Beyond Week 15 with Mark Craig

BY THE NUMBERS

Touchbacks for Britton Colquitt (zero)

Six punters head into Week 15 with zero touchbacks. The Vikings' Britton Colquitt, with 51 punts, is the only one with more than 11 attempts.

But the 10-year veteran might be playing it a little too safe when it comes to avoiding the end zone.

After a particularly conservative outing in last week's 20-7 win over the Lions, Vikings special teams coordinator Marwan Maalouf had Colquitt concentrate on dropping punts inside the 10-yard line rather than between the 10 and 20.

"That's something we've addressed with Britton, and he's worked on it in practice this week," Maalouf said. "I think it's just cleaning up his technique a little bit."

Colquitt punted six times against the Lions. He had a 30-yarder that was fair caught at the 15-yard line, a 26-yarder fair caught at the 13 and a 46-yarder fair caught at the 19.

He also had a 33-yarder to the 17 that was returned 8 yards, a 55-yarder to the 15 that was returned 3 yards and a 32-yarder that was fair caught at the 23.

"Britton has a good hang-time ball inside with our going-in balls [near the goal line]," Maalouf said. "I think that poses a different perspective for our opponents, but yeah, you want to get as close to the goal line without being too selfish as possible."

DID YOU KNOW? STATS OF THE WEEK

Manning mark could be passed twice

Peyton Manning's record for career touchdown passes (539) could be passed twice in two days. Drew Brees has 537 heading into Monday night's home game against the Colts. Tom Brady has 536 heading into Sunday's game at Cincinnati. With one more touchdown pass, Brady will move past Manning for most seasons with at least 20 touchdown passes (17). Brees needs three more to move ahead of Brett Favre and tie Manning with a 16th season of at least 20 touchdown passes.

Peterson ties Payton, Emmitt

With 76 yards rushing at Lambeau Field last week, Adrian Peterson joined Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton as the only players with at least 14,000 yards (14,036) and 100 touchdowns (109) rushing. Peterson is sixth on the career rushing list. He's 64 yards behind Curtis Martin (14,101). Next up the list is Barry Sanders at 15,269.