Joe Montana or Terry Bradshaw? It's not as simple as you may think.?

Question

When you compare Montana to Bradshaw it's not as much of a seperation between them as one may assume. Montana played under Bill Walsh's "West Coast Offense" which was a high % passing attack which threw first, primarily attacking LBs, and ran second off of the passing game. Montana was sort of Head Coach Bill Walsh's robot, he did what he said to do and most of the first quarter plays were scripted.
Bradshaw called his own plays in the huddle. He ran a run first attack where the passing approach was a low % attack aimed primarily at the safties.
Montana's offense was a result of the ruels changes of 1978 which no longer allowed DBs to chuck a WR pass 5 yds where as the first 8 seasons of Bradshaw's carrer he had to deal with that very defensive problem by the opposing team.
Both Montana and Bradshaw won 4 Super Bowls.
In 4 SBs Montana was named MVP 3 times Bradsahw was named MVP twice.
In 4 SBs Montana threw for a combined total of 1,142 yds and 11, TDs Bradshaw threw for 928 yds and 9 TDs.
In a pass first offense Montana didn't even average a TD pass more per game than Bradshaw and only 53.5 more yds passing per game.
Montana lead one of the greatest game winning drives in NFL history in a SB yet Bradshaw with the game on the line threw a TD pass in the 4th quarter of every SB he played in, including 2 of which NFL Films has named as the best TDs passes of all time.
Terry won mutiple titles in two differnt eras of NFL rules where as Montana won all of his under rules that were made for the very purpose of creating stats such as Montana's regular season numbers.
Even though Brdshaw had the Steel Curtain and HOF RB Franco Harris, Montana had for 3 SBs one of the greatest all purpose RBs ever in Roger Craig and a Defense that, in Montana's 4 SB seasons finished # 2, # 10, # 3 and # 4. Add to that Montana had the greatest WR to ever play for two SB wins in Jerry Rice.
Montana won 2 NFL MVPs, Bradshaw won 1, Montana won 3 SB MVPs, Bradshaw won 2.
Montana won 16 post season games, Bradshaw won 14, Montana won 4 SBs, Bradshaw won 4.
Montana threw 11 SB TDs, Bradshaw threw 9.
Montana ran Walsh's Offense, Bradshaw ran his own.

Answer 1

Bradshaw! He played when football was a real grid iron game.

Answer 2

Terry Bradshaw Stats

Answer 3

Its an interesting debate but here are a couple of points you left out.



Bradshaw played with 2 HOF reciever in Lynn Swann & John Stallworth.



Yes Bradshaw ran his own offense as you say but my goodness, Chuck Noll's philosophy was to run, run and run some more. It doesn't take that much skill to turn around and hand the ball to Franco Harris & Rocky Blier 40 times a game.

As a matter of fact in Bradshaw's first 2 Super Bowl games he threw for a TOTAL of 305 yards on only 33 attempts combined. Noll didn't open up the offense until 1978 & 1979 and Let Terry throw the ball more.



Still they were both great QB's with 8 SB's between them.

Answer 4

Hate to rain on your parade, but your wrong on a couple of things.



1.) The 49ers during Montana's tenure there, were actually more balanced not pass first, and even ran the ball more often than they passed it. Only 2 seasons while Montana was there did the 49ers have 100 or more pass attempts than rushing attempts, and in 6 of his seasons there (out of 10), the 49ers actually ran the ball more often than they passed it.



2.) The 5 yard chuck rule, while instituted in 1978, was loosely enforced up until 2004, thanks to a certain Indianapolis quarterback. But again was hardly, if ever enforced up until that time.



3.) No team, from any decade, has more HOF's than the 1970's Pittsburgh Steelers. So while Montana did play with many HOF's, he still never played with as many as Bradshaw did.

Answer 5

Joe Montana Stats

Answer 6

Montana did it with a broken back.



Bradshaw could have had three ina row with a defense that held opponents to 17 straight scoreless quarters, 22 w/o a TD, 5 shutouts, the only modern football D to allow less than 14 points per game (13.9) but the Steelers lost Harris and Bleier in the championship against the Oakland Raiders.



Bradshaw had the best defense ever. I think Jim Plunkett would have won four Super Bowls in Pittsburgh, defintiely Dan Fouts would have.



MONTANA.

Answer 7

Montana for sure. Bradshaw is insecure when it comes to San Francisco and constantly brings up his accomplishments.

Answer 8

You can't use stats to compare thes guys. Completely different styles. It's like comparing Fran Tarkenton to Peyton Mannng. I'd take Bradshaw if I wasn't sure about my O-line. More likey to shed tacklers. Other than that, a lot of your stats actually prove it's VERY close.

Answer 9

I would go with Montana over Bradshaw, i dont think it is really close

Answer 10

i would take montana over bradshaw because montana's pretty awesome and terry's very stupid.