Patrick Mahomes: Six or More Passing
Touchdowns in a Single Game
by Paul Pulley | November 29, 2018
Since we’re mostly through the bye week dealing with a mini withdrawal of Chiefs football, and since there is almost never anything written about Patrick Mahomes II, I thought I would touch on one or two little accomplishments he has managed in the first dozen games of his career as the starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs.
As we all know or if you don’t know you are about to find out, Patty Mahomes threw six touchdown passes last Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams. In week two of this season, Patty threw six touchdown passes versus the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both of these games were on the road, so it seems to me that Mahomes has been dissing the home fans a little bit here. So in my opinion, with three home games left in the 2018 season, we need a three-peat performance and I believe a Thursday night primetime game, against the division rival Los Angeles Chargers, would be the perfect atmosphere for a third, six passing touchdown game.
How About A Little History
What I have been able to dig up (with limited time and research resources), is that there have been 6 or more passing touchdowns thrown in a game exactly 49 times in the history of the National Football League.
The first quarterback to pass for 6 touchdowns in one game is Sammy Baugh. As the QB of the Washington Redskins, Slingin’ Sammy threw six touchdowns against the Brooklyn Dodgers on Halloween, 10/31/1943. Sammy Baugh then became the first quarterback to pass for six touchdowns per game twice in a career by having his second 6 TD game playing against the Chicago Cardinals on 11/23/1947.
Although there have been 49 games with six or more touchdown passes, this has been accomplished by just 36 different quarterbacks. Of the 36 quarterbacks, 25 of them have just one 6+ TD game in their career. I should note that a few of these guys are still playing, so it is possible that a second game can be added to their resume.
Some of the quarterbacks on this short list are players that a person wouldn’t really expect to see, such as Johnny Lujack or Joe Kapp, primarily because they had such short careers, playing only four seasons each.
Possibly the most inconceivable is Matt Flynn, who spent most of his career as Aaron Rodgers backup for the Green Bay Packers. In week 17 of the 2011 season, a game played on New Year’s Day of 2012, the Packers (with a record of 14-1) rested their starters. Matt Flynn, in one of seven career starts, threw six touchdown passes against the Detroit Lions. Flynn passed for a total of 17 touchdowns in his career.
As you might expect, there are several quarterbacks on this list that had or are having excellent careers.
The Chiefs own Len Dawson tossed six TD’s in a game versus the Denver Broncos on 11/01/1964.
Other quarterbacks with one game of six touchdown passes include:
- Otto Graham; QB of the Cleveland Browns on 10/14/1949
Joe Namath; QB of the New York Jets on 9/24/1972- Dan Marino; QB of the Miami Dolphins on 9/21/1986
- Joe Montana; QB of the San Francisco 49ers on 10/14/1990
- Jim Kelly; QB of the Buffalo Bills on 9/08/1991
- Steve Young; QB of the San Francisco 49ers on 1/29/1995
- Brett Favre; QB of the New York Jets on 9/28/2008
The All-time Record is Seven
The NFL record is 7 passing touchdowns in a game, shared by 8 different quarterbacks.
The original record setter is Sid Luckman, the quarterback of the Chicago Bears, who threw seven touchdown passes in a game versus the New York Giants on 11/14/1943. In this game, Luckman also became the first QB to throw for over 400 yards in a game, finishing with 443.
Luckman now shares this record with 7 other players, they are:
- Adrian Burk; QB of the Philadelphia Eagles on 10/17/1954
- George Blanda; QB of the Houston Oilers on 11/19/1961
- Y.A. Tittle; QB of the New York Giants on 10/28/1962
- Joe Kapp; QB of the Minnesota Vikings on 9/28/1969
- Peyton Manning; QB of the Denver Broncos on 9/05/2013
- Nick Foles; QB of the Philadelphia Eagles on 11/03/2013
- Drew Brees; QB of the New Orleans Saints on 11/01/2015
The Most is Three (of 6 or more)
Only two quarterbacks in the history of the NFL have thrown 6 or more touchdown passes in three different games.
The first to accomplish this is Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots.
Brady passed for six touchdowns in each game played versus the:
- Miami Dolphins on 10/21/2007
- Tennessee Titans on 10/18/2009
- Denver Broncos on 1/14/2012
The second quarterback with 6 or more passing touchdown in three games is Peyton Manning. Manning’s first two came as the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts played against the:
- New Orleans Saints on 09/28/2003
- Detroit Lions on 11/25/2004
- Manning’s third is the one mentioned above, where, as the QB for the Broncos, he threw 7 TDs against the Baltimore Ravens.
Twice in a Career and Twice in One Season
There are 9 quarterbacks that have passed for 6 or more touchdowns twice in their respective careers. Of those 9 QB’s, four times in NFL history has a quarterback thrown 6 or more touchdown passes in more than one game in the same season.
The first quarterback to accomplish this was Y.A. Tittle. As the QB of the New York Giants, Tittle’s games were on:
- 10/28/1962, throwing 7 TD’s against the Washington Redskins
- 12/16/1962, tossing 6 TD’s versus the Dallas Cowboys
The second QB, passing for 6 TD’s in each game, twice in a season, is Daryle Lamonica. As the quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, Lamonica had games on:
- 10/19/1969, playing the Buffalo Bills
- 12/21/1969, against the Houston Oilers
The third QB is Ben Roethlisberger, QB of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Big Ben had two games of six touchdown passes each on:
- 10/26/2014, against the Indianapolis Colts
- 11/02/2014, versus the Baltimore Ravens
The fourth is of course, Patrick Mahomes, QB of the Kansas City Chiefs. Mahomes two 6 TD games were played on:
- 9/16/2018, playing the Pittsburgh Steelers
- 11/19/2018, verses the Los Angeles Rams
Will There be More to Come?
With several players on this list still active and with the way teams are relying more and more on the passing game, one has to believe that these are records just waiting to be broken.
On the other hand, there were four games of 6 passing TD’s in 2014. The two by Roethlisberger, one by Aaron Rodgers and one by Ryan Fitzpatrick.
There were two such performance in the same game in 2015. On November 1st, the New York Giants travelled to New Orleans to play the Saints. In this game, Eli Manning threw 6 TD passes only to be outdone by Drew Brees passing for a record tying 7 TD’s.
And then there were none, until this year, when Patty Mahomes has his two games and Mitchell Trubisky threw 6 TD’s on 9/30/18.
A Change of Subject
Last year, the 2017 season, the Chiefs became just the second team in NFL history to have a quarterback pass for over 4000 yards (Alex Smith), and have a running back rush for over 1000 yards (Kareem Hunt), and have a WR with over 1000 receiving yards (Tyreek Hill) and a TE with over 1000 receiving yards (Travis Kelce).
That brings us to the 2018 season. With the major change to the offense being at the QB position, it’s unbelievable how close the Chiefs are to a repeat after just 11 games. With 5 games yet to play, the current stats are:
- QB Patrick Mahomes; 3628 passing yards. Mahomes will need to average just under 75 y/g to hit 4000.
- RB Kareem Hunt; 824 rushing yards. Hunt will have to average just over 35 y/g to get to 1000.
- WR Tyreek Hill, 1,106 receiving yards. Hill is already there.
- TE Travis Kelce, 914 receiving yards. Kelce needs to average just over 17 y/g to make it to 1000.
I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the season as much as I will. One thing I know for sure, it’s going by way too fast.
If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/patrick-mahomes-six-or-more-passing-touchdowns-in-a-single-game/#disqus_thread)