Scott Kacsmar recently wrote about how Daunte Culpepper had the worst performance of his career in his biggest game. In his only NFC Championship Game appearance, Culpepper went 13-of-28 for 78 yards with three interceptions and four sacks. Which made me wonder: how many other great quarterbacks have had their worst game in the playoffs?

I’ll define worst game using the methodology from my Greatest QB of All-Time series ^[1]For pre-2008, I will be using estimated sack data based on the following formula: Team Sacks allowed X (QB pass attempts / team pass attempts). This means I will calculate each quarterback’s ANY/A ^[2]I will also include rushing touchdowns and count them the same as passing touchdowns, but will not include any other rushing data. and compare it to league average for that season.

For example, Peyton Manning‘s worst game came in November 2007 against the Chargers. He threw for 328 yards and 2 touchdowns, but that came on 58 dropbacks and with six interceptions. He averaged 1.44 ANY/A that game, in a season where the league average was 5.52 ANY/A. That means Manning was 4.08 ANY/A below average on 58 pass plays, which gave him 239 Adjusted Net Yards below average. The table below shows some of the top quarterbacks in NFL history and which games were their worst. For quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas and Bart Starr, the records are incomplete, as our individual games database only goes back to 1960. The “VALUE” column shows how many Adjusted Net Yards each quarterback was below average.

Philip Rivers had the worst game of his career in that miraculous meltdown against Denver last year, although that wasn’t Rivers’ worst day ever. In addition to Culpepper, a few other quarterbacks in the above table had their worst game in the playoffs. Roger Staubach also had his worst performance come in an NFC Championship Game, but since it came after he had already won a Super Bowl, no one questioned his clutchness. The Vikings had a great defense and 1973 was a brutal passing environment, but by any measure, 10/21 for 89 yards with 4 interceptions and 3 sacks in a home playoff game is pretty bad.

Daryle Lamonica went 13/17 and threw 6 touchdowns and 276 yards in a 56-7 blowout win over the Oilers in the first round of the AFL playoffs in 1969. That’s one of the great playoff performances in football history, but a week later, he had the worst game of his career against the Chiefs (Lamonica also threw 5 TDs and 0 INTs in a 41-6 playoff rout of the Chiefs a year earlier). So much for momentum.

Tommy Kramer and Elvis Grbac had miserable performances in the divisional round of the playoffs. For Grbac, he retired after the implosion against the Steelers. But Pittsburgh has been on the wrong end of things in even bigger stakes: Neil O’Donnell had a solid career, but his Larry Brown-fueled disaster in the Super Bowl will be his lasting memory for many NFL fans.

Many other quarterbacks have had terrible Super Bowls, but they just didn’t show up as the quarterback’s worst game. Rich Gannon had a terrible game back in 1990, while Jim Kelly‘s performance in Super Bowl XXVI was only the third worst performance of his career. Craig Morton was also profiled in Kacsmar’s post — Scott argued that Morton’s worst game came in his biggest, Super Bowl XII against the Cowboys. Morton went 4/15 for 4 interceptions, so it’s hard to argue with Kacsmar’s takeaway. And it was certainly the biggest game of his career, considering the stakes and his opponent. But because he had under 20 pass plays, Morton (ANY/A of -8.8) only was credited with 215 yards below average. His performance against the Raiders in 1980 narrowly edged his ugly game in the Super Bowl (as did a game against Green Bay in 1965) due to the larger number of attempts.

We can also look at each quarterback’s best game using the same formula.

I’ll let you guys comment on this one, but one name left off the above list was Y.A. Tittle (because his career started in 1948). Tittle had one of the great games of all time with 450 Adjusted Net Yards above average in this monster win against the Redskins.