And honestly, I have been defending Montana as the greatest QB of all time since 1997.
Up until last year. They are at worst, on equal footing when you take everything (regular Season and Playoffs) into consideration.
But that man completed nearly 75% of hiss passes for over 300 yards and 4 Touchdowns against arguably one of the greatest defenses of all time for a single season.
Newsflash. The best defense that Montana faced in a Super Bowl was Miami's Killer B's defense, and they were nowhere on the level of the Seahawks.
Sorry, but Seattle defense last year was nowhere near the defense they were the year before. And let's not ignore the fact Brady through 2 INTs and would have lost the game if not for a CB intercepting a pass on 1st and goal from the NE 1 with less than 30 seconds left.
Also. Don't exaggerate. Broncos D in 1989 was Number 1 total D and Number 1 Scoring D in the NFL allowing only 14.1 ppg. For reference, Seattle's D allowed 15.9 PPG last year. Montana put up 55 points on the best D in the NFL in a Super Bowl. Didn't throw a single INT.
Of course revisionist history forgets these things and says that Broncos D was terrible.
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Plus, talking about stinkers by Montana. Let's reference all-time choke jobs by Brady against the Giants. Seriously, going from the highest scoring offense of all time (at the time) 36.8 PPG, unbeaten in 2007, to putting up 14 points on the Giants. A defense that ranked 17th in Total D and Scoring D during the regular season.
Biggest upset in SB history, and absolutely massive choke by Brady. Brady has a fumble and a TD pass in the game after throwing 50 TD passes in the regular season.
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Add to this that Montana played in a conference with 3 all-time great teams in the 80s Redskins, Giants, Bears... while Brady has played in a rather weak AFC with prime competition being Peyton and Ben... Brady has had a far easier path to get to SBs for his entire career. The free agency argument works multiple ways. There aren't the cupcake teams there were then, but there is also nowhere near the competition at the top of the AFC there was in the NFC during Montana's days. That's not even debatable.
Brady won a SB while throwing 1 TD in 3 playoff games his first year. How anyone can even suggest he deserves credit in that year is hilarious. He threw 1 TD-1 INT in an entire playoffs. How he was given the SB MVP that year for 59% passing, 145 Yrds, and 1 TD against the Rams is one of the most laughable things in SB MVP history.
Brady won his first 3 SBs while throwing 1 TD in 3 games in '02, 5 tds in 3 games in '04, 5 tds in 3 games in '05. Montana never threw less than 6 TDs in SB run. 6, 7, 8, 11 in his 4 SB runs. Brady threw for under 200 yards/game in the playoffs in both 02 and 05. Again, Montana never once did this, his worst SB run he still threw for over 250 yards/game.
Brady has not once come anywhere close to Montana's 88 and 89 playoff runs where he threw 19 TDs-1 INT over 6 games. 1990 playoffs: 11 TDs-0 INTs, 78% completion. Put up 42 points per game. Once Brady has a playoff run like that, than we can talk about him being the greatest playoff QB of all-time. But he's certainly not there yet. He was a game-manager QB his first 3 SB runs. Those wins were on the NE defense, kicking game, and rushing game, not on Brady. Once Brady became the dominant force in the NE offence and his passing stats spiked massively, he's won 1 SB. Yep. 1.