The Number 23

…was a crappy effort from Joel Schumacher.

Besides that, as people fawn over Cam Newton’s 14 rushing touchdowns, I am looking more at the number 23, which represents how many carries he had inside the 10-yard line last year. That’s 10 more carries than the next closest QB had in the entire red zone (Tim Tebow, 13).

Newton scored 9 touchdowns on these 23 carries, which is a far cry from say, Tim Tebow scoring 9 TDs on 11 carries.

In my latest article at Bleacher Report, Why Cam Newton’s NFL Record for QB Rushing Touchdowns Is a Fluke, I came up with a table to show Newton’s efficiency compared to the other leading active QBs with 10+ career rushing touchdowns.

It turns out Newton was less efficient than I thought.

Jets could be interesting. That is 20/26 combined there for Tebow & Sanchez.

Newton’s record might be safe for a long time, because which coaching staff is going to be nuts enough to expose their QB to this many hits on purpose in the red zone? Of the 23 carries, 19 were designed runs.

Mike Tolbert might have signed up for the wrong job if Carolina thinks about going back to this offense in 2012. Not to mention you still have Williams and Stewart.

Praise the record if you want, but just remember the important context behind it.