The running game usually re-emerges in the second half of the season, when foul weather makes passing more treacherous. But the pass may be so dominant by then that several long-standing records could fall.

Six quarterbacks — including the Carolina Panthers rookie Cam Newton, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers — are on pace to break Dan Marino’s record for passing yards in a season (5,084), which he set 27 years ago. Rodgers, whose Green Bay Packers are 4-0, is completing 73 percent of his passes, which would shatter the single-season record of 70.6 set by Brees in 2009.

Rodgers’s accuracy is coming in conjunction with longer passes. He is averaging 9.4 yards per attempt; Brees averaged 8.5 in 2009. Net passing yards (31,446) are at a record level; the previous high was 27,272, at this point last year, although two fewer games were played then.

Since the 1970 merger, the N.F.L. has never had a season in which it had more individual 300-yard passing games — once a line of demarcation for great passing performances — than 100-yard rushing games.

But there have already been 44 individual 300-yard passing games this season. That is not just the most through the first four weeks of a season, it is also the most through the first seven weeks of any season.

Last year there were 96 individual 300-yard games in the entire season; in 2006 there were 65. In the meantime, there have been 26 individual 100-yard rushing games, a figure that reflects in part the trend of teams dividing carries between two backs. There have also been eight individual 400-yard passing games, just five short of the record for a full season.

The outpouring of passing delights offensive coordinators as well as television executives, who know that high-scoring games produce good ratings. But it also raises the question of what combination of forces converged to produce such a sharp spike.

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There are several answers, say those who watch and shape the game. The most obvious is that when something works for one team — Green Bay last season was forced to go pass-heavy because of injuries — everyone tries to copy it.

More teams are spreading the field to create better offensive matchups, particularly in the middle of the field, where most of the action and mismatches take place in the short and intermediate passing game. It is no accident that New England’s Wes Welker, who toils in the middle of the field, is the league’s leading receiver.

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Most coaches think their third receiver is better than the opponent’s third cornerback, that the tight end — think New England’s Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski — is a brutal matchup for a linebacker, that a running back sent out for a pass is better than the linebacker forced to cover him.

“Once you extend a linebacker and get him out of the box, that’s not his world,” said Herm Edwards, the former Jets and Chiefs coach who is now an ESPN analyst. “You make somebody miss in space. Corners and safeties are used to running at angles, but linebackers’ angles are different. Before, these formations were more prevalent in two-minute situations, when teams were behind, but maybe you saw it 15 times a game. Now you might see it 30 times.”

That certainly contributes to the terrible tackling that has plagued many defenses this season, compounding a problem that Edwards said was created in large part by rules that limited practices in full pads, which in turn limited how much tackling could be worked on during training camp and the regular season.

With so few blockers staying in to pick up pass rushers, more quarterbacks are operating out of the shotgun, which gives them a little extra time to see where the pressure is coming from and to release the ball. According to FootballOutsiders.com, 40.9 percent of all offensive snaps this season have been in the shotgun, a jump from 37.6 percent in 2010 and a huge spike from five years ago, when 19.5 percent of snaps were from the shotgun.

And more teams are at least occasionally using no-huddle offenses to stunt the defense’s ability to substitute and, after fatigue sets in, rush the quarterback. College quarterbacks are also better prepared to play in the N.F.L. than ever before because of the offenses used in college.

“We’re seeing more shotgun in college, so those quarterbacks transitioning into our league are familiar with it,” New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton said. “There was a stretch in the ’90s or the early 2000s where there was concern about where all the great quarterbacks were. I think it’s as good as it’s ever been right now.”

Even with the explosion of passing this season, the interception rate has remained constant, at around 3 percent of all pass attempts, and the sack rate has been steady at just over two per team per game.

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Defenses, then, must figure out how to counteract offenses that are dictating play. That might be a difficult task, even though there are those who worry that if the N.F.L. tilts too much to the pass, it will lose the physicality that is a major part of its appeal.

“The only way I can think to address it is to loosen up the restrictions on defensive backs a little bit — extend the 5-yard bump area to 10 yards, to allow a little more contact downfield,” said the former Ravens coach Brian Billick, an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network.

That is unlikely, say members of the N.F.L.’s competition committee, which scrutinizes play at the end of every season to determine if rules changes are necessary. The N.F.L. has no desire to return to the style of the 1970s, when defenders had more freedom and the running game still dominated.

“I certainly think we will discuss this trend, if in fact it continues,” said John Mara, the president of the Giants and a member of the committee. “We always pay close attention to changes in how the game is played. But I do not sense that there is any movement to change the rules on contact with receivers. Certainly not yet anyway, and I would be very surprised if that changes in the future.”

The passes will continue to fly then. And the records will fall.