I don't think I need to remind Patriots fans, or anyone for that matter, about how good Tom Brady was throughout the 2010 regular season. Of course, Brady's struggles during New England's Divisional Round loss to the New York Jets remain at the forefront of most Pats fans memories. But hopefully one mediocre showing doesn't stand in the way of fans appreciating just how spectacular Brady was for the better part of the '10 season.
Brady was named the MVP for the second time in his career ('07) following his 3900 yard, 39 TD campaign. What I didn't realize though until just recently was how incredibly efficient and potent he was throwing the ball on third down. Let's take a look at how the top ten AFC quarterbacks fared on third down as measured by QB Rating. All columns are sortable, so take a moment to see where Brady stacked up in other categories like completion percentage, TDs, INT ratio, and others. Hint: Very well.
| Rank | Player | Comp-Att. | Comp. % | Yards | Yards/Attempt | TDs | TD % | INTs | INT% | Rating |
| 1 | Tom Brady | 83-137 | 60.6 | 1139 | 8.71 | 15 | 10.9 | 2 | 1.5 | 119.3 |
| 2 | Ben Roethlisberger | 70-107 | 65.4 | 939 | 8.78 | 8 | 7.5 | 1 | 0.9 | 114.2 |
| 3 | Philip Rivers | 91-155 | 58.7 | 1312 | 8.46 | 10 | 6.5 | 5 | 3.2 | 94.3 |
| 4 | Ryan Fitzpatrick | 77-132 | 58.3 | 1026 | 7.77 | 9 | 6.8 | 4 | 3.0 | 93.2 |
| 5 | Matt Schaub | 79-130 | 60.8 | 862 | 6.63 | 4 | 3.1 | 0 | 0.0 | 90.6 |
| 6 | Jason Campbell | 54-102 | 52.9 | 756 | 7.41 | 6 | 5.9 | 2 | 2.0 | 88.5 |
| 7 | Matt Cassel | 78-144 | 54.2 | 1038 | 7.21 | 7 | 4.9 | 3 | 2.1 | 84.8 |
| 8 | Joe Flacco | 85-148 | 57.4 | 1172 | 7.92 | 7 | 4.7 | 5 | 3.4 | 84.6 |
| 9 | David Garrard | 62-100 | 62.0 | 694 | 6.94 | 6 | 6.0 | 5 | 5.0 | 81.8 |
| 10 | Chad Henne | 81-142 | 57.0 | 938 | 6.61 | 7 | 4.9 | 7 | 4.9 | 73.0 |