NFL breaks touchdown record with 90 on Sunday

While temperatures dropped around the country, NFL offenses heated up during an unprecedented scoring binge.

by Jeff Gray

Dec 9, 2013, 6:26 PM UTC

Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

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A winter storm system dropped snow and frigid temperatures around the NFL on Sunday, but couldn’t freeze out the league’s offenses on a record-setting day. The NFL set a new mark for touchdowns scored in a single day, piling up 90 end zone trips across 14 games.

A trio of second-quarter touchdown passes by Drew Brees during the Saints' Sunday night win over the Panthers pushed the league into uncharted scoring territory, passing the previous mark of 87 touchdowns set during Week 17 of last season.

While Brees was lounging in the sheltered environment of the Superdome, the majority of the league was toiling through a nationwide cold front that plunged the temperature to below freezing at all but a handful of venues and made for an unlikely scoring proliferation. It was 32 degrees or below in eight of Sunday’s games, and five were played with significant amounts of snow on the ground.

The weather seemed to have little impact, however. Peyton Manning defied his cold-weather critics by throwing four of the 10 touchdowns put up in the Broncos' 51-28 track meet against the Titans, the highest-scoring game of the day. The Bengals and Colts combined for 10 end zone trips as well in frigid Cincinnati, where Andy Dalton tossed three touchdowns in a 42-28 win.

Eight touchdowns were scored in Philadelphia, where blizzard conditions led to a humorous amount of snow-induced mistakes but couldn't keep the Eagles and Lions from combining for 54 points. The Dolphins and Steelers also combined for eight on a frozen field in Pittsburgh.

Only two games saw touchdown totals of under five, with a pair of contests finishing with just three. Mistakes and penalties limited scoring in the Buccaneers' win over Buffalo and a collision between the defensive-minded 49ers and Seahawks resulted in quiet offenses in San Francisco.

In total, 739 points were scored by the 28 teams in action, resulting in an average of 52.8 points per game. Nine games finished with a combined point total of at least 50 and seven matchups saw at least seven touchdowns scored. Oddly enough, six of those seven games were played in freezing temperatures.