San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith was a rarity last season in that he didn’t pass for 300 yards in a game once. He came close a couple times, once throwing for 291 yards in Philadelphia and barely missing in the NFC Divisional Round with 299 yards against New Orleans.

The 300-yard club isn’t as exclusive as it once was, as the feat was accomplished 121 times by 34 different quarterbacks in 2011. There are 32 NFL teams. The San Francisco 49ers aren’t used to being left out of the passing party, but they went 14-4 and were a bad bounce away from facing a New England Patriots team in the Super Bowl that they certainly could’ve beaten. So nobody’s complaining that loudly about the lack of videogame numbers from Smith, but the additions the 49ers made this past off-season show they’d like like to break the 300-yard barrier at least a time or two in 2012.

Smith, who’s probably heard the detractors point to his failure to pass for 300 yards in a game all that often (he’s done it twice — once in 2009 and once in 2010), made his true feelings clear yesterday after practice. From Eric Branch:

Asked today to account for why the 49ers ranked 29th in NFL in passing yards per game last year (183.1), Smith became, by his standards, somewhat animated. He didn’t exactly raise his voice, but he was at least mildly irked. “I could absolutely care less on yards per game,” Smith said. “I think that is a totally overblown stat because if you’re losing games in the second half, guess what, you’re like the Carolina Panthers and you’re going no-huddle the entire second half. Yeah, Cam Newton threw for a lot of 300-yard games. That’s great. You’re not winning, though.”

Smith’s comments got me thinking — what’s the correlation between 300-yard games and winning … or losing? The Panthers didn’t win any of the three games where Newton passed for over 300 yards, but they were also the worst team in the NFL a year earlier and improved significantly in 2011. To get a better handle on this, here’s a list of passers ranked by the number of 300-yard games each QB amassed during the 2011 regular season (team winning percentage in parentheses):

Drew Brees: 11-2 (.846) Tom Brady: 9-2 (.818) Aaron Rodgers: 8-0 (1.000) Matt Stafford: 5-3 (.625) Eli Manning: 4-4 (.500) Philip Rivers: 3-3 (.500) Matt Ryan: 2-4 (.333) Ben Roethlisberger: 3-2 (.600) Tony Romo: 1-4 (.200) Joe Flacco: 1.000 (4-0) Carson Palmer: 1-3 (.250) Matt Hasselbeck: 3-0 (1.000) Michael Vick: 1-2 (.333) Mark Sanchez: 1-2 (.333) Ryan Fitzpatrick: 1-2 (.333) Cam Newton: 0-3 (.000) Rex Grossman: 2-0 (1.000) John Skelton: 2-0 (1.000) Jay Cutler: 1-1 (.500) Josh Freeman: 1-1 (.500) Kyle Orton: 0-2 (.000) Andy Dalton: 0-2 (.000) Sam Bradford: 0-2 (.000) Jason Campbell: 0-2 (.000) Matt Schaub: 0-2 (.000) Tarvaris Jackson: 0-2 (.000) Kevin Kolb: 1-0 (1.000) T.J. Yates: 1-0 (1.000) Matt Flynn: 1-0 (1.000) Colt McCoy: 0-1 (.000) Chad Henne: 0-1 (.000) Dan Orlovsky: 0-1 (.000) Christian Ponder: 0-1 (.000) Vince Young: 0-1 (.000)

Overall record for 300-yard passers: 66-55

Overall record for 400-yard passers: 6-12

In the playoffs, teams with a 300-yard passer went 5-3. Neither quarterback passed for 300 yards in the Super Bowl.