Calvin Johnson on pace to break Jerry Rice's single-season receiving record

Before last week's game, Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson was on pace to nearly break Jerry Rice's single-season receiving record. Thanks to an outstanding performance against the Indianapolis Colts (171 yards and 1 TD on 13 catches), Johnson is now on pace to break Rice's record.

Through 12 games, Johnson has a total of 1,428 yards receiving. In 1995, Rice finished with 1,848 yards receiving. This puts Johnson only 420 yards away from Rice's record with four games to play. Right now, Johnson is on pace for 1,904 yards receiving in 2012. If he can keep up his current pace, Johnson will not only break the record by a comfortable margin, but he will have a shot at becoming the first player in NFL history to record 2,000 yards receiving in a single season.

Here are some notes about what Johnson did last week against Indy and the effect he's already having on some record books:

• Johnson's 171 yards gave him five consecutive games of more than 125 yards receiving. By doing this, he became only the second player in NFL history to achieve five games in a row with at least 125 yards receiving. Pat Studstill, the only other player to achieve this feat, did it as a member of the Lions in 1966.
• Johnson now has five games in a row with at least 100 yards receiving for the first time in his career.
• Johnson's 13 catches were the most in a single game in his career, and they were the second-most ever for a Lions player in a single game.
• Check out just how ridiculously good Johnson has been in the last year:

  The last 16 times Johnson has taken the field (including playoff game), he has 122 receptions for 2,199 yards (137.5 yds/g) with 11 TDs.

  — Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) December 3, 2012

• Johnson has the most receiving yards through 12 games since Lance Alworth in 1965, according to Randall Liu.
• Johnson won't be in the mix for the MVP award because of the Lions' bad season, but Cris Collinsworth thinks he should be:

  Just finished watching tapes of Adrian Peterson and Calvin Johnson.At this point, both should be top 3 MVP candidates.

  — Cris Collinsworth (@CollinsworthNBC) December 5, 2012

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