There have been 18 400-yard passing games in postseason history, including outings by Kelly Holcomb and Jeff George, and Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning has three of them after Sunday’s 400-yard performance against the Patriots.
That ties Drew Brees for the most by any individual quarterback and the Broncos’ 26-16 win raises the record of teams with a 400-yard passer to 7-11. Manning’s personal record is 2-1, with today’s win joining a 2005 win over the Broncos and a 2008 loss to the Chargers.
There were some reports that it was the first time that a quarterback had thrown for 400 yards against a Bill Belichick defense, but that’s not true. It was actually the third time it happened this season and Chad Henne, Kurt Warner and Vince Young have all done it in the past. Sacks dropped the teams’ total passing yards under 400 each time, but that’s a distinction without much of a difference since Matt Ryan wound up with 399 passing yards this year if you subtract the lost yardage from sacks.
Manning also has the most 300-yard passing games in postseason history and Sunday’s win gives him a good chance to end the season with the most career postseason passing yards. Tom Brady had 277 yards to push his career total to 6,424 yards and Manning is just behind him with 6,309 yards so, win or lose, the record will likely be his after the Super Bowl comes to an end.