Greatest QB Postseasons that resulted in a SB victory

[BayRaider]

After the Flacco vs Stafford thread, thought this would be a fun thread going back in history. Stafford had a good postseason but people are forgetting there have been tons of amazing postseason performances, and Stafford vs Flacco is not even a comparison. The Top 6 on this list almost being flawless. 

This list goes by being as perfect as possible in the playoffs. Not making a bunch of mistakes and then having game winning drives to make up for it. 
 

1) 1989 Joe Montana, I don’t think anyone is ever going to rival this one. 146 QB Rating, 11 TD’s 0 INT’s, over 9 yards per attempt, Super Bowl MVP, and Super Bowl blowout. 
 

2) 2012 Joe Flacco

3) 1992 Troy Aikman

4) 1988 Joe Montana

5) 1994 Steve Young

6) 1986 Phil Simms

7) 2010 Aaron Rodgers

8 ) 2011 Eli Manning

9) 2009 Drew Brees

10) 2004 Tom Brady

11) 1976 Kenny Stabler

12) 1996 Brett Favre

13) 2019 Patrick Mahomes

14) 2007 Eli Manning

15) 2017 Nick Foles

- A lot of the order is subjective, and that’s fine, not here to argue about order. For example some may have Foles a couple spots higher but majority of his good play was in the Super Bowl and the least spread out of the list. 

- One thing we can agree on, is these are 15 great QB postseason runs that resulted in a Super Bowl Championship. 

- Some might have expected more Brady but a lot of his great postseason runs ended up in a Super Bowl loss. If he had won in 2017 against the Eagles, he probably is #3 on this list behind ‘89 Montana and ‘12 Flacco. 

- One of the points of this thread is people are overrating Stafford’s postseason performance due to recency bias. It was a good postseason run for him, but it’s likely not in the Top 20, and certainly not in the Top 15. He turned the ball over more times than anyone on this list and almost had a game ending turnover against the 49ers. Being compared to 2012 Flacco doesn’t even make sense, at all. Evidenced by the poll results of that thread. And of course the thread was made by a Rams fan. 

Edited February 19, 2022 by BayRaider

[DefenseWinsChampionships]

Joe Namath (1968-1969 postseason). 

[Tightspiral7]

Nice to see Snake Stabler on that list. Kenny played out of his mind for all of 76.

And also nice to see Phil Simms on there. I would surmise that a good chunk of people here only think of Phil Simms the announcer. Simms was a merely "good" QB for most his career, but for one year (86) he was a true elite QB. Simms didn't have a huge arm like Marino and Elway had at the time, but he was extremely accurate. 

[Danger]

The Eli Manning years really don't measure up frankly.

[Mox]

2010 Rodgers is an interesting one.

He was really good against Philly.

He had a god tier performance against Atlanta. Legitimately one of the best playoff performances I've ever seen.

Follows that up with a complete dud against Chicago.

Then goes and absolutely tears up the NFL's best defense in the Super Bowl despite his team having a case of the dropsies. Could've easily been like 30/39 for ~400 yards.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

On 2/19/2022 at 2:48 PM, BayRaider said:

1) 1989 Joe Montana, I don’t think anyone is ever going to rival this one. 146 QB Rating, 11 TD’s 0 INT’s, over 9 yards per attempt, Super Bowl MVP, and Super Bowl blowout. 
 

2) 2012 Joe Flacco

I am of course super biased, but I just think Flacco doing what he did against the competition he played against and being perfect and getting Superbowl MVP to me was the greatest I've ever seen. 

Looking at their stats:

	Passing															Rushing
Rk	Player	Year	G	QBrec	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Rate	Lng	Int	Sk	Yds	Y/A	AY/A	NY/A	ANY/A	Att	Yds	TD	Y/A	Lng
1	Joe Flacco	2012	4	4-0-0	73	126	57.9	1140	11	117.2	70	0	6	38	9.0	10.79	8.35	10.02	8	16	0	2.0	14
2	Joe Montana*	1989	3	3-0-0	65	83	78.3	800	11	146.4	72	0	1	0	9.6	12.29	9.52	12.14	5	19	0	3.8	10

Montana clearly has the edge in stats. Flacco's bulk passing yards are likely because he had 53 more attempts and only 8 more completions. But idk how much weight you also put on the modern-era vs. the '89 era of football + Montana having prime Jerry Rice and Roger Craig out there.

I won't go to bat for Joe Flacco under many circumstances, but that 2012 playoff run was just something magical and legendary.

[J-ALL-DAY]

7 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

I am of course super biased, but I just think Flacco doing what he did against the competition he played against and being perfect and getting Superbowl MVP to me was the greatest I've ever seen. 

Looking at their stats:

	Passing															Rushing
Rk	Player	Year	G	QBrec	Cmp	Att	Cmp%	Yds	TD	Rate	Lng	Int	Sk	Yds	Y/A	AY/A	NY/A	ANY/A	Att	Yds	TD	Y/A	Lng
1	Joe Flacco	2012	4	4-0-0	73	126	57.9	1140	11	117.2	70	0	6	38	9.0	10.79	8.35	10.02	8	16	0	2.0	14
2	Joe Montana*	1989	3	3-0-0	65	83	78.3	800	11	146.4	72	0	1	0	9.6	12.29	9.52	12.14	5	19	0	3.8	10

Montana clearly has the edge in stats. Flacco's bulk passing yards are likely because he had 53 more attempts and only 8 more completions. But idk how much weight you also put on the modern-era vs. the '89 era of football + Montana having prime Jerry Rice and Roger Craig out there.

I won't go to bat for Joe Flacco under many circumstances, but that 2012 playoff run was just something magical and legendary.

I mean it was easier to throw the ball in 2012 than it was in 1989. The average QB rating in 1989 was 75.6 compared to 85.6 in 2012 while the average passing yards per game went up by 20 yards. The completion percentage difference was also increased by five from that period. So not sure what you mean about modern era vs 89 era of football?

Flacco had an amazing run with his team being underdogs in three of those games...Montana was just simply FLAWLESS, in an era where it was tougher to throw the ball in. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by J-ALL-DAY

[BayRaider]

6 hours ago, Danger said:

The Eli Manning years really don't measure up frankly.

?

You realize this doesn’t include the regular season at all right?

[Tightspiral7]

I'm starring to feel like a grumpy old man, because I'm convinced that there's a lot of guys on here that just look at stats, and have never actually watched any full games of pre-90s QBs, which is sad given the YouTube age.

Football didn't start in 2000.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Tightspiral7

[Danger]

1 hour ago, BayRaider said:

?

You realize this doesn’t include the regular season at all right?

Yeah?
 

2007:
72/119, 854 Yards, 60.5% 7.2 YPA, 6 TD - 1 INT, 95.7 Rating

2011:
106/163, 1219 Yards, 65.0%, 7.5 YPA, 9 TD - 1 INT, 103.3 Rating

Which are solid, and good numbers respectively in their own right, but not anywhere near all time great. The anti-patriots tinted glasses most people have make these seem more impressive.

[BayRaider]

10 minutes ago, Danger said:

Yeah?
 

2007:
72/119, 854 Yards, 60.5% 7.2 YPA, 6 TD - 1 INT, 95.7 Rating

2011:
106/163, 1219 Yards, 65.0%, 7.5 YPA, 9 TD - 1 INT, 103.3 Rating

Which are solid, and good numbers respectively in their own right, but not anywhere near all time great. The anti-patriots tinted glasses most people have make these seem more impressive.

Those seasons are both in line with majority of the list. The YPA is a little less, but both postseasons are stellar. This has absolutely nothing to do with Anti-Patriots, didn’t even cross my mind. In retrospect, it actually probably has to do with Anti-Giants on your end considering you are an Eagles fan. Both of Eli’s postseasons are highly regarded among fans, journalists, and rankings across the web. 
 

Edit: You’re also forgetting his 07 run was probably the toughest ever in history of the sport. @TB, @DAL which was one of the best Dallas teams of all time, @GB which was one of the best Packers teams of all time, and vs NE who were 18-0. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by BayRaider

[wackywabbit]

I have the same qualm about 2007 Eli. 07 Giants was an impressive "team" run, but the offensive side of the ball was just playing average ball (24, 21, 23 in OT, and 17 points). If Eli was playing great the offense would frankly have scored more points, especially with an elite defense stopping the other team. It's a joke that the SB MVP was a QB on an offense that put up 17. I can see 2011 Eli, but definitely not 07.

I'd put 3 of Tom's old man super bowls (2014, 2016, and 2020) above that Eli run without hesitation. The latter two (16 and 20) should be on the top 15 list. The Pats offense averaged over 34 a game in 16 and Brady was key to the greatest comeback never (not one good drive like 07 Eli). 20 Bucs also put up 30+ in each game. 

[JetsCrash]

'89 Montana and '12 Flacco are definitely 1A and 1B for me. To round out the top of the list, I would have to say '94 Steve Young, '88 Montana, and '92 Aikman.

[SkippyX]

Are we talking stats or performance? Foles was godlike vs Minnesota and New England and he was very good in terrible conditions vs Atlanta (way better than Ryan)

Watch the first drive vs Minny. He puts the ball in a 45-50 yard basket to a blanketed Torrey Smith who drops it. Then he hits Trey Burton on a rope of a 15-20 yard sideline pass and Burton fat foots it out of bounds by jumping when he did not have to. The flea flicker pass later on to Smith was perfection.

In the Super Bowl his interception hit Alshon Jefferey in the shoulder (Gilmore with uncalled PI grabbing his arm).

His PFF grades for those last 2 games had to be in the high 90s. Foles had a 115.7 rating that playoffs but he played more like 130.

 

Likewise Rodgers 2010 was better than his stats. He had a bunch of drops in the middle of that Super Bowl (yes, the Chicago game was ugly)

I felt like he could score at will in that Philly game. He was just being methodical. If Vick somehow scored then he would just score again. 

I felt the same way about the Dez catch/no catch in a later year (Rodgers would have just scored again)

 

Montana '89 is the best. Flacco '12 is not far behind.

Edited February 23, 2022 by SkippyX

[SkippyX]

Young 94 takes some looking into.

His passing stats were not great in the first 2 rounds but he ran for 125 yards and 2 TDs at 6+ a pop on top of his 9 TDs to 0 picks.

He also beat a dynasty in that NFCCG

SD did not belong on the field with SF but neither did Denver in 1989.

Its one thing to beat an overmatched team. Its another to throw 6 TDs in a Super Bowl. It was 42-10 with 5 TD passes in the 3rd quarter.

That SF offense led by Young was as dominant as the '85 Bears or '02 Bucs D's were in their SBs.

I'd put Young in the top 5.