Super Bowl Facts: Passing

 Before I dive in to today's Passing Facts, I just wanted to mention a couple of things I forgot to mention in the Rushing Facts post.

• In the past 10 Super Bowls, no running back has been named MVP.  The last time a running back won was 1997, when Terrell Davis led the Denver Broncos to victory in Super Bowl XXXII.  In fact, dating back to 1990, only 3 running backs have been awarded the Pete Rozelle Trophy: Davis, Emmitt Smith (XXVIII), and Ottis Anderson (XXV).
• Both the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers have had rushers tote the ball at least 20 times in every game they've played this postseason.  The Packers' James Stark has carried the ball 23, 27, and 22 times in each of his games, while Pittsburgh's Rashard Mendehall has games of 20 and 27 carries.  
• The Saints and the Colts had no back carry the ball more than 20 times in last season's road to the Super Bowl, while the Steelers again had two (Willie Parker, 27, 24) and the Cardinals had one (Edgerrin James, 20) in the 2009 playoffs.  

With that out of the way, on to today's Facts.  Oh, I also forgot to mention in the previous post that I'm only going over the previous 10 Super Bowls.  As much as I'd love to comb through all 44 of the previous games, I simply don't have the time.  Maybe next year.
 

• In 8 out of the past 10 Super Bowls, at least one quarterback has attempted at least 40 passes, including each of the past 3.  Only Drew Brees (40) and Peyton Manning (45) did it in the same game.
• The fewest attempts in a game over that span are Ben Roethlisberger's 21 in Super Bowl XL.  Big Ben's 9 completions in that game are also the fewest, followed by Trent Dilfer's 12 and Kerry Collins 15, both of which occurred in Super Bowl XXXV. 
• Collins edges out Big Ben's 43% completion rate in XL with his own 38% in XXXV to claim the lowest completion percentage of the past decade.  The only other QB to complete less than 50 percent of his passes was Dilfer, who connected on 48% of his 25 heaves.  
• Drew Brees, of course, completed a Super Bowl record 83% of his passes in XLIV.  Four other players eclipsed the 70 percent mark: Roethlisberger (70) and Kurt Warner (72) in XLIII; Rex Grossman (71) in XLI; and Tom Brady (70) in XXXIX.
• Grossman only threw 8 incompletions out of his 28 attempts; unfortunately, 2 of them ended up in the hands of Indianapolis defenders.  With his one touchdown pass, Grossman is one of 5 players to have a negative TD:INT ratio.  The others include Big Ben (0:2, XL); Rich Gannon (2:5; XXXVII); Kurt Warner (1:2, XXXVI); and Kerry Collins (0:4, XXXV), with Big Ben's Steelers being the only team able to overcome their QB's struggles and win. 
• Donovan McNabb is the only other QB to throw more than one interception (3, XXXIX), but he counterbalanced those miscues with 3 TD tosses, which ties Warner (XLIII), Brady (XXXVIII), and Jake Delhomme (also XXXVIII) for the most in the past 10 years.  McNabb also is the only quarterback to attempt more than 50 passes (51, 2nd most ever). 
• Delhomme is the only quarterback to average more than 10 yards per attempt (10.1).  The next highest are Kurt Warner's 8.8 and Ben Roethlisberger's 8.5, both in Super Bowl XLIII.  The lowest is, naturally, Kerry Collins, with an unreal 2.9 yards per attempt.  The bottom-feeder of the non-Kerry Collins division is, shockingly, Tom Brady, who averaged 5.4 yards per attempt in XXXVI, and then averaged 5.5 yards per attempt in XLII.
• Despite his rather anemic per attempt numbers, Brady is one of five QBs to throw for over 300 yards in a single game, tossing for 354 against the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII.  His counterpart in that game, Jake Delhomme, also surpassed 300 yards, bombing his way to 323.  The other three members of the 300-yard club include Kurt Warner (twice, with 365 in XXXVI and 377 in XLIII); Donovan McNabb (357, XXXIX); and Peyton Manning (333, XLIV).  
• The lowest yardage total is 112, achieved by (guess who?) Kerry Collins.  The other two totals under 150 yards are Roethlisberger's 123 in XL and Brady's 145 in XXXVI (games both QBs won), while the two additional members of the sub-200-yard club are Trent Dilfer (153, XXXV), and Rex Grossman (165, XLI). 
• A quarterback has been named Super Bowl MVP 5 times in the past 10 years, with Tom Brady winning the award twice (XVI, XVIII), and Drew Brees (XLIV), Eli Manning (XLII), and Peyton Manning (XLI) rounding out the group.
• Brady, with four appearances, naturally leads all QBs in all of the counting stats, with 100 attempts out of 155 completions for 1001 yards and 7 TDs ( and 3 wins, for what that's worth).  Brady's most impressive stat may be his lone interception (in Super Bowl XXXVIII), which is even more remarkable when you consider that of all of the Super Bowl QBs of the past decade, only Drew Brees, Jake Delhomme, and Trent Dilfer have thrown fewer.  
• While Brady is pretty solidly the best Super Bowl QB of the decade, I just wanted to take a second to reflect on how amazing Kurt Warner was.  In his two appearances of the past 10 years, Warner completed 59 of 87 passes (77%) for 742 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions.  Add in his record-setting performance in Super Bowl XXXIV (24-46, 414 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT), and Warner eclipses Brady's yardage total in one less game (1156-1001).  In fact, Warner owns all three of the top three passing yardage performances in Super Bowl history.  Remarkable.
• As for the worst Super Bowl QB of the past decade, is there any doubt?  Kerry Collins wins hands down (15-39, 112 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs), and is in strong consideration for the worst ever along with John Elway (10-26, 108, 0-2 in Super Bowl XXIV) and Denver's Craig Morton (4-15, 39, 0-4 in Super Bowl XII).