In Super Bowl II, Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr completed 13 of 24 passes for 202 yards, with 1 TD and no interceptions. He also took three sacks for 30 yards, and his backup was sacked once for 10 yards.
That means on 28 dropbacks, the Green Bay passing attack picked up 162 yards and produced 1 TD and 0 INTs, which translates to 142 Adjusted Net Yards. That’s an Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt average of 6.50 in Super Bowl II for Green Bay.
So was that a good performance by Starr and the Packers passing attack? No.
It was a great one. Passing efficiency was a lot different in 1967 than it is today, and the Raiders had a great pass defense. In 1966, Oakland allowed 3.14 ANY/A to opposing passers, the 3rd-best in the AFL; in 1967, that number dropped to just 2.23, the best in the AFL and third in all of pro football. And in 1968, opposing QBs averaged just 2.81 ANY/A against the Raiders. (And in 1969, it was just 2.64.)
The graph below shows every game for the Raiders defense from 1966 to 1968, in chronological order. Joe Namath consistently gave the Raiders problems, including in the famous Heidi Game in 1968. But otherwise, the Raiders pass defense tended to overwhelm most quarterbacks. On the X-Axis, we have games played in order. The Y-Axis shows the ANY/A allowed by the Raiders, shown from -6 to 14 (since the league average ANY/A was around 4.0).
Game 15 in the above chart is the first game of the ’67 season; game 29 is the last game of the 1967 AFL season, Oakland’s win over Houston. So if you want to know how good the ’67 Raiders pass defense was, look at the dots from game 15 to game 29. Then look at Game 30, which is in Packers colors and represents Super Bowl II. As you can see, in that game, Green Bay’s 6.5 ANY/A average was more than just pretty good: it was the best performance by any team against the Raiders defense all season! It was also the second straight great Super Bowl performance by Starr: he was even better the year before against the Chiefs, although it was only the second-best ANY/A performance against Kansas City’s 1966 defense.
There have been just 9 times in Super Bowl history that the winner posted the best ANY/A allowed by the opposing defense all season. After Starr pulled off this trick in Super Bowl II, Ken Stabler was the next to do so against the ’76 Vikings defense. Two years later, AP MVP Terry Bradshaw capped a dominant regular and postseason by having the best passing performance anyone had all season against the ’78 Cowboys. The 1980 Raiders had a resurgent Jim Plunkett, and aided by an 80-yard touchdown pass to Kenny King, Plunkett averaged a Super Bowl record 14.55 ANY/A against the Eagles.
You know about the 1985 Bears, but did you know that Jim McMahon had an outstanding performance in the Super Bowl, averaging 12.05 ANY/A? That marked the beginning of a 5-year stretch where the winning team had a dominant performance by their quarterback. Phil Simms and the ’86 Giants had the best ANY/A any team had all season against the Broncos, and then Joe Montana led the 49ers to the best passing performances that the ’88 Bengals and ’89 Broncos allowed all season, too. In between, the ’87 Broncos had their second-worst performance of the season against Doug Williams and the Redskins, finishing just a hair behind what the Oilers did to Denver that season (and if we looked just at Williams’s stat line, it would also rank #1 against the ’87 Broncos).
But since 1990, only one quarterback has produced the best ANY/A that the Super Bowl losing defense allowed all season. That’s John Elway against the Falcons in 1998.
The table below shows all 53 Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, and how their team’s passing offense fared against the Super Bowl opponent relative to all other passing attacks that year. Here’s how to read the table below. In 1985, the Bears led by Jim McMahon, beat the Patriots 46-10. Chicago averaged 8.93 ANY/A in the Super Bowl, which was the #1 performance by any team — in 20 tries — against New England all year. The final column shows the percentage rank — i.e., where the Super Bowl winning offense ranked divided by the number of opponents the defense had that year.
| Year | Tm | Main Passer | Opp | Result | ANY/A | Opp Rk | Opp Gs | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | CHI | Jim McMahon | NWE | W 46-10 | 8.93 | 1 | 20 | 5% |
| 1998 | DEN | John Elway* | ATL | W 34-19 | 10.72 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1989 | SFO | Joe Montana* | DEN | W 55-10 | 12.64 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1988 | SFO | Joe Montana* | CIN | W 20-16 | 9.77 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1986 | NYG | Phil Simms | DEN | W 39-20 | 12.42 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1980 | OAK | Jim Plunkett | PHI | W 27-10 | 14.55 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1978 | PIT | Terry Bradshaw* | DAL | W 35-31 | 9.59 | 1 | 19 | 5% |
| 1976 | OAK | Ken Stabler* | MIN | W 32-14 | 8.71 | 1 | 17 | 6% |
| 1967 | GNB | Bart Starr* | OAK | W 33-14 | 6.5 | 1 | 16 | 6% |
| 1999 | STL | Kurt Warner* | TEN | W 23-16 | 9.72 | 2 | 20 | 10% |
| 1992 | DAL | Troy Aikman* | BUF | W 52-17 | 11.32 | 2 | 20 | 10% |
| 2012 | BAL | Joe Flacco | SFO | W 34-31 | 9.54 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 2010 | GNB | Aaron Rodgers | PIT | W 31-25 | 8.29 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 1994 | SFO | Steve Young* | SDG | W 49-26 | 10.63 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 1991 | WAS | Mark Rypien | BUF | W 37-24 | 8.7 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 1984 | SFO | Joe Montana* | MIA | W 38-16 | 10.72 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 1979 | PIT | Terry Bradshaw* | RAM | W 31-19 | 10.19 | 2 | 19 | 11% |
| 1987 | WAS | Doug Williams | DEN | W 42-10 | 11.16 | 2 | 18 | 11% |
| 1975 | PIT | Terry Bradshaw* | DAL | W 21-17 | 10.95 | 2 | 17 | 12% |
| 1973 | MIA | Bob Griese* | MIN | W 24-7 | 7.88 | 2 | 17 | 12% |
| 1970 | BAL | Earl Morrall | DAL | W 16-13 | 5.8 | 2 | 17 | 12% |
| 1969 | KAN | Len Dawson* | MIN | W 23-7 | 4.85 | 2 | 17 | 12% |
| 1968 | NYJ | Joe Namath* | BAL | W 16-7 | 6.29 | 2 | 17 | 12% |
| 1966 | GNB | Bart Starr* | KAN | W 35-10 | 8.26 | 2 | 16 | 13% |
| 2017 | PHI | Nick Foles | NWE | W 41-33 | 9.3 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 2013 | SEA | Russell Wilson | DEN | W 43-8 | 9.46 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 2001 | NWE | Tom Brady | STL | W 20-17 | 5.31 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 1996 | GNB | Brett Favre* | NWE | W 35-21 | 7.75 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 1995 | DAL | Troy Aikman* | PIT | W 27-17 | 8.72 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 1981 | SFO | Joe Montana* | CIN | W 26-21 | 7.3 | 3 | 19 | 16% |
| 1977 | DAL | Roger Staubach* | DEN | W 27-10 | 6.73 | 3 | 17 | 18% |
| 1971 | DAL | Roger Staubach* | MIA | W 24-3 | 6.67 | 3 | 17 | 18% |
| 2009 | NOR | Drew Brees | IND | W 31-17 | 8.03 | 4 | 19 | 21% |
| 2007 | NYG | Eli Manning | NWE | W 17-14 | 6.54 | 4 | 19 | 21% |
| 2004 | NWE | Tom Brady | PHI | W 24-21 | 7.4 | 4 | 19 | 21% |
| 1990 | NYG | Jeff Hostetler | BUF | W 20-19 | 6.88 | 4 | 19 | 21% |
| 2003 | NWE | Tom Brady | CAR | W 32-29 | 7.69 | 5 | 20 | 25% |
| 1974 | PIT | Terry Bradshaw* | MIN | W 16-6 | 6.5 | 5 | 17 | 29% |
| 2014 | NWE | Tom Brady | SEA | W 28-24 | 6.08 | 6 | 19 | 32% |
| 2002 | TAM | Brad Johnson | OAK | W 48-21 | 6.18 | 6 | 19 | 32% |
| 1983 | RAI | Jim Plunkett | WAS | W 38-9 | 6.44 | 7 | 19 | 37% |
| 1982 | WAS | Joe Theismann | MIA | W 27-17 | 2.85 | 5 | 13 | 38% |
| 1972 | MIA | Bob Griese* | WAS | W 14-7 | 3.38 | 7 | 17 | 41% |
| 2000 | BAL | Trent Dilfer | NYG | W 34-7 | 5.28 | 8 | 19 | 42% |
| 2008 | PIT | Ben Roethlisberger | ARI | W 27-23 | 6.53 | 10 | 20 | 50% |
| 2016 | NWE | Tom Brady | ATL | W 34-28 | 6.43 | 10 | 19 | 53% |
| 2006 | IND | Peyton Manning | CHI | W 29-17 | 5.49 | 10 | 19 | 53% |
| 1997 | DEN | John Elway* | GNB | W 31-24 | 3.55 | 10 | 19 | 53% |
| 1993 | DAL | Troy Aikman* | BUF | W 30-13 | 5.48 | 10 | 19 | 53% |
| 2018 | NWE | Tom Brady | LAR | W 13-3 | 5.78 | 11 | 19 | 58% |
| 2011 | NYG | Eli Manning | NWE | W 21-17 | 7.02 | 11 | 19 | 58% |
| 2005 | PIT | Ben Roethlisberger | SEA | W 21-10 | 3.83 | 13 | 19 | 68% |
| 2015 | DEN | Peyton Manning | CAR | W 24-10 | 2.11 | 16 | 19 | 84% |
The worst games? Well, Peyton Manning has two of them. Playing against the top defense in the NFL in rainy conditions, Manning averaged just 5.49 ANY/A against the 2006 Bears: that was above-average against a defense that didn’t allow more than 6.67 ANY/A in any of 19 games and allowed 3.86 ANY/A, but it was still just the 10th-best game against Chicago that year. What was actually bad was Manning’s 2.11 ANY/A against the 2015 Panthers, one of the worst games by any passing offense Carolina’s defense that year.
Ben Roethlisberger against the 2005 Seahawks, Eli Manning against the 2011 Patriots, and a pair of Tom Brady Super Bowls wins (2018 Rams, 2016 Falcons — yes, really) also rank near the bottom.
What stands out to you? One thing that is interesting to me: by this metric, Brady’s performance in his first Super Bowl, against the Rams, was the only one where he ranked in the top three against that opponent.