For two games in the playoffs, the New England offense was unable to run the ball. In both of those games, Tom Brady threw 50 or more times. Brady put the Patriots on his back against the Ravens and the Seahawks and his ability to lead the team back from the brink of elimination time, after time, after time, is completely unprecedented.
There have been 35 playoff games where a quarterback has thrown for 50+ attempts, resulting in a win-loss record of 7-28; that's a 20% winning rate.
Tom Brady is responsible for five of those games; his record is a sparkling 4-1. Read that again: Brady is responsible for over half of the victories in league history. No other quarterback has been asked to put the team on his back like Brady, and no one has had the success that he has been able to achieve. Jim Kelly is the only other quarterback to have 3 or more playoff games with 50+ attempts, and Kelly was 0-3 in those games.
There have been five other quarterbacks with multiple playoff games with 50+ attempts: Kelly (3), Drew Brees (2), Jeff George (2), Dan Marino (2), and Warren Moon (2). Their collective record is 0-11.
Brady became the first quarterback to win the Super Bowl with 50+ passing attempts, after Marino, Kelly (2x), and Donovan McNabb fell short in their games.
The pejorative label "game manager" has never been more laughable after watching Brady walk through the vaunted Seahawks defense in the fourth quarter. Every other quarterback wishes they could manage games as well as Brady.
The Patriots quarterback won a deserving third MVP trophy and put the entire Patriots offense on his back and won. No other quarterback in the history of football can make the same claim.