QBs: Career Playoff Drive Stats (2012 edition)

By Scott Kacsmar
Cold, Hard Football Facts Comeback King

To celebrate Groundhog Day and another classic quarterback duel in Super Bowl XLVI, the Captain is back again with this year’s update to the Career Playoff Drive Stats he compiled almost a year to the day on Pro-Football-Reference.com.
 
We implore you to visit that link if you never have before, as much of the players’ data remains unchanged, and rather than repeat the same things from last year, you can read the various observations there, and see the expanded tables that are compressed here (to fit the screen). You can also compare how a couple of games from this year can really change the stats from one year ago; especially for a player with few games played like Aaron Rodgers.
 
Last year we looked at 24 different quarterbacks from 1980-present, and this time we have added Joe Flacco to the mix, making a list with 13 active players and a dozen retired. Six of our active quarterbacks made the playoffs this season, thus changes to their statistics. The total number of drives analyzed is 3,679.
 
Observations this year will be based on the active players, and particularly the ones that played in this year’s playoffs. Again, please visit last year’s edition for more analysis.
 
Disclaimer: The stats presented here are in the quarterback's name, but even more than usual this is really about the team's offensive performance as a whole rather than the individual quarterback. There are certain parts, like the stats on turnovers, that are mostly all about the quarterback, but overall drive stats are very much a team stat. There are of course drives where a quarterback does nothing but hand the ball off every play. The entry "Joe Montana" is another way of saying "1981-90 49ers, 1993-94 Chiefs.”
 
Also of note is the attempt to include every drive a QB played in during the playoffs; whether or not they started the game did not matter. Steve Young only has his 14 starts and game against the 1987 Vikings when he replaced Montana in the third quarter included. Troy Aikman, John Elway, Mark Brunell, Dave Krieg, and Randall Cunningham also participated in at least one game they did not start.  Kneel down drives at the end of either half are excluded.
 

The Data

Our first table is the general (but very important) group of drive stats. Active players are in bold. Yds/Dr represents the net yards per drive. Gross yards, such as the ones in the analysis of New England’s Super Bowl defenses this week, were not kept. QB TOs are all the interceptions and lost fumbles by the quarterback, and that total is divided by the number of drives to get TOs/Dr. The LOS/Dr is the average starting field position. Table is sorted by descending Pts/Dr.    
 

Quarterbacks - Playoff Drive Stats

QB	Games	Drives	Yds/Dr	Pts	Pts/Dr	TD	TD/Dr	Punts/Dr	QB TOs	TOs/Dr	LOS/Dr
Aaron Rodgers	6	64	37.02	165	2.58	21	0.328	0.328	7	0.109	28.06
Drew Brees	9	106	36.10	264	2.49	32	0.302	0.321	7	0.066	27.39
Steve Young	15	141	34.63	347	2.46	44	0.312	0.333	18	0.128	31.44
Troy Aikman	16	164	32.81	400	2.44	48	0.293	0.329	19	0.116	33.12
Kurt Warner	13	144	33.65	338	2.35	42	0.292	0.354	17	0.118	32.69
Ben Roethlisberger	14	154	30.82	343	2.23	41	0.266	0.364	19	0.123	31.82
Joe Montana	23	248	32.41	534	2.15	66	0.266	0.395	22	0.089	31.62
John Elway	22	239	32.03	509	2.13	61	0.255	0.385	26	0.109	31.79
Peyton Manning	19	200	35.13	418	2.09	44	0.220	0.340	20	0.100	27.62
Jim Kelly	17	195	30.89	405	2.08	46	0.236	0.328	31	0.159	33.18
Tom Brady	21	228	31.02	469	2.06	52	0.228	0.408	22	0.096	31.48
Brett Favre	24	274	29.97	555	2.03	65	0.237	0.358	35	0.128	33.22
Matt Hasselbeck	11	133	28.22	260	1.95	29	0.218	0.451	9	0.068	32.08
Warren Moon	10	107	32.37	200	1.87	22	0.206	0.308	18	0.168	28.01
Dan Marino	18	205	28.64	366	1.79	44	0.215	0.380	29	0.141	30.56
Jake Delhomme	8	93	29.61	166	1.78	19	0.204	0.452	12	0.129	30.35
Eli Manning	10	111	28.53	195	1.76	21	0.189	0.441	9	0.081	30.53
Philip Rivers	7	77	29.69	132	1.71	16	0.208	0.455	10	0.130	31.19
Donovan McNabb	16	187	27.48	314	1.68	34	0.182	0.401	25	0.134	31.99
Joe Flacco	9	104	23.20	170	1.63	18	0.173	0.462	10	0.096	34.47
Mark Brunell	11	113	26.42	176	1.56	19	0.168	0.398	14	0.124	31.16
Steve McNair	10	117	26.97	180	1.54	19	0.162	0.410	13	0.111	32.34
Tony Romo	4	45	28.09	67	1.49	7	0.156	0.400	4	0.089	28.64
Randall Cunningham	10	125	25.64	183	1.46	19	0.152	0.432	14	0.112	32.09
Dave Krieg	11	105	23.36	138	1.31	16	0.152	0.543	10	0.095	31.57

 
Two games later, and Aaron Rodgers has fallen from scintillating numbers of 39.43 Yds/Dr and 2.88 Pts/Dr, to a more believable, but still excellent 37.02 Yds/Dr and 2.58 Pts/Dr. Both numbers are the highest.
 
Drew Brees ranks second in each after two huge games this postseason. Brees maintains his top ranking in fewest TOs/Dr, and now has sunk below Peyton Manning for the worst average starting field position (27.39). In general, starting field position got worse in 2011 because of the new kickoff rule, and in two playoff games against Detroit and San Francisco, the Saints’ LOS/Dr was just the 24.32.
 
Ben Roethlisberger continued his streak of the Steelers scoring 20+ points in all 14 of his playoff starts, and he ranks between Kurt Warner and Joe Montana in Pts/Dr.
 
Tom Brady jumped from 1.94 Pts/Dr to 2.06, starting with a 45-point outburst against the Broncos. While the general story is the AFC Championship against Baltimore was an off-game by Brady, there was a four-drive stretch where the Patriots scored 20 points, and finished the game with 23 points on 9 drives (2.56 Pts/Dr against an elite Baltimore defense).
 
Eli Manning, great playoff run included, still finds himself in the bottom half of the list when it comes to both yardage and points. He does rank third in TOs/Dr.
 
Then there’s the new entry, Joe Flacco. If anyone was looking for the ammo to hammer his “winner” reputation in the postseason (5-4 record), here it is. Despite having the best field position (34.47), Flacco is 20^th in Pts/Dr, last in Yds/Dr, and only Dave Krieg led his offense to a higher rate of punts.
 
Flacco and the Ravens also most frequently go three and out on offense in the playoffs:
 

Offense - 3 And Out %

QB	Games	Drives	3OUT%
Joe Flacco	9	104	31.7
Dave Krieg	11	105	30.5
Matt Hasselbeck	11	133	27.1
Mark Brunell	11	113	25.7
Eli Manning	10	111	24.3
Jake Delhomme	8	93	23.7
Tom Brady	21	228	23.7
Peyton Manning	19	200	22.5
Dan Marino	18	205	22.4
Steve McNair	10	117	22.2
Donovan McNabb	16	187	21.9
Joe Montana	23	248	21.4
Philip Rivers	7	77	20.8
Randall Cunningham	10	125	20.8
Jim Kelly	17	195	20.0
Steve Young	15	141	19.9
Brett Favre	24	274	19.0
Drew Brees	9	106	18.9
Warren Moon	10	107	18.7
Kurt Warner	13	144	18.1
John Elway	22	239	17.6
Ben Roethlisberger	14	154	17.5
Tony Romo	4	45	15.6
Troy Aikman	16	164	15.2
Aaron Rodgers	6	64	12.5

 

Average Starting Field Position

Here is a breakdown of the average starting field position (LOS/Dr). You can see the number of drives where the offense started at exactly the 20, followed by the percentage of drives that started at the 20 or worse (<20%). Then it’s starting at your own 21-35 and 36-49, finally followed by drives started in opponent territory (Opp. 50+). The Worst GP is the worst average starting field position the quarterback had in any one game. 
 

Average Starting Field Position Breakdown

QB	Drives	LOS/Dr	20 (exact)	%	<20%	21-35	%	36-49	%	Opp. 50+	%	Worst GP
Drew Brees	106	27.39	12	11.32	41.51	39	36.79	14	13.21	9	8.49	21.64
Peyton Manning	200	27.62	33	16.50	38.50	79	39.50	29	14.50	15	7.50	15.67
Warren Moon	107	28.01	23	21.50	46.73	35	32.71	6	5.61	16	14.95	20.67
Aaron Rodgers	64	28.06	14	21.88	39.06	23	35.94	10	15.63	6	9.38	23.56
Tony Romo	45	28.64	4	8.89	40.00	12	26.67	10	22.22	5	11.11	23.50
Jake Delhomme	93	30.35	9	9.68	31.18	35	37.63	20	21.51	9	9.68	21.54
Eli Manning	111	30.53	15	13.51	34.23	40	36.04	17	15.32	16	14.41	24.09
Dan Marino	205	30.56	24	11.71	29.76	86	41.95	32	15.61	26	12.68	19.00
Mark Brunell	113	31.16	8	7.08	30.97	45	39.82	19	16.81	14	12.39	18.00
Philip Rivers	77	31.19	6	7.79	24.68	33	42.86	12	15.58	13	16.88	19.00
Steve Young	141	31.44	19	13.48	36.17	43	30.50	18	12.77	29	20.57	16.70
Dave Krieg	105	31.57	10	9.52	31.43	37	35.24	19	18.10	16	15.24	22.40
Joe Montana	248	31.62	36	14.52	34.27	89	35.89	36	14.52	38	15.32	20.20
Tom Brady	228	31.70	20	8.77	28.95	84	36.84	46	20.18	32	14.04	18.00
John Elway	239	31.79	35	14.64	34.31	82	34.31	36	15.06	39	16.32	19.25
Ben Roethlisberger	154	31.82	23	14.94	30.52	56	36.36	30	19.48	21	13.64	22.78
Donovan McNabb	187	31.99	14	7.49	27.27	68	36.36	40	21.39	28	14.97	20.00
Matt Hasselbeck	133	32.08	9	6.77	21.05	65	48.87	25	18.80	15	11.28	22.10
Randall Cunningham	125	32.09	24	19.20	32.80	44	35.20	25	20.00	15	12.00	22.38
Steve McNair	117	32.34	8	6.84	23.93	49	41.88	25	21.37	15	12.82	26.33
Kurt Warner	144	32.69	19	13.19	30.56	49	34.03	29	20.14	22	15.28	22.89
Troy Aikman	164	33.12	25	15.24	31.10	57	34.76	30	18.29	26	15.85	23.10
Jim Kelly	195	33.18	26	13.33	28.21	70	35.90	37	18.97	33	16.92	21.50
Brett Favre	274	33.22	23	8.39	28.83	102	37.23	46	16.79	47	17.15	24.11
Joe Flacco	104	34.47	19	18.27	33.65	32	30.77	15	14.42	22	21.15	23.90

 
Flacco has the best field position because he’s started 21.2% of his drives in opponent territory, which is the highest percentage of all 25 quarterbacks. He’s had 22 such drives in 9 playoff games. Compare that to someone like Peyton Manning, who has just 15 drives in opponent territory in 19 games (7.5% is lowest rate).
 
On average, 13.8% of drives are started at your own 10-19. Drew Brees starts 23.6% of his drives in that range; the highest of anyone. Philip Rivers is the lowest at 7.79%.
 

Touchdown Drives

The next table looks at the touchdown drives the quarterbacks led. It is sorted by the Avg. Yds, or average length of the drive. ScoMg is the average scoring margin when the touchdown drive started. Then the distances are broken down by 70+, 80+ and 90+ for long drives, then <50 and <20 are in the opponent’s territory and red zone.
 

Average Touchdown Drive Breakdown

QB	TD	Avg. Yds	ScoMg	70+	%	80+	%	90+	%	<50	%	<20	%
Tony Romo	7	72.7	2.86	5	71.4	4	57.1	2	28.6	1	14.3	1	14.3
Peyton Manning	44	70.6	1.73	29	65.9	16	36.4	2	4.5	3	6.8	1	2.3
Philip Rivers	16	69.8	-4.13	11	68.8	2	12.5	0	0.0	3	18.8	0	0.0
Aaron Rodgers	21	68.9	-2.38	11	52.4	9	42.9	1	4.8	1	4.8	0	0.0
Warren Moon	22	68.5	-1.55	14	63.6	10	45.5	1	4.5	5	22.7	1	4.5
Drew Brees	32	68.4	-2.56	20	62.5	12	37.5	2	6.3	6	18.8	1	3.1
Jake Delhomme	19	66.2	-2.37	9	47.4	5	26.3	2	10.5	2	10.5	1	5.3
Eli Manning	21	65.8	0.14	10	47.6	7	33.3	1	4.8	3	14.3	1	4.8
Steve McNair	19	64.8	-3.26	7	36.8	1	5.3	0	0.0	1	5.3	0	0.0
Brett Favre	65	64.6	-1.22	36	55.4	16	24.6	3	4.6	12	18.5	4	6.2
John Elway	61	63.7	0.08	28	45.9	21	34.4	4	6.6	14	23.0	3	4.9
Dan Marino	44	63.0	-4.41	20	45.5	9	20.5	1	2.3	10	22.7	2	4.5
Tom Brady	52	62.0	0.64	21	40.4	8	15.4	1	1.9	10	19.2	1	1.9
Mark Brunell	19	61.7	-1.53	9	47.4	3	15.8	1	5.3	3	15.8	2	10.5
Kurt Warner	42	61.7	0.95	19	45.2	8	19.0	0	0.0	9	21.4	2	4.8
Dave Krieg	16	61.2	-4.31	5	31.3	3	18.8	2	12.5	3	18.8	1	6.3
Joe Montana	66	60.8	4.15	34	51.5	16	24.2	2	3.0	18	27.3	6	9.1
Donovan McNabb	34	60.2	-2.29	15	44.1	7	20.6	2	5.9	9	26.5	3	8.8
Randall Cunningham	19	60.1	-6.47	10	52.6	5	26.3	0	0.0	5	26.3	2	10.5
Ben Roethlisberger	41	59.6	-2.59	12	29.3	5	12.2	0	0.0	9	22.0	2	4.9
Steve Young	44	58.8	3.84	17	38.6	9	20.5	3	6.8	17	38.6	1	2.3
Jim Kelly	46	58.4	1.48	13	28.3	5	10.9	0	0.0	12	26.1	2	4.3
Troy Aikman	48	58.3	3.10	22	45.8	10	20.8	3	6.3	16	33.3	6	12.5
Matt Hasselbeck	29	57.0	-3.34	11	37.9	2	6.9	0	0.0	8	27.6	2	6.9
Joe Flacco	18	49.5	2.11	7	38.9	5	27.8	0	0.0	8	44.4	5	27.8

 
Not to make this “Pile on Flacco day”, but he has a lot of glaring numbers in the playoffs. His average touchdown drive starts in opponent territory, including 5 touchdown drives that started in the red zone. Only Aikman and Montana had more with 6, but they started many more games. 27.8% of Flacco’s touchdown drives started in the red zone.
 

Average Scoring Margin

This table looks at the drives related to the scoreboard when they started. The ScoMg is again the average score margin at the start of the drive. Then it’s broken down by the number of drives when the team was behind, tied or ahead. 3SD- is the number of drives that started with the team trailing by at least three scores (17+ points since 1994 or 15+ prior). The 3SL+ is the number of drives that started with the team holding at least a three score lead. The table is sorted by descending score margin.
 

Average Scoring Margin Breakdown

QB	Drives	ScoMg	Behind	%	Tied	%	Ahead	%	3SD-	%	3SL+	%
Joe Montana	248	2.64	93	37.50	38	15.32	117	47.18	7	2.82	29	11.69
Kurt Warner	144	2.50	47	32.64	24	16.67	73	50.69	7	4.86	16	11.11
Jim Kelly	195	1.73	63	32.31	48	24.62	84	43.08	16	8.21	25	12.82
Aaron Rodgers	64	1.61	21	32.81	11	17.19	32	50.00	6	9.38	4	6.25
Troy Aikman	164	1.59	59	35.98	30	18.29	75	45.73	19	11.59	22	13.41
Tom Brady	228	1.59	61	26.75	68	29.82	99	43.42	11	4.82	13	5.70
Joe Flacco	104	1.37	41	39.42	20	19.23	43	41.35	4	3.85	10	9.62
Steve Young	141	0.66	61	43.26	23	16.31	57	40.43	16	11.35	19	13.48
Brett Favre	274	0.18	102	37.23	60	21.90	112	40.88	23	8.39	15	5.47
Ben Roethlisberger	154	0.14	56	36.36	31	20.13	67	43.51	6	3.90	2	1.30
Peyton Manning	200	-0.06	78	39.00	41	20.50	81	40.50	12	6.00	13	6.50
John Elway	239	-0.11	77	32.22	67	28.03	95	39.75	22	9.21	16	6.69
Eli Manning	111	-0.59	47	42.34	34	30.63	30	27.03	3	2.70	2	1.80
Steve McNair	117	-0.88	52	44.44	32	27.35	33	28.21	1	0.85	1	0.85
Jake Delhomme	93	-0.96	32	34.41	22	23.66	39	41.94	14	15.05	4	4.30
Warren Moon	107	-1.13	42	39.25	22	20.56	43	40.19	7	6.54	3	2.80
Tony Romo	45	-1.36	22	48.89	10	22.22	13	28.89	4	8.89	6	13.33
Donovan McNabb	187	-1.56	89	47.59	32	17.11	66	35.29	15	8.02	4	2.14
Drew Brees	106	-1.59	54	50.94	28	26.42	24	22.64	4	3.77	5	4.72
Matt Hasselbeck	133	-1.77	61	45.86	30	22.56	42	31.58	14	10.53	6	4.51
Philip Rivers	77	-1.77	39	50.65	20	25.97	18	23.38	3	3.90	0	0.00
Mark Brunell	113	-3.29	62	54.87	21	18.58	30	26.55	11	9.73	2	1.77
Dan Marino	205	-5.62	128	62.44	32	15.61	45	21.95	48	23.41	12	5.85
Dave Krieg	105	-5.62	68	64.76	18	17.14	19	18.10	17	16.19	1	0.95
Randall Cunningham	125	-6.58	88	70.40	14	11.20	23	18.40	14	11.20	2	1.60

 
Talked about it last year, but it’s still an incredible number to see: 23.4% of Dan Marino’s playoff drives started with him trailing by at least three scores.
 
Despite a 10-4 record and three Super Bowl starts, the Steelers don’t run away from teams in the playoffs under Ben Roethlisberger. He’s had a 17+ point lead on just 2 of 154 drives. Philip Rivers is 0/77.
 
No one’s taken the field in the playoffs with a lead more often than Kurt Warner (50.69%) and Aaron Rodgers 50.0%). That falls right in line with the front-running nature of their teams.
 
Consider this for Super Bowl XLVI: Eli Manning (30.63%) and Tom Brady (29.82%) have started the highest percentage of playoff drives when the game was tied. They played each other to a 0-0 tie in the first half this season. Brady (26.75%) has started the lowest percentage of drives having to play with a deficit.
 
We’ll be back next year, restocked with even more data, including the combination of drive stats and traditional stats.
 
Scott Kacsmar is a football researcher/writer who has contributed large quantities of data to Pro-Football-Reference.com, including the only standardized database of fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives. He longs for Roger Staubach & Terry Bradshaw drive data. You can send any questions or comments to Scott at smk_42@yahoo.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @CaptainComeback.

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Read more: Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Dan Marino, Drive Stats, Eli Manning, Joe Flacco, Joe Montana, Kurt Warner, NFL, playoffs, Super Bowl XLVI, Tom Brady, Tony Romo