StaTuesday: Packers' Jones and the rare 4 rushing touchdown club

By Dave Heller
Published

Which is more impressive: That Aaron Jones put himself in rarefied Green Bay Packers territory with his four rushing touchdowns against Dallas on Sunday or that he accomplished the feat with over three minutes remaining in the third quarter?

Alas, Jones couldn’t get another touchdown, leaving Paul Hornung as the only Green Bay player with five touchdowns in a game.

Nevertheless, Jones did something rarely seen in Packers history. Jones became just the fourth Green Bay player to rush for four touchdowns in a game and the first since 2000. Hall of Famer Jim Taylor did it three times from 1961-62.




























































































































PLAYER DATE OPP RESULT ATT YDS
Jim Taylor 10/15/1961 Browns W, 49-17 21 158
Jim Taylor 11/4/1962 Bears W, 38-7 25 124
Jim Taylor 11/11/1962 Eagles W, 49-0 25 141
Terdell Middleton 10/15/1978 Seahawks W, 45-28 23 121
Dorsey Levens 1/2/2000 Cardinals W, 49-24 24 146
Aaron Jones 10/6/2019 Cowboys W, 34-24 19 107



Levens’ performance, by the way, came a week after he gained just four yards on 10 carries. It was also Ray Rhodes’ last game as Packers head coach.

Accounting for total touchdowns, Jones had the 11th such instance in a Packers game since 1950 (when stats are available via pro-football-reference.com).

As mentioned above, Hornung is the only Packer with five touchdowns in a game (he had three rushing and two receiving against the Baltimore Colts in a 42-27 win on Dec. 12, 1965). Hornung also had a four-TD game against the Colts on Oct. 8, 1961 – and he also kicked six extra points and a field goal.

The only other Packers to have four touchdowns in a game are Donny Anderson (1967) and Sterling Sharpe (1993 and ’94). Sharpe had four touchdown catches against Dallas on Nov. 24, 1994 – but the Packers lost, the only defeat among the 11 four TD games.

The Cowboys have had a player account for four touchdowns against them just four times in franchise history – and the Packers have two of them. Jones is the only one with four rushing TDs vs. Dallas.

Jones’ performance Sunday was the 60th time since 1950 that an NFL player had four rushing touchdowns in a game (62 if you included the playoffs; New England’s LaGarrette Blount did it 2014 vs. Indianapolis and San Francisco’s Ricky Watters had vs. the Giants in 1994). Tennessee’s Derrick Henry was the last to do it – last season. But Jones’ was just the fifth time it’s occurred this decade, perhaps no surprise given the emphasis of the passing game. It happened 21 times from 2000-09 (including one game in which two players did it), starting with Levens. So, the Packers have a nice bookend to four rushing TD games.

FOUR RUSHING TD GAMES SINCE 2000




























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































PLAYER DATE TEAM OPP RESULT ATT YDS
Dorsey Levens 1/2/2000 Packers Cardinals W, 49-24 24 146
Mike Anderson 12/3/2000 Broncos Saints W, 38-23 37 251
Marshall Faulk 12/10/2000 Rams Vikings W, 40-29 25 135
Priest Holmes 9/8/2002 Chiefs Browns W, 40-39 22 122
Shaun Alexander 9/29/2002 Seahawks Vikings W, 48-23 24 139
Clinton Portis* 12/7/2003 Broncos Chiefs W, 45-27 22 218
Priest Holmes 10/24/2004 Chiefs Falcons W, 56-10 22 139
Derrick Blaylock 10/24/2004 Chiefs Falcons W, 56-10 19 90
Willis McGahee 11/28/2004 Bills Seahawks W, 39-9 28 116
T.J. Duckett 12/12/2004 Falcons Raiders W, 35-10 12 65
Shaun Alexander 9/25/2005 Seahawks Cardinals W, 37-12 22 140
Shaun Alexander 10/16/2005 Seahawks Texans W, 42-10 22 141
LaDainian Tomlinson 10/15/2006 Chargers 49ers W, 48-19 21 71
LaDainian Tomlinson 11/12/2006 Chargers Bengals W, 49-41 22 104
Joseph Addai 11/26/2006 Colts Eagles W, 45-21 24 171
LaDainian Tomlinson 10/14/2007 Chargers Raiders W, 28-14 24 198
Jamal Lewis 11/4/2007 Browns Seahawks W, 33-30 20 37
Ronnie Brown 9/21/2008 Dolphins Patriots W, 38-13 17 113
Michael Turner 11/23/2008 Falcons Panthers W, 45-28 24 117
DeAngelo Williams 11/30/2008 Panthers Packers W, 35-31 21 72
DeAngelo Williams 12/21/2008 Panthers Giants L, 34-28 24 108
Doug Martin 11/4/2012 Buccaneers Raiders W, 42-32 25 251
Marshawn Lynch 11/9/2014 Seahawks Giants W, 38-17 21 140
Jonas Gray 11/16/2014 Patriots Colts W, 42-20 37 201
Derrick Henry 12/6/2018 Titans Jaguars W, 30-9 17 238
Aaron Jones 10/6/2019 Packers Cowboys W, 34-24 19 107



* -- Portis is the only one listed who had five rushing touchdowns

This decade won’t have the fewest four rushing touchdown games as the 1980s featured only three – by Eric Dickerson (1988), Chuck Muncie (1981) and Curt Warner (1988).

Can Jones now join even rarer company? Only eight players have multiple four rushing TD games in their career: Shaun Alexander (3), Jim Brown (5), Rick Casares (2), Priest Holmes (2), Emmitt Smith (2), Taylor (3), LaDainian Tomlinson (3) and DeAngelo Williams (2).