From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)

Imagine your favorite NFL team is on the one-yard line and is ready to punch it in for a score. Does your team run for that tough yard or do they implement some sort of play action and pass for those precious three feet?

Last season in the NFL, there were 195 offensive touchdowns of one yard during the regular season. Of those 195, 143 (73.3%) were rushing TDs and 52 were TDs via a one-yard pass play. Before we talk about how the game has evolved to more passing TDs from one yard out, here’s a look at each NFL team last season and how many one-yard TDs they had rushing and passing. Detroit and New England topped the list each with 11 one-yard TDs; Denver and Pittsburgh tied for most passing one-yard scores, each with five; the Patriots had the most running one-yard TDs with 10.

Team, one-yard running TDs/one-yard passing TDs

Arizona 4/0

Atlanta 4/4

Baltimore 7/0

Buffalo 3/1

Carolina 9/0

Chicago 5/0

Cincinnati 7/1

Cleveland 5/0

Dallas 3/1

Denver 5/5

Detroit 9/2

Green Bay 1/3

Houston 7/3

Indianapolis 5/1

Jacksonville 2/3

Kansas City 0/1

Miami 5/1

Minnesota 3/2

New England 10/1

New Orleans 3/4

New York Giants 8/1

New York Jets 5/2

Oakland 1/3

Philadelphia 3/1

Pittsburgh 4/5

San Diego 3/0

San Francisco 6/1

Seattle 2/0

St. Louis 2/3

Tampa Bay 4/3

Tennessee 3/0

Washington 5/0

Here’s a look at the players who had the most one-yard touchdowns in 2012:

6: Arian Foster (Houston)

5: Mike Tolbert (Carolina); Michael Leshoure (Detroit); Andre Brown (N.Y. Giants); Shonn Greene (N.Y. Jets); Alfred Morris (Washington)

4: Michael Turner (Atlanta); Michael Bush (Chicago)’ BenJarvis Green-Ellis (Cincinnati); Trent Richardson (Cleveland); Stevan Ridley (New England); Frank Gore (San Francisco); Doug Martin (Tampa Bay)

Did you know… there were nine one-yard TDs in last year’s playoffs, five rushing and four passing? Houston’s Arian Foster had three of those one-yard scores.

As we mentioned above, 73.3% of the one-yard TDs in 2012 were rushing. In 2000 the percentage of one-yard TDs via the run was 81.2%; in 1990 it was 88.1%; in 1980 it was 94.4%; in 1970 it was 95.2%; in 1960 it was 94.4%. It’s safe to say that the one-yard passing TD has become more prevalent in today’s NFL!

“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99