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Reason #17: The playoff dominance of Terrell Davis is unmatched

Only twice in eight playoff games, did Terrell Davis see his yards per carry drop below five.

Terrell Davis Broncos

This week has been all about the dominance in the playoffs by Terrell Davis and how no other Hall of Fame running back has even come close to his per game numbers.

His 142.5 yards per game is 30 yards better than the next Hall of Famer and he is sixth all-time in points scored by a non-kicker, with every player ahead of him having played in at least twice as many playoff games. If we broke those top six scorers down by points per playoff game, Davis jumps to first all-time with 9 points per game. Emmitt Smith is the next closest with 7.41 points per game.

In this series, we point out Davis’ yards per attempt in each game. Only twice in the playoffs did it drop below five yards per attempt and in both of those he still topped 100 yards.

Year Opp Result Att Yds Y/A TD Rec Yds Y/R TD Pts
Year Opp Result Att Yds Y/A TD Rec Yds Y/R TD Pts
1996 JAX L 27-30 14 91 6.5 1 7 24 3.43 0 8
1997 JAX W 42-17 31 184 5.94 2 4 11 2.75 0 12
1997 KAN W 14-10 25 101 4.04 2 1 17 17 0 12
1997 PIT W 24-21 26 139 5.35 1 1 2 2 0 6
1997 GNB W 31-24 30 157 5.23 3 2 8 4 0 18
1998 MIA W 38-3 21 199 9.48 2 1 7 7 0 12
1998 NYJ W 23-10 32 167 5.22 1 1 12 12 0 6
1998 ATL W 34-19 25 102 4.08 0 2 50 25 0 0
204 1140 5.59 12 19 131 6.89 0 74

These were the best of the best in those years and Davis still ran hog wild all over them.

In every single playoff game except the first one, Davis was the engine that powered the offense. Whether he was a decoy, as he was in Super Bowl 33, or the legs that powered the team to victory, as he was in Super Bowl 32, Davis could not be stopped by opposing defenses.

It’s time to give the man a gold jacket.