When I first dove into this article my first thought was ‘certainly Luke Kuechly’s 2015 Thanksgiving day massacre of the Cowboys in Dallas is on the list. I was correct, the game logged in at No. 26.

The top 100 single game performances of the PFF era 27. Luke Kuechly, Carolina Panthers 97.1 overall grade, Week 12 of the 2015 season As a part of his incredible 2015 season, Kuechly put forth a historically good display in his Week 12 game against the Dallas Cowboys. The Panthers linebacker was targeted four times during the game, but he came away with two interceptions and a coverage grade of 95.1 — still the second-best single-game mark by a linebacker in the PFF era.

Those rush color uniforms the Panthers wore that day are now legend. Luke made those ugly things look GOOD!

The second Panthers player performance on the board is tight end Greg Olsen who’s best game ever landed at No. 88 (what a coincidence!):

88. Greg Olsen, Carolina Panthers 95.7 overall grade, Week 5 of the 2016 season The best game of Olsen ’s career to date, the safe-handed tight end caught all nine of his catchable targets against the Buccaneers, and he racked up nine first downs, 64 yards after the catch and a career-best 181 receiving yards which were, at the time, just three yards short of the PFF single-game record that was held by Dallas Clark.

Olsen shredded the Bucs on one of the few bright spots of the 2016 season.

The Panthers third entry is a bit of shocker. Well at least until you see the entire top 10 and you realize that lineman get a lot of attention in the PFF grading program. Which is why Panthers tight end Jeff King landed at No. 54.

54. Jeff King, Carolina Panthers 96.2 overall grade, Week 6 of the 2009 season The now-retired tight end wasn’t spectacular as a pass-catcher in this one, although he did catch both of the passes that were thrown his way for eight yards and one touchdown. Where he really made his mark was in the ground game: he received just four downgrades on 44 run-blocking snaps and ended the game with a mightily impressive 94.5 run-blocking grade.

King wasn’t known for his pass catching skills obviously, he was a blocker. I don’t think I had a full appreciate for how good King was at blocking. I still don’t.

Other games of note

My one regret in reading the base story is it reminded me of a game that I had forced into a deep, dark place in my mind never to be thought of again. Yet it came crashing back as soon as I saw the name ‘Julio Jones’.

96. Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons 95.6 overall grade, Week 4 of the 2016 season No wide receiver in the PFF era has earned more single-game grades of 90.0 or higher than Julio Jones, who has achieved this mark 15 times throughout his career. Jones ended this particular game with 12 catches from 14 targets for a career-best 300 receiving yards and a career-high average of 9.09 yards per route run.

This game was painful to watch for those of us pulling for the poor secondary he faced. Now, let us never speak of it again…

Long time back-up quarterback Derek Anderson made the list. Say what? Settle down, it is from when he was with the Browns. This is the game that made him a ton of money.

44. Derek Anderson, Cleveland Browns 96.5 overall grade, Week 6 of the 2007 season The recently-retired signal-caller was well-known for his competitive nature, and no game showcased that nature more than this one against the Miami Dolphins. Anderson was lights out from a clean pocket during the contest, completing 15-of-20 clean-pocket attempts for 198 yards, three touchdowns and a 145.4 clean-pocket passer rating.

I really think they are overlooking Anderson’s two wins over the Bucs a couple years ago.

This next one ticks me off every time I read something about former Panthers draft pick Evan Mathis. He is the proverbial ‘one that got away’ as we gave up on him right before he made the jump from average to elite.

15. Evan Mathis, Philadelphia Eagles 97.7 overall grade, Week 12 of the 2012 season The Philadelphia legend didn’t receive a single downgrade on any of his 50 offensive snaps in this contest. While he ended the game with a perfect slate as a pass-blocker, his best work came as a run-blocker in this one, and he finished the game with a near-perfect 95.0 run-blocking grade — tied for the ninth-best single-game mark by an offensive guard in the PFF era.

So what game earned the top grade ever? An offensive tackle of course.

1. Andrew Whitworth, Cincinnati Bengals 98.4 overall grade, Week 15 of the 2010 season It comes as no surprise to see that Whitworth takes the top spot here. This Week 15 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was truly a sensational outing: he didn’t allow a single pressure on any of his 23 pass-blocking snaps and he demolished the Steelers front seven as run-blocker, earning a 96.9 run-blocking grade for his efforts.

So the top four performances were for blocking? Blocking.

Full disclosure, the article doesn’t mention it but I bet Whitworth got a bump for having a touchdown reception, the Bengals only score of the day. I think my point still holds.

So were you were expecting a 400 yard passing game by Tom Brady or maybe Drew Brees? Nope.

Might you have been thinking closer to home, such as one of Steve Smith’s multi-touchdown games? If post game interviews and catchy slogans counted the grading Smitty would be at the top for sure. You can’t accuse PFF of catering to the stars that is for sure.

The problem may be that they are a slave to their own process, unable to step back and look at the big picture. For instance shouldn’t the skill positions get a multiplier or something since there must be a reason they put emphasis on positions with skill and those not needing skill? Otherwise you end up with Julio Jones 300 yard day coming in at No. 96 while an offensive tackle gets the top spot from a game his team lost 23-7. How does that make any sense at all?