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Tom Brady and Chad Henne put on an air show in the New England Patriots' 38-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football, and set a number of NFL records in the process. Let's run them down. (For reference, use this official list of individual NFL records; it's a PDF.)
Brady threw for 517 yards, the fifth-most in a single game in NFL history, and set the Monday Night Football and Patriots franchise records for passing yards in a single game in the process. Henne threw for 416 yards, the first 400-yard performance by a Dolphins quarterback since Joey Harrington threw for 414 yards in 2006. (Dan Marino holds the team and NFL record for career 400-yard games with a staggering 15; Peyton Manning is second in NFL history with 10.)
Monday night's shootout was the first game featuring a quarterback throwing for 500 yards and had the other quarterback throwing for 400 yards in NFL history. Consequently, Brady and Henne's combined 933 yards broke the NFL record for the most combined passing yards by two quarterbacks in a game in NFL history. And after sacks, the two teams combined for 906 passing yards, setting an NFL record for the most by two teams in a game in NFL history. Both marks eclipsed records set in 1986, when Dan Marino and Ken O'Brien combined for 927 passing yards and the Dolphins and New York Jets combined for 884 yards in a 51-45 overtime shootout.
The two teams also combined for the second-most net yards of offense in a game in NFL history, at 1,110 yards, coming up just short of the 1,133 yards in a 1950 game between the Los Angeles Rams and New York Yanks. The Patriots' 622 net yards of offense was a team record.
Brady's also, somehow, the first quarterback in NFL history to complete a 99-yard pass and throw for over 400 yards. (Obviously, he's also the only quarterback in NFL history to throw a 99-yarder in a 500-yard game.) But tonight's game wasn't the first to feature a quarterback throwing for 400 yards and a 99-yard play: on October 2, 1983, the Washington Redskins beat Jim Plunkett's Oakland Raiders, 37-35, behind Joe Theismann's 417 yards, despite Plunkett hooking up with Cliff Branch on a 99-yard pass.
And Brady's 99-yard pass, the 13th in NFL history, was unofficially ruled a 99.7-yard throw; if that's ruled official, it would be the longest pass from scrimmage in NFL history. It is the second 99-yard throw in a Monday Night Football game: Robert Brooks hauled in a 99-yard touchdown from Brett Favre on September 11, 1995.
Henne's 400+ yards passing and rushing touchdown marked the 19th time in NFL history a quarterback has accomplished both feats in one game. And his was the third effort of 400+ yards passing and 50+ yards rushing in NFL history; Steve Young accomplished it first, in 1992, and Matt Cassel did it in 2008.
Finally, Brady and Henne, who both attended the University of Michigan, set a record that's not likely to ever be broke: most combined passing yards in a single game by two NFL quarterbacks from the same college. That one's probably safe as long as stat machine Denard Robinson is never allowed to play quarterback for both teams in an NFL game.
(And just for good measure, there was a non-QB record set in the other Monday Night Football game: Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski tied the NFL record for longest field goal by converting a 63-yard attempt.)
Be sure to check out Pats Pulpit, our Patriots blog, and The Phinsider, our Dolphins blog, for more on the game, and visit the StoryStream for the game to relive all the record-setting action.