Best passing teams of the Super Bowl Era

Cold, Hard Football Facts for Apr 13, 2008

Here's a look at the greatest passing teams of the Super Bowl Era, based upon Yards Per Attempt, the easy-to-understand stat that we believe is the greatest single indicator of passing success.

Click here for a complete wrap-up on the topic. One thing you'll notice is that many of the these teams were highly successful. Eight of these teams won the Super Bowl, and five others reached the Super Bowl. By contrast, the great running teams were not as successful.

Click here for a look at the best ground attacks of the Super Bowl Era and here for a look at the best ground attacks in NFL history.

GREATEST PASSING TEAMS - Super Bowl Era

	TEAM	ATT.	YARDS	YPA	RESULT
1	1989 49ers	483	4584	9.491	14-2 (Won SB XXIV)
2	2000 Rams	587	5492	9.356	10-6 (lost wildcard)
3	1968 Chiefs (AFL)	270	2492	9.230	12-2 (lost div. playoffs)
4	1988 Bengals	392	3592	9.163	12-4 (lost SB XXIII)
5	1969 Cowboys	355	3212	9.048	11-2-1 (lost div. playoffs)
6	1984 Dolphins	572	5146	8.997	14-2 (lost SB XIX)
7	2004 Colts	527	4732	8.979	12-4 (lost div. playoffs)
8	1982 Chargers	338	3021	8.938	6-3 (lost div. playoffs)
9	1976 Colts	361	3221	8.922	11-3 (lost div. playoffs)
10	1983 Packers	526	4688	8.913	8-8
11	1966 Packers	318	2831	8.903	12-2 (won SB I)
12	2001 Rams	551	4903	8.898	14-2 (los SB XXXVI)
13	1976 Raiders	361	3195	8.850	13-1 (won SB XI)
14	1969 Bengals (AFL)	308	2720	8.831	4-9-1
15	1998 Falcons	424	3744	8.830	14-2 (lost SB XXXIII)
16	1971 Falcons	285	2495	8.754	7-6-1
17	1999 Rams	530	4580	8.642	13-3 (won SB XXXIV)
18	1972 Dolphins	259	2235	8.629	14-0 (won SB VII)
19	1968 Colts	359	3094	8.618	13-1 (lost SB III
20	2004 Vikings	552	4754	8.612	8-8
21	1990 Raiders	336	2885	8.586	12-4 (lost AFC title)
22	1993 49ers	524	4480	8.550	10-6 (lost NFC title)
23	1994 49ers	511	4362	8.536	13-3 (won SB XXIX)
24	1992 49ers	480	4054	8.427	14-2 (lost NFC title)
25	1972 Jets	347	2930	8.444	7-7
26	1991 Redskins	447	3771	8.436	14-2 (won SB)
27	1998 Vikings	533	4492	8.428	15-1 (lost NFC title)
28	1971 Cowboys	361	3037	8.413	11-3 (won SB VI)

Note: In the form we use as a Quality Stat, Net Passing Yards Per Attempt involves taking total passing yards and subtracting yards lost to sacks. We then add the number of sacks to the number of passing attempts to get true Passing Yards Per Attempt – the average gained every time a team dropped back to pass.

This proved exceedingly difficult for this exercise. Namely, sacks did not become an official stat until 1982 – so calculating their impact on teams' passing efforts throughout history is virtually impossible.

Thus, for this exercise, we looked only at gross passing yards divided by attempts. It's not perfect. In fact, it's a bit inflated. But since we're looking here at only the best passing teams of all time, you can imagine that sacks would not have led to a serious change in the rankings. Let's put it this way: If a team averaged 8.8 yards every time it got off a pass, chances are their quarterbacks weren't under a lot of pressure to begin with.

By Kerry Byrne

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