What’s the NFL record for passing touchdowns in a playoff game? originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
You know you had quite the game when you finish with more passing touchdowns than incompletions.
That’s exactly what Bills star quarterback Josh Allen did on Saturday in Buffalo’s 47-17 wild card round victory over the AFC East rival New England Patriots.
Led by Allen, the Bills became the first team in the Super Bowl era to score a touchdown on each of their first seven possessions of a playoff game, according to Elias Sports Bureau. The streak came to an end when Buffalo was running out the clock on the game’s final possession.
Not only did Buffalo’s offense as a whole make history, but Allen himself did as well thanks to a ridiculous stat line.
The fourth-year signal caller went 21 of 25 through the air for 308 yards and five touchdowns, in addition to rushing six times for 66 yards. He’s the first quarterback in NFL postseason history to have a performance of at least 300 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and 60 rushing yards, per Pro Football Reference.
And Allen came just one passing touchdown shy of making even more history.
Who’s thrown the most passing touchdowns in an NFL playoff game?
There’s a three-way tie for the record of most touchdown passes in a postseason game. Daryle Lamonica originally set the record back in 1969, when he threw for six touchdowns in the then-Oakland Raiders’ AFL divisional round rout of the Houston Oilers. Lamonica actually tied Sid Luckman’s record mark of five passing TDs in the previous year’s AFL divisional round against the Kanas City Chiefs.
Lamonica’s record was untouched for more than two decades before Steve Young passed for six TDs in the San Francisco 49ers‘ Super Bowl 29 win over the then-San Diego Chargers. Young broke Joe Montana‘s Super Bowl record of five passing touchdowns with his performance, and no one has matched either quarterback’s mark in a Super Bowl since.
The only other QB to throw six passing touchdowns in the postseason? Tom Brady, of course.
Brady accomplished the feat as a member of the Pats in 2012, powering a divisional round blowout victory over Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos.
Josh Allen joins eight other signal callers who have thrown for exactly five scores in a postseason game. Prior to Allen, Patrick Mahomes was the most recent one to do so, with his five-TD game in 2020 leading a furious Chiefs comeback victory over the Houston Texans in the divisional round.
Lamonica and Kurt Warner are the only quarterbacks to throw for at least five touchdowns in multiple playoff games. Like Lamonica, Warner did it twice, with five touchdowns in the then-St. Louis Rams’ divisional round win over the Minnesota Vikings in 2000 and another five TDs 10 years later with the Arizona Cardinals in a wild card round victory against the Green Bay Packers.
Here’s a look at the 13 times a quarterback has thrown for at least five passing touchdowns in a postseason game, according to Pro Football Reference:
Tom Brady, AFC divisional round (2012): 6
Steve Young, Super Bowl 29 (1995): 6
Daryle Lamonica, AFL divisional round (1969): 6
Josh Allen, AFC wild card round (2022): 5
Patrick Mahomes, AFC divisional round (2020): 5
Ben Roethlisberger, AFC divisional round (2018): 5
Kurt Warner, NFC wild card round (2010): 5
Peyton Manning, AFC wild card round (2004): 5
Kerry Collins, NFC Championship Game (2001): 5
Kurt Warner, NFC divisional round (2000): 5
Joe Montana, Super Bowl 24 (1990): 5
Daryle Lamonica, AFL divisional round (1968): 5
Sid Luckman, 1943 NFL Championship Game: 5