Manning reg season QB rating: 94.9
Manning postseason QB rating: 88.4
Brady reg season QB rating: 96.4
Brady postseason QB rating: 89.1
Young reg season QB rating: 96.8
Young postseason QB rating: 86.1
Marino reg season QB rating: 86.4
Marino postseason QB rating: 77.1
Elway reg season QB rating: 79.9
Elway postseason QB rating: 79.7
Again, it is common place for nearly every QB, including those we talk about as the best ever to do worse than their regular season averages when facing tougher competition in the playoffs. It makes since, the best teams make the playoffs and teams have more ability to scout single opponents in the playoffs. So all these QBs go down, in some cases, by huge margins, but Montana not only stays on par with his regular season performances, but HE GETS BETTER.
You can say it is only a 3 point rise and try to bash Montana because of a few bad games (everyone has them, but Montana had significantly fewer than others), I'm not basing this on just the Super Bowl, but his ability to perform against the best teams each year in the playoffs overall. How can anyone argue against Montana as the QB you would take to win a single pressure packed game?
The first bold simply isn't true. It just isn't.
Kurt Warner played 13 postseason games and only had one bad performance. And in that game ('99 NFC Championship vs TB), he still threw an iconic game winning TD pass and his team won the game.
Warner's postseason QB rating (102.8) is also not only much higher than Montana's (95), but it is also bout ten points higher than his regular season QB rating (93.7). TEN POINTS. Thats
siginificantly better than the Montana 2 point improvement. Warner also owns the three most prolific SB passing games in terms of yardage.
So again, this idea that Montana's postseason exploits are untouchable is just false. He had a half dozen really bad games, he could never beat the toughest defense of his era (the Giants, who not only always beat him, but made him look really bad in the process), his total SB win and SB record has been matched by others, and Warner blows him away in terms of improving from the regular season to the playoffs.
Pretend it isn't about the SB record all you want, but it is. Essentially Warner tops Montana in every way in the postseason, except....4-0. What other argument can you make? It's 4-0 vs 1-2, or you have no other argument.
You punish Warner for a Santonio Holmes fingertip catch and Lovie Smith switching to a prevent defense, things he can not control. This is why the SB record argument is overrated, and that has been my point all along in this thread. My opinion of Brady or Eli would never change based on the result Sunday. Lazy analysis.
As for the second bold, I think these guys would argue with that point: