There will be an unusual matchup in Indianapolis this week. Matthew Stafford torched the Bears, and he’ll be facing a defense in Week 2 that was similarly ripped up by Russell Wilson.
I have sifted through the numbers (using the sorting tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com). As best as I can tell, this is only the second game of the Super Bowl era matching a quarterback who finished with a passer rating over 150 against a defense that in its previous game allowed a passer rating over 150.
Using the NFL’s complex passer rating system (which averages completion percentage, touchdown percentage, yards per pass and interception percentage), the highest possible rating is a 158.3. In the Super Bowl era, only 123 quarterbacks have finished games with a rating over 150 while attempting at least 20 passes. There have been 48 of these games in the last 10 years, and they appear below.
Only once previously have we had the dynamic of a quarterback and a victimized defense meeting up in the next week. That occurred on Thanksgiving Day in 2018. That was the weird game in which Drew Brees threw 4 TDs to four different players who entered the league as undrafted free agents. Brees in that game went 15 of 22 for 171 yards and 4 TDs, with 1 interception.
One other close call came the next week. Baker Mayfield (in his rookie year) had gone over 150 in a game against those same Falcons. He had a bye on the Thanksgiving weekend, and in his next game back, he faced the Cincinnati defense that Brees had ripped up prior to his Thanksgiving game. Baker against the Bengals went 19 of 26 for 258 yards, with 4 TDs and no interceptions in a 35-20 win, for a passer rating of 143.9 (contributing to him being overdrafted the following summer).
One other matchup of note. In December of 2015, Cam Newton and Eli Manning both had passer ratings over 150 in the same week. Their teams played against each other the next week.
| HIGHEST PASSER RATINGS, LAST 10 YEARS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Result | Cmp | Att | Yds | TD | Int | Rate |
| 2018 | Jared Goff, LAR | MIN | W 38-31 | 26 | 33 | 465 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2019 | Aaron Rodgers, GNB | OAK | W 42-24 | 25 | 31 | 429 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2019 | Deshaun Watson, HOU | ATL | W 53-32 | 28 | 33 | 426 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2013 | Nick Foles, PHI | at OAK | W 49-20 | 22 | 28 | 406 | 7 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2019 | Dak Prescott, DAL | NYG | W 35-17 | 25 | 32 | 405 | 4 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2014 | Geno Smith, NYJ | at MIA | W 37-24 | 20 | 25 | 358 | 3 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2020 | Tom Brady, TAM | at DET | W 47-7 | 22 | 27 | 348 | 4 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2018 | Ben Roethlisberger, PIT | CAR | W 52-21 | 22 | 25 | 328 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2019 | Lamar Jackson, BAL | at MIA | W 59-10 | 17 | 20 | 324 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2015 | Kirk Cousins, WAS | NOR | W 47-14 | 20 | 25 | 324 | 4 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2013 | Alex Smith, KAN | at OAK | W 56-31 | 17 | 20 | 287 | 5 | 0 | 158.3 |
| 2013 | Drew Brees, NOR | TAM | W 42-17 | 24 | 31 | 381 | 4 | 0 | 157.4 |
| 2014 | Peyton Manning, DEN | SFO | W 42-17 | 22 | 26 | 318 | 4 | 0 | 157.2 |
| 2018 | Ryan Fitzpatrick, TAM | at NOR | W 48-40 | 21 | 28 | 417 | 4 | 0 | 156.2 |
| 2012 | Alex Smith, SFO | BUF | W 45-3 | 18 | 24 | 303 | 3 | 0 | 156.2 |
| 2020 | Matthew Stafford, LAR | CHI | W 34-14 | 20 | 26 | 321 | 3 | 0 | 156.1 |
| 2018 | Deshaun Watson, HOU | MIA | W 42-23 | 16 | 20 | 239 | 5 | 0 | 156.0 |
| 2014 | Matt Ryan, ATL | TAM | W 56-14 | 21 | 24 | 286 | 3 | 0 | 155.9 |
| 2015 | Ben Roethlisberger, PIT | SFO | W 43-18 | 21 | 27 | 369 | 3 | 0 | 155.8 |
| 2018 | Ryan Tannehill, MIA | OAK | W 28-20 | 17 | 23 | 289 | 3 | 0 | 155.3 |
| 2018 | Patrick Mahomes, KAN | at PIT | W 42-37 | 23 | 28 | 326 | 6 | 0 | 154.8 |
| 2018 | Mitchell Trubisky, CHI | TAM | W 48-10 | 19 | 26 | 354 | 6 | 0 | 154.6 |
| 2020 | Ryan Fitzpatrick, MIA | at SFO | W 43-17 | 22 | 28 | 350 | 3 | 0 | 154.5 |
| 2014 | Aaron Rodgers, GNB | CAR | W 38-17 | 19 | 22 | 255 | 3 | 0 | 154.5 |
| 2019 | Philip Rivers, LAC | at JAX | W 45-10 | 16 | 22 | 314 | 3 | 0 | 154.4 |
| 2015 | Teddy Bridgewater, MIN | CHI | W 38-17 | 17 | 20 | 231 | 4 | 0 | 154.4 |
| 2015 | Kirk Cousins, WAS | BUF | W 35-25 | 22 | 28 | 319 | 4 | 0 | 153.7 |
| 2015 | Cam Newton, CAR | ATL | W 38-0 | 15 | 21 | 265 | 3 | 0 | 153.3 |
| 2018 | Drew Brees, NOR | PHI | W 48-7 | 22 | 30 | 363 | 4 | 0 | 153.2 |
| 2018 | Drew Brees, NOR | WAS | W 43-19 | 26 | 29 | 363 | 3 | 0 | 153.2 |
| 2016 | Ben Roethlisberger, PIT | KAN | W 43-14 | 22 | 27 | 300 | 5 | 0 | 152.5 |
| 2020 | Russell Wilson, SEA | at IND | W 28-16 | 18 | 23 | 254 | 4 | 0 | 152.3 |
| 2020 | Lamar Jackson, BAL | CLE | W 38-6 | 20 | 25 | 275 | 3 | 0 | 152.1 |
| 2018 | Nick Mullens, SFO | OAK | W 34-3 | 16 | 22 | 262 | 3 | 0 | 151.9 |
| 2019 | Russell Wilson, SEA | LAR | W 30-29 | 17 | 23 | 268 | 4 | 0 | 151.8 |
| 2013 | Tom Brady, NWE | PIT | W 55-31 | 23 | 33 | 432 | 4 | 0 | 151.8 |
| 2014 | Tony Romo, DAL | IND | W 42-7 | 18 | 20 | 218 | 4 | 0 | 151.7 |
| 2015 | Eli Manning, NYG | at MIA | W 31-24 | 27 | 31 | 337 | 4 | 0 | 151.5 |
| 2014 | Aaron Rodgers, GNB | at CHI | W 38-17 | 22 | 28 | 302 | 4 | 0 | 151.2 |
| 2018 | Baker Mayfield, CLE | ATL | W 28-16 | 17 | 20 | 216 | 3 | 0 | 151.2 |
| 2015 | Jay Cutler, CHI | at STL | W 37-13 | 19 | 24 | 258 | 3 | 0 | 151.0 |
| 2016 | Aaron Rodgers, GNB | SEA | W 38-10 | 18 | 23 | 246 | 3 | 0 | 150.8 |
| 2017 | Kirk Cousins, WAS | OAK | W 27-10 | 25 | 30 | 365 | 3 | 0 | 150.7 |
| 2014 | Ben Roethlisberger, PIT | IND | W 51-34 | 40 | 49 | 522 | 6 | 0 | 150.6 |
| 2020 | Kyler Murray, ARI | MIA | L 31-34 | 21 | 26 | 283 | 3 | 0 | 150.5 |
| 2012 | Tony Romo, DAL | PHI | W 38-33 | 22 | 27 | 303 | 3 | 0 | 150.5 |
| 2020 | Deshaun Watson, HOU | at DET | W 41-25 | 17 | 25 | 318 | 4 | 0 | 150.4 |
| 2018 | Drew Brees, NOR | at CIN | W 51-14 | 22 | 25 | 265 | 3 | 0 | 150.4 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan