In what has widely been called the Year of the Quarterback, a number of records fell on the last day of the NFL season, many of them by the top quarterbacks around the league.
The most significant record to fall was Dan Marino’s 27-year-old single season passing record. Marino passed for 5,084 yards in 1984, and only one other player has joined the 5,000 yard club in the intervening years. Drew Brees passed for 5,069 yards in 2008 but he finally secured the record this season, and was joined by two other new members of the 5,000 yard club.
Brees set the mark with 5,476 passing yards and Tom Brady now holds the second best season ever with 5,235 passing yards.
Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford also joined the club in dramatic style. Stafford passed for 520 yards and 5 TDs on Sunday, in a losing effort to the Packers, to boost his season total to 5,038 yards. Eli Manning came up just short, as he ended the season with 4,933 passing yards.
Of the six highest single-season passing performances in NFL history, four of them were from the 2011 season.
Brees also set a few other records on his way to the passing yardage record. Brees broke Peyton Manning’s record for most completions, set in 2010, by completing 468 passes this year, and he holds 3 of the top 4 seasons ever for most completions. He also broke his own completion percentage record, as he completed 71.2 percent of his passes this year. The old record was 70.6 percent, which he set in 2009.
Brees was so efficient, that he broke the yardage and completion record without touching the record for most attempts, which is still held by Drew Bledsoe in 1994 with the Patriots, but Brees does hold 4 of the top 9 seasons of all time in passing attempts.
Speaking of efficiency, Aaron Rodgers broke Peyton Manning’s 2004 record for single season passing efficiency, with his total of 122.5. Manning and Rodgers are the only two quarterbacks to ever exceed 120 for an entire season.
The 49ers scored a couple of key team records on their way to a 13-3 record. The defense set an NFL record for allowing the fewest rushing TDs in NFL history since 1978, with 3. They actually were pitching a shutout for the first 14 games, but allowed 3 rushing TDs in the last 2 games.
Although their defense led the way, Alex Smith and the 49ers offense quietly tied a couple of other records for efficiency and protecting the football. Smith and the 49ers threw only 5 interceptions all season, tying the record for fewest interceptions by a team in NFL history, last done by the Patriots in 2010. The 49ers offense also gave up only 10 turnovers all season, which tied the 2010 New England Patriots for the fewest turnovers allowed in NFL history.
