It's time.
The common urban legend perpetuated amongst Chiefs fans is that we would have won that 1997 playoff game with Rich Gannon because he was clearly so much better than Grbac when in reality, that wasn't at all the case.
Let's start with wins and losses.
Code:
Wins Losses Win %
Grbac 8 2 0.800
Gannon 5 1 0.833
Very similar. Let's look at a sample of passing stats now.
Code:
Pass TD/Game INT/Game Passing YPG YPA Rating
Grbac 1.1 0.6 195 6.2 79.1
Gannon 1.16 0.67 127 6.5 79.8
Again, this cross section points to them being remarkably similar. They ran fewer pass plays with Gannon at the helm so therefore appeared to be slightly more efficient but overall, the offensive output was very similar, regardless of who was under center.
Now, let's look at a couple of key defensive stats, since I think we all agree that the 1997 team was driven largely by the defense. This is where things get interesting.
Code:
Def YPG Def TO/Game
Grbac 335.4 1.9
Gannon 254.3 2.5
It's pretty clear what drove the Chiefs winning streak down the stretch - the defense got A LOT better as the season went on. In fact, the defense allowed LESS THAN 300 yards in only 2 of Grbac's starts, whereas that same defense allowed only one team to gain more than 300 yards while Gannon was under center.
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