Fourth Quarter/Overtime Game-Winning Passing Touchdowns (Part II)

by Chase Stuart on May 26, 2016

Three years ago, I looked at the career leaders in 4th quarter (and overtime) game-winning touchdown passes. That post is ready for an update, and there’s been some interesting movement at the top of the charts.

As a reminder: tracking things like game-winning touchdowns is only interesting in a trivial sort way. I looked at all games, regular and postseason, in all leagues, from 1940 (and before 1940 for postseason games) to 2015, and counted all touchdowns scored that put the player’s team ahead for good (with one exception: I did not count touchdowns scored when down by 7 and the team successfully went for two afterwards). The table below shows all players with at least 4 such game-winning touchdown passes.

Incredibly, Johnny Unitas is still the record-holder in this category. In 23 games, Unitas threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to win the game for the Colts. His first came against Washington in 1956, with his last coming 14 years later against the Bears. The table below provides a link to all 23 such fourth-quarter, game-winning touchdown throws by Unitas:

Num	Year	Opp	Boxscore	Date	Trailing By	Score Before	Score After	Receiver
1	1956	was	Boxscore	12/23/1956	-4	17-13	19-17	Jim Mutscheller
2	1957	sfo	Boxscore	11/24/1957	-1	21-20	27-21	Alan Ameche
3	1958	det	Boxscore	09/28/1958	-1	15-14	21-15	Raymond Berry
4	1959	det	Boxscore	10/11/1959	0	24-24	31-24	Raymond Berry
5	1959	chi	Boxscore	10/18/1959	0	7-7	14-7	Lenny Moore
6	1959	ram	Boxscore	12/12/1959	-2	26-24	31-26	Jerry Richardson
7	1960	gnb	Boxscore	11/06/1960	0	24-24	31-24	Raymond Berry
8	1960	chi	Boxscore	11/13/1960	-3	20-17	24-20	Lenny Moore
9	1961	sfo	Boxscore	12/03/1961	-4	17-13	20-17	Jimmy Orr
10	1962	ram	Boxscore	09/16/1962	-4	27-23	30-27	Jimmy Orr
11	1962	was	Boxscore	12/08/1962	-1	21-20	27-21	Jimmy Orr
12	1962	min	Boxscore	12/16/1962	-3	17-14	21-17	Raymond Berry
13	1963	sfo	Boxscore	09/22/1963	-4	14-10	17-14	Jimmy Orr
14	1963	min	Boxscore	11/17/1963	-4	34-30	37-34	Jimmy Orr
15	1963	ram	Boxscore	12/15/1963	-3	16-13	19-16	Tom Matte
16	1964	min	Boxscore	11/15/1964	-4	14-10	17-14	Alex Hawkins
17	1965	ram	Boxscore	10/24/1965	-6	20-14	21-20	Jimmy Orr
18	1965	phi	Boxscore	11/21/1965	-4	24-20	27-24	Jimmy Orr
19	1966	chi	Boxscore	12/04/1966	-2	16-14	21-16	Raymond Berry
20	1967	gnb	Boxscore	11/05/1967	-4	10-6	13-10	Willie Richardson
21	1969	atl	Boxscore	10/05/1969	0	14-14	21-14	John Mackey
22	1970	oti	Boxscore	10/11/1970	-3	20-17	24-20	Roy Jefferson
23	1970	chi	Boxscore	11/29/1970	-6	20-14	21-20	John Mackey

Tom Brady was at 15 game-winning touchdown throws three years ago, but threw two in 2013, two in 2014 (both in the playoffs), and one last year. It will obviously depend on how long Brady remains both active and at the top of his game, but he seems to have a very good chance of at least tying Unitas before his career ends.

Rk	Quarterback	Count
1	Johnny Unitas	23
2	Tom Brady	20
3	Dan Marino	19
4	Brett Favre	18
4	Fran Tarkenton	18
6	Jay Cutler	17
6	Vinny Testaverde	17
8	Eli Manning	16
8	Peyton Manning	16
8	Drew Bledsoe	16
8	Joe Montana	16
12	Dave Krieg	15
12	Terry Bradshaw	15
12	Sonny Jurgensen	15
15	Drew Brees	14
15	Y.A. Tittle	14
17	Carson Palmer	13
17	Tony Romo	13
17	Ron Jaworski	13
20	Philip Rivers	12
20	John Elway	12
20	Warren Moon	12
20	John Brodie	12
24	Matthew Stafford	11
24	Ben Roethlisberger	11
24	Neil O'Donnell	11
24	Steve Bartkowski	11
24	Joe Ferguson	11
29	Matt Hasselbeck	10
29	Jon Kitna	10
29	Jim Kelly	10
29	Ken Stabler	10
29	Norm Snead	10
34	Aaron Rodgers	9
34	Jake Delhomme	9
34	Mark Brunell	9
34	Randall Cunningham	9
34	Ken O'Brien	9
34	Dan Fouts	9
34	Charley Johnson	9
34	George Blanda	9
34	Bobby Layne	9
43	Babe Parilli	8
43	Cam Newton	8
43	Russell Wilson	8
43	Andrew Luck	8
43	Joe Flacco	8
43	Kerry Collins	8
43	Marc Bulger	8
43	Jake Plummer	8
43	Aaron Brooks	8
43	Trent Green	8
43	Jeff Blake	8
43	Jay Schroeder	8
43	Tommy Kramer	8
43	Brian Sipe	8
43	Craig Morton	8
43	Roger Staubach	8
43	Joe Namath	8
43	Daryle Lamonica	8
43	Len Dawson	8
43	Charlie Conerly	8
43	Norm Van Brocklin	8
64	Matt Ryan	7
64	Kurt Warner	7
64	Elvis Grbac	7
64	Troy Aikman	7
64	Steve Young	7
64	Boomer Esiason	7
64	Bubby Brister	7
64	Doug Williams	7
64	Jim Plunkett	7
64	Joe Theismann	7
64	Jim Hart	7
64	Ken Anderson	7
64	Sammy Baugh	7
77	Ryan Fitzpatrick	6
77	Mark Sanchez	6
77	Donovan McNabb	6
77	Jeff Garcia	6
77	Trent Dilfer	6
77	Rich Gannon	6
77	Chris Chandler	6
77	Bobby Hebert	6
77	Don Majkowski	6
77	Phil Simms	6
77	Steve DeBerg	6
77	Chris Miller	6
77	Steve Grogan	6
77	Marc Wilson	6
77	Lynn Dickey	6
77	John Hadl	6
77	Earl Morrall	6
77	Bart Starr	6
77	Don Meredith	6
77	Frank Ryan	6
77	Jack Kemp	6
77	Ed Brown	6
77	Jim Finks	6
100	Daunte Culpepper	5
100	Ryan Tannehill	5
100	Alex Smith	5
100	Andy Dalton	5
100	Josh Freeman	5
100	David Garrard	5
100	Steve McNair	5
100	Byron Leftwich	5
100	Brad Johnson	5
100	Jim Everett	5
100	Stan Humphries	5
100	Erik Kramer	5
100	Neil Lomax	5
100	Richard Todd	5
100	Jim Zorn	5
100	Pat Haden	5
100	Roman Gabriel	5
100	Tom Flores	5
100	Rudy Bukich	5
100	Tobin Rote	5
100	Frank Tripucka	5
100	Paul Christman	5
100	Red Dunn	5
123	Derek Carr	4
123	Sam Bradford	4
123	Brian Hoyer	4
123	Kyle Orton	4
123	Michael Vick	4
123	Jason Campbell	4
123	Bruce Gradkowski	4
123	Chad Pennington	4
123	Damon Huard	4
123	A.J. Feeley	4
123	Tim Couch	4
123	Mike Tomczak	4
123	Jeff Hostetler	4
123	Mark Rypien	4
123	Billy Joe Tolliver	4
123	Jim McMahon	4
123	Jack Trudeau	4
123	Don Strock	4
123	Bernie Kosar	4
123	Danny White	4
123	Bert Jones	4
123	Archie Manning	4
123	Greg Landry	4
123	Bill Munson	4
123	Bob Griese	4
123	Lamar McHan	4
123	Otto Graham	4
123	Sid Luckman	4

But let’s not forget about… Jay Cutler? With three such throws in 2013, another in 2014, and four last year (against Kansas City, San Diego, and a 4QGWTDP In Name Only against Tampa Bay), the Bears quarterback is now only three behind Brady and six behind Unitas for the record. For what it’s worth, Cutler also “lost” one such game by my 2-point conversion rule: trailing 38-31 against the Chargers in 2008, Cutler threw a 4th-and-4 touchdown and then the two-point conversion to Eddie Royal, but that doesn’t go down as a 4QGWTDP by this system. Then again, maybe Cutler doesn’t really deserve credit for that one, anyway.

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