers (21-20) to leapfrog over the Seahawks in week 17 to come second in their division. Their record of 10-7 was enough to be seeded sixth in the NFC playoffs.

The Seahawks were travelling comfortably at 6-3 at the halfway point of the season but they then lost four in a row to the Rams, 49ers (twice) and the Cowboys. This meant that they needed to win their last four games to stay ahead of the Rams and clinch second place. However, a surprising loss to the Steelers in Week 17 meant they finished 9-8 which meant they came eighth in the NFC and missed the playoffs.

Answer: San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco had four players rack up over 1,000 scrimmage yards with Deebo Samuel (1,085), George Kittle (1,022), Christian McCaffrey (2,023) and Brandon Aiyuk (1,317) creating a new NFL record. While McCaffrey got most of the positive press, the 49ers' successful offensive game was shared.

The 49ers had a successful regular season in 2023. They started at 5-0 (so did the Eagles!), then lost three in a row before winning the next six. They played a week 16 match against the Ravens that was touted by some as a preview of the upcoming Super Bowl. The Ravens won that one 33-19. With a week 14 win over the Seahawks, they became the first NFL team to clinch a playoff spot, their fourth time in five seasons. In week 15 they clinched NFC West with a win over the Cardinals. They finished at 12-5 at the end of the regular season.

Answer: Yes, their 9-8 result qualified them as 7th seed

Aaron Rodgers was traded to the Jets for the 2023 season so backup QB Justin Love became the starting quarterback. The media made a big deal about this team being the youngest in the NFL and after a loss to the Steelers in week 10, Green Bay was at 3-6 and the pundits appeared to be correct However they went 6-2 in their last eight regular season games including an away win against the Lions in week 12 and a 27-19 win over the Chiefs the following week.

At 9-8, they clinched the seventh seed in the NFC by winning a three-way conference record and strength of victory tiebreaker with the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks.

Answer: Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys trailed divisional rivals, Philadelphia for most of the 2023 regular season but won seven of their last nine (including a 33-13 win over the Eagles in Week 14) and a late-season fade by the Eagles meant the Cowboys clinched NFC East for the second time in three years. San Francisco and Detroit also went 12-5 so it was down to tie-breakers to determine seedings.

The Cowboys and the 49ers both went 5-1 in their division (Detroit 4-2) but the 49ers 10-2 Conference wins edged out the Cowboys 9-3 'relegating' them to second seeding. Detroit was seeded third (the Cowboys won a head-to-head with the Lions in week 17: 20-19).

Answer: Carolina Panthers

All four teams had losing seasons but Carolina had the worst record (2-15). Their two wins came in week 8 versus Houston and week 15 against Atlanta but the winning margin was only two points in each game Perhaps worse, shutouts are uncommon (seven in NFL 2023) but the Panthers' last two games were both shutouts (26-0 Jaguars and 9-0 Tampa Bay)

Atlanta matched their 7-10 record from the previous season. They needed to win their last match against the Saints ( and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be defeated by the Carolina Panthers in Week 18) to make the playoffs. Neither occurred and their 48-17 loss to the Saints was a blowout when the game was expected to be very close.

The Chicago Bears did not have good seasons in 2021 (6-11) and 2022 (3-14) but they improved to 7-10 in 2023 with notable wins against the Raiders 30-12 and divisional rival Lions in week 14, 28-13.

Despite starting strongly at 2-0, the Washington Commanders could only manage 2-13 for the rest of the season with all four wins (Cardinals, Broncos, Falcons and Patriots) against teams that did not make the playoffs. At the end of the season, the Commanders held the longest active playoff win drought in the NFC and third overall as they had not won a playoff game since 2005. They also held the record for the longest conference championship appearance drought in the NFC (32 consecutive seasons).

Answer: True

In fact, there were four in the NFL in 2023. A perfect passing rating is defined by the NFL as "during a single game a player must attempt at least 10 passes, have no interceptions, have a minimum completion percentage of 77.5%, have a minimum of 11.875% of their passes score touchdowns, and have a minimum of 12.5 yards per attempt." The highest (perfect score) is 158.3.

This was achieved by Brock Purdy for the 49ers against Tampa Bay in week 12 and Baker Mayfield for the Buccs against the Packers in week 15 (In the AFC Josh Allen of the Bills achieved this in week 4 against the Dolphins and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens achieved this in week 18 against the dolphins - it was the third time Jackson had achieved this feat).