Bart Starr

1960 - 21 34 178 1 0 20
Comments - This was our infamous loss to the Eagles, where Vince Lombardi said he never wanted to lose another Playoff loss again.

1961 - 10 17 164 3 0 38
Comments - Holy ****! A near perfect game. We beat the Giants 37-0 to win Lombardi's 1st Championship of the 60s.

1962 - 9 21 85 0 0 17
Comments - A nasty defensive battle. Nothing works for rushing and passing for both teams. Starr lays up a turd, but the Packers still pull out a win by four points.

1965 - 10 18 147 1 1 47
Comments - This is the first of 3 straight Championships for the almighty Packers of the 60s. Starr didn't have to do much, but was efficient.

SB I - 16 23 250 10.9 2 1 37 116.2
Comments - Besides that INT, a near perfect game. Starr gets the first SB MVP.

SB II - 13 24 202 8.4 1 0 62 96.2
Comments - Starr gets his 2nd SB MVP.

Summary - In six Championships, Starr has 8 TDs and 2 INTs, 2 SB MVPs, and only laid one turd.

Otto Graham

Sorry everyone. No stats prior to 1950, so I only have 1950 on.
1950 - 22 33 298 4 1 39
Comments - Graham throws for 4 TDs in a 30-28 shootout win against the Rams. Graham and the Browns win the Championship

1951 - 19 40 280 1 3 26
Comments - Rams get their revenge. Graham lays a turd in the loss with 3 INTs.

1952 - 20 35 191 0 1 32
Comments - The Lions win this Championship. Graham has a mediocre day.

1953 - 2 15 20 0 2 13
Comments - Yikes. This looks like a misprint, this was so bad. What's this rating? I bet something close to zero. Oh, the Browns lost to the Lions. No surprise looking at those pathetic stats.

1954 - 9 12 163 3 2 45
Comments - Absolutely incredible day for Graham. What you don't see in these stats is that Graham ran for another 3 TDs. That gives him 6 TDs total in this revenge slaughter of the Lions.

1955 - 14 25 209 2 3 50
Comments - And in Graham's very last game, they win yet another Championship. What's not seen once again is that Graham can run. Add 2 TD runs to those stats.

Summary - A big incomplete. I can't honestly say one way or another without a complete record.

Joe Montana

SB 16 - 14 22 157 1 0 22 100.0
Comments - Add another TD on the ground. The Niner rushing game is awful and Montana does what he has to do to win this game.

SB 19 - 24 35 331 3 0 40 127.2
Comments - Add another TD on the ground. As if his performance in SB 16 was impressive, this one tops it. He's absolutely incredible against Miami.

SB 23 - 23 36 357 2 0 44
Comments - Montana is incredible in the air. Jerry Rice has 215 receiving yards, but the most important play of the game was the only pass John Taylor caught, the TD catch in the very last drive of the game where the Niners won 20-16. This drive was one of the most clutch drives of all-time in one of the most exciting SBs of all-time.

SB 24 - 22 29 297 5 0 38 147.6
Comments - Montana is near perfect in one of the best SB performances ever by a QB. The guy on the other side, John Elway, stinks it up with zero TDs and 2 INTs. The other thing that is impressive is the Niner running game stalls. Lots of carries, not that many yards. So the scoring comes via Joe Montana's highly accurate arm.

Summary - 4 SBs, 4 SB wins. 11 TDs, 0 INTs. Yes, that's right, 11 TDs and 0 INTs. 2 TDs rushing. SB MVP in '81, '84, '89.

That, my friends, is clutch. So, when we talk clutch, if Joe Montana isn't the first name that comes to your head, you didn't read this post.

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Why do you only look at one game?

dhazer hit it right one the head. He won 5 AFC Championship games to get to 5 Super bowls. He was 2-3 in Super Bowls which isn't bad.

1, TD, 1 INT for 244 yards against Cleveland in 86.

3 TD's, 1 INT, for 281 yards against Cleveland in 87.

3 TD's 0 INT's for 385 yards against Cleveland in 89.

2 TD's 1 INT for 210 yards against Pittsburgh in 97.

1 TD, 0 INT for 173 yards against the Jets in 98.

10 TD's 3 INT's for give or take 1,300 yards in five AFC Championship Games.

If you don't think AFC or NFC Title games are big or clutch then I would ask this.

Was the ICE Bowl a big game?

Obviously it was and so were those games.

Yes he had Terrell Davis to thank. Just like Montana might not be the player he was without Bill Walsh. No way is Favre the player he is without Mike Holmgren and no GB doesn't win a Super Bowl without the likes of Reggie White or even Leroy Butler or dare I say Fritz Shurmur. Goes on and on. Football is a team sport period.

Elway played on inferior teams that went up against some of the best teams of all time. That San Fran team is No. 1 in a lot of people's eyes.

I don't need numbers to tell me Elway was good. I need my eyes. Brady was never a numbers player outside of his one season. Manning was. Who is better?

I'll take Brady on the field.

Same way I look at Elway. Not a numbers man although five of his final six seasons were statistically respectable. I'll take him because when the going got tough, he got going. Denver never had a shot in those other three games. I doubt any of the top AFC Teams of that time could've beaten the 3rd or 4th best NFC Team. Maybe the Bills, but it was one sided then. Way more now than ever and people think it's one sided now.

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It's hard to be "clutch" when your team is always blowing their opponents out. Doesnt give you much chance to be clutch.

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Porky - You and I will just have to agree to disagree. I spent enough time researching stats that show that Elway folded in SBs. He was downright awful. Horrible.

So, he got you there, then he folded. I just don't see how folding in the SB is clutch.

And yes, it's a team sport. But it would be like Emmitt Smith fumbling 3 times each SB, or your stud LT allowing 3 sacks each SB, etc.

I saw every SB since '76, and saw Elway bumbling whereas Joe was the ultimate in cool. I'll take Joe, Steve Young, or even Tom Brady. You can have Elway.

Now to answer your question - sure the Ice Bowl was clutch, but immediately after the Ice Bowl, he got the SB MVP, so that's a bad example.

It's all about helping your team get rings. Heck, I'm not even including my favorite player ever and he was outstanding in one SB and pretty good in the other, outplaying your John Elway, who played with a superior OL and a superior RB, no offense to Dorsey Levens but let's be real.

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I'm glad to see a QB who never won a SB is named as most clutch QB of all time.

With that sort of simplistic thinking it would have been easy to knock him down the list.

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Frankly, I cringed to see Dan Marino's name on the list for much the same reason I cringed to see John Elway's name mentioned in this conversation.

Marino was king of the regular season, but he was mediocre to downright bad in the postseason. Twice he played withe the number-one defense in the league and played with a couple other top-five defenses. He had stunning running games that ground out 1900 to over 2000 yards in a season. Yet he was never able to get it done in the postseason. Consider this quote :



Clutch in the regular season Marino may have been, but not in the postseason. He had downright Elwayesque numbers in the Super Bowl.

Contrast this to the performance of Joe Namath, who won the Super Bowl not on the strength his performance, but by not making mistakes :



People like to ridicule the game managers, but the fact is they often get the job done when it counts, in situations in which more flashy quarterbacks get rattled and fold under pressure.

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ok for Elways defense and his supposedly sucking in the super bowls, i will say this. We all pretty much agree that defense wins championships so tell me what kind of qb can win games when your defense gives up these kinds of points. Look at the scores and teams they played.


super bowl 21 Giants 39 Broncos 20
super bowl 22 Redskins 42 Broncos 10
super bowl 24 49ers 55 Broncos 10
super bowl 32 Packers 24 Broncos 31
super bowl 33 Falcons 19 Broncos 34


Notice when he had a chance to be in a normal game he won.

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The fact that the defense was giving up ridiculous numbers of points doesn't excuse his own lack of output, however. In his first three Super Bowls, the offense only averaged 13.3 points a game. Even with a great defense, that's not going to win you many games. For all his Super Bowls, the Broncos averaged 21 points a game. Not terrible, but not exactly stellar either.

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Well non when your down 35-10 at halftime or 27-3 at halftime kinda puts you in a bad situation doesn't it? I think the defense will know what your going to do.

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All right, Elway lovers. More damning evidence.

Defense wins championships, right? Well, in Elway's 3 SBs that he lost, the Broncos had the #15th, the #7th, and the #1 D in the NFL. Yes, that's right. He lost a SB with the #1 D in the entire NFL.

Now, you may counter that Favre had the #1 D when we lost but you'd be wrong. We were #1 in '96, #5 in 97. In the first year Elway won it, the Broncos were #6 in D and #1 in O, with Terrell Davis rushing for 1750 yards and 15 TDs in the regular season, and one of the best OLs I've ever seen (I still think the Cows OL of the 90s was the best OL I've ever seen). In that second SB, Terrell Davis had 2008 yards rushing and 21 TDs. Wow!

Then in Elway's 5th SB, they had the #2 O and the #8 D.

So I love how Elway lovers love to say how Elway was the ONLY person on the team. Never mind in his 5 SBs, FOUR TIMES he had a top 10 D and one time he had a #1 D.

Summary - Elway folds when the stakes get high. Clutch he is not.

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