Winning games while having a lower QBR than your opposing starter doesn’t happen often, unless you are Russell Wilson. A lot has been made of the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson having a 10-0 record against quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl. Is this due to Wilson elevating his play against some of the best in the league or is another factor the driving force behind this pristine record?

Does Russell Wilson play better in these games?

No, he does not. He doesn’t really play any worse either. Including the postseason, Wilson has now started 55 games in his career with 10 of them against quarterbacks who have won a Super Bowl. In those 10 games his QBR is slightly worse than in the 45 games against non-Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.

He must be outplaying his opposing starter

Russell WilsonCareer vs Super Bowl-Winning QB

In only five of the 10 games has Wilson had a higher QBR than his counterpart.

Winning games while having a lower QBR than your opposing starter doesn’t happen often, that is, unless you are Russell Wilson.

So what is the driving force?

Largely it has been the contributions of the Seahawks defense. In the 10 games in which they have faced a Super Bowl-winning quarterback they have held the group to a collective QBR of 47.4, well below their collective QBR of 72.4 against every other defense in the league (since 2012). To put it another way, they made that group of quarterbacks who have won a combined eight Super Bowls look like the 2009 version of Jay Cutler (he finished that season with a 47.4 QBR).

They also own the running game on both sides of the ball (even if you exclude the quarterback's contributions to the running game, which is accounted for in QBR). If you combine the contribution of the defense stopping opposing rushers and the contribution of the Seahawks runners other than Wilson, it comes out to just about a field goal per game in the Seahawks favor.

Special teams have also gone in the Seahawks favor in these matchups to the tune of over two points per game.

These small differences add up as there have been a few close calls in the 10 games, including:

• The “Fail Mary” game against Green Bay where the Seahawks won by two points

• A 24-23 win over New England in Week 6 of 2012 (the last matchup between the two Super Bowl participants)

• Seattle’s 26-20 overtime win over Denver in Week 3 this season

• Seattle’s comeback against Green Bay in the NFC Championship game

Put all of this together and you can see that it is truly a team effort from Seattle to be 10-0 against former Super Bowl winning quarterbacks during Wilson’s tenure - much more than it is Wilson simply “raising his game” or “outplaying” his opposing quarterback.