6 3 Phil Simms left played for the New York Giants from 1979 to 1993 Super Bowl passing yards And several quarterbacks have matched or surpassed Bradshaw's four-touchdown performance Entering Super Bowl XXI in January 1987 most of the quarterback focus was on superstar John Elway of the Denver Broncos The New York Giants Phil Simms on the other hand was merely a steady starter He had played for the Giants for eight years Many fans of the team wondered whether he was good enough to win a title But Simms threw five touchdown passes and no interceptions in
the Giants two National Football Conference NFC playoff games Against the Broncos he was nearly flawless Simms came out firing in the first quarter On New York's first drive he was a perfect 6-of-6 His last pass was a six-yard touchdown strike to tight end Zeke Mowatt Despite that strong opening the Giants trailed 10-9 at halftime Simms was a solid 12-of-15 throwing for 103 yards and a touchdown But in the second half the 31-year-old was perfect Simms completed all 10 of his passes Even when tight end Mark Bavaro had a Simms pass bounce off his hands receiver Phil McConkey caught the deflection for a touchdown The Giants rolled to a 39-20 victory Simms was named the Most Valuable Player MVP after completing 88 percent of his passes on the day At the time he was the only quarterback to ever top 80 percent in a Super Bowl game Bradshaw for comparison completed only 56.1 percent of his passes in Super Bowl XIII A QUARTER TO REMEMBER Like the Giants a year earlier Washington started the second quarter of Super Bowl XXII trailing the Broncos This time Denver led 10-0 But that was about to change in a big way Entering the game no team had ever scored more than 21 points in a single Super Bowl quarter And no team had scored more than 28 in a single half But Washington exploded in the second 7
quarter against the Broncos On the team's first play quarterback Doug Williams tossed an 80-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Ricky Sanders On its own that play put Washington in the record books It tied the record for the longest pass in Super Bowl history at the time And Washington was far from done GANNON'S BAD DAY Not all Super Bowl records are ones players want to remember Rich Gannon of the Oakland Raiders was the 2002 NFL MVP Following that season he entered Super Bowl XXXVII with big expectations But when the game was over the 38-year-old quarterback had thrown a Super Bowl-record five interceptions to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers To make matters worse Tampa Bay brought three of them back for touchdowns That was also a record Just over a minute later Washington took over at its own 36-yard line Five plays later Williams hit receiver Gary Clark on a 27-yard toss Washington took a 14-10 lead Washington got the ball back with just over seven minutes left in the quarter Once again the team struck quickly On the second play of the drive running back Timmy Smith raced 58 yards down the right sideline for another score Smith was on his way to his own Super Bowl record of 204 rushing yards in the game The touchdown put Washington up 21-10 Less than three minutes later Williams threw another bomb to Sanders This 50-yarder put Washington's offense in the record 8
36 36 Timmy Smith rushed for two touchdowns in Super Bowl XXII after not scoring at all during the 1987 regular season books for the most points in a quarter Williams completed the ambush with 1:11 left in the half He threw an eight-yard scoring toss to tight end Clint Didier Denver never recovered from Washington's monster 15 minutes The final score of the game was 42-10 9
