Detroit had not allowed a point in seven games. The day it did, it ran for 426 yards.
On 4 November 1934 the Detroit Lions had not conceded a point in seven games; the afternoon Pittsburgh finally scored, they ran for 426 yards, a record no NFL team has matched in ninety-two years.
University of Detroit Stadium held 25,000 people. On 4 November 1934, 6,000 of them came to watch the Detroit Lions play the Pittsburgh Pirates. 12
Detroit won 40–7. The club was in its first season in the city, having been bought out of Portsmouth, Ohio, that spring, and it had not yet conceded a point. 34
Seven games, seven shutouts, 118 points scored and none allowed. Pittsburgh threw a 62-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter of the eighth game. 23
Detroit answered with forty straight points and gained 426 yards on the ground, which is still the most any NFL team has run for in a single game. 5
Seven games without a point
Detroit's first seven results, all shutouts: the New York Giants 9–0, the Chicago Cardinals 6–0, Green Bay 3–0, Philadelphia 10–0, the Boston Redskins 24–0, Brooklyn 28–0, Cincinnati 38–0. 2
The last of those was played in Portsmouth, at the ground the franchise had just left. 2
Not all of them were routs. Detroit won at Green Bay 3–0 and beat the Cardinals 6–0; the 9–0 opener against the Giants came on a Dutch Clark drop-kicked field goal and a 45-yard interception return by Father Lumpkin. 4
No team has run off seven games without conceding a touchdown since. The longest such streak after 1934 is five, by Pittsburgh in 1976 and Baltimore in 2000. 5
It helped that the ball mostly stayed on the ground. Detroit threw 142 passes in thirteen games that season, completed 46 and had 15 intercepted. 2
The touchdown that ended it
Pittsburgh's score came first: a 62-yard pass from Harp Vaughan to Joe Skladany, with Armand Niccolai's kick. It was the first time all season the Lions had been behind. 3
Detroit's reply was six touchdowns. Frank Christensen went in from the one, Clark ran 45 yards, and Ernie Caddel threw 40 yards to Harry Ebding. 3
Caddel also returned an interception 42 yards for a score, then ran 32 and 26 yards for two more. 3
He finished with ten carries for 132 yards, two rushing touchdowns, an interception return and a touchdown pass — a hand in four of the six. 3
The next morning's New York Times put the day plainly. "Detroit Captures Eighth in a Row; Unbeaten Lions Top Pirates, 40-7, but Are Scored On for First Time This Year." Its subheading read: "CADDEL SHINES ON ATTACK." 6
426, or 413, depending which line you read
Every carry has a name against it. Caddel's ten made 132 yards, Clark's nine made 110, and the five others added 171 between them. 3
Add those lines and the total is 413. The team total printed under them reads 413, and the average beside it, 8.3 yards a carry, is 413 divided by 50. 3
The record books credit the Lions with 426. That is thirteen yards more than the page can account for, and the page does not say where they went. 35
What is not in doubt is the shape of the afternoon. Fifty carries at 8.3 yards each, four touchdowns on the ground, and five men who averaged better than seven yards a carry. 3
Pittsburgh, by contrast, ran 25 times for 57 yards. 3
How far 426 is
An NFL team in 2024 averaged 119.8 rushing yards a game. 7 The 1934 Lions covered three and a half of those afternoons in one game.
It was also one afternoon out of thirteen. Detroit ran for 2,740 yards on 632 carries that season, and this game supplied 426 of them. 2
Two totals sit just below it in the books. The Giants ran for 423 at Baltimore on 19 November 1950, on 56 carries at 7.6 a carry. 8
The best any team has managed since 1951 is 407, by Cincinnati against Denver on 22 October 2000. 5
What the record bought them
Detroit went to 10–0, then lost three times in eight days. Green Bay won 3–0 at the University of Detroit Stadium on 25 November. 2
On Thanksgiving the Bears came, 26,000 got in — more than four times the crowd that saw the record set — and Detroit lost 16–19 in the first NFL game played on the holiday. 24
Three days later, at Wrigley Field before 34,412, Chicago won 10–7 and with it the Western Division. The Bears finished 13–0, the Lions 10–3. 24
The championship went to the Giants, the club Detroit had shut out in its first game in the city. On a frozen Polo Grounds they beat the Bears 30–13, scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter after changing into basketball sneakers. 9
The record is what survived. The stadium was demolished in 1971, and the club that set the mark lost its division by three games and never played for the title. 12
Ninety-two years on, the 426 stands. The game that made it — everyone playing both ways, the ball kept on the ground, a season of 142 passes — does not.
References
- 1University of Detroit Stadium — Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 21934 Detroit Lions: scores, roster, stats — Pro Football Archives
profootballarchives.com
- 3Pittsburgh Pirates at Detroit Lions, 4 November 1934 — Pro Football Archives
profootballarchives.com
- 41934 Detroit Lions season — Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 5List of NFL team records — Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- 6
- 7
- 8New York Giants at Baltimore Colts, 19 November 1950 — Pro Football Archives
profootballarchives.com
- 91934 NFL Championship Game — Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
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