Manning Can Have Records, Brady Still Better

Brady vs. Manning has been the script for the last 10 years. We will probably see Round 15 for the AFC title in a few weeks as well

 

Hats off to Peyton Manning. Only 2 years removed from having undergone 3 serious neck surgeries back to back to back, Manning threw his 51^st TD pass Sunday in leading his Broncos to their 12^th win of the season. Many people on ESPN and other sports websites and shows (radio and TV) will begin to debate in earnest yet again if Manning should be considered the Greatest Quarterback of All-time. I am here to tell you that not only is he NOT the G.O.A.T. but there is another QB in the NFL currently who has done more with less for about the same amount of time as Manning has and should end up surpassing Manning when all is said and done. His name is Tom Brady.

Sunday Manning took back the record he had initially broken in 2004 (which had been previously owned by another Legendary QB,  Dan Marino) when he was able to strike for 49 TD passes in a single season. At that time, he was a member of the Indianapolis Colts, the team that had drafted him #1 overall in 1998. Almost ten years ago when he broke it, Manning was well on his way to earning the first of his 4 NFL MVP awards, a number many feel he will probably add to this season. When it counted most that season however, he and his Colts team were thoroughly trounced at Foxborough by the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game with Manning throwing 4 interceptions and being his typically whiny self. The man who beat him that day and many others: Tom Brady.

There is no denying Manning is a master at the line of scrimmage at hiding plays from 90% of teams

 

In fact, over the years, these 2 living NFL legends have been intertwined as if destined to forever be linked together. Brady made his first career NFL start against Manning and the Colts and led the Patriots to a 44-13 white washing back in 2001. Head to head, Brady is 10-4 all time against Manning despite the actual offensive stats being slightly in Manning’s’ favour in those games. What matters most is winning and Brady has the edge decisively in that category. Style points don’t mean much when you lose.

One of the few times manning was able to squeak out a win against the Patriots in the playoffs was in the memorable 4^th and 2 game in Indy when he and the Colts barely beat a banged up (what's new?) Pats team that still lost by only 4 points, 38-34 and probably WOULD have lost had Kevin Faulk been able to somehow get 1 more yard on an underneath pass play that Belichick and the Patriots decided to go for from their own 30 yard line. Coincidentally, the only year Manning was able to beat the Patriots in the Playoffs, he won the Super Bowl.

His one and only Ring came when he had Tony Dungy as his head coach

 

Going back to the record Manning just broke, that was re-set in 2007 by Brady and the one team the Patriots had which one could arguably say was formidable (and healthy) on both sides of the ball the same way most of Manning’s teams have been in comparison. That 16-0 regular season saw Brady toss 23 of his 50 TD passes to one Randy Moss alone, helping him set the single season receiving record for TD’s. The one year Brady had an equal arsenal of offensive talent to that of Manning, he set 2 records and had a perfect regular season (and it SHOULD have been a perfect overall season had the officials made the correct call on at least 3 different NY Giant offensive lineman on that crazy 4^th down play that saw the football cling to Dyson’s helmet as if it had Velcro on it).

To get a more accurate read on the 2 of them this season, let’s look at the supporting cast that Manning has had this season compared with Brady.

Broncos Stats:

12-3 Record

572 Points scored

385 Points allowed

Difference (+187)

How many players can say they played with the top 2 QB's in the League during the prime of their careers?

Wes Welker: Former Brady security blanket, has had a tremendous season with the Broncos but recently suffered his 2^nd concussion in 3 weeks and will miss his 3^rd game of the year Sunday.

Stats: 73 receptions, 778 yards, 10 TD’s

Eric Decker: Sneaky good receiver , with over 15.2 yards per catch. Great hands and speed, has thrived under Manning in his 5^th NFL season.

Stats: 83 receptions, 1261 yards, 10 TD’s

Demaryius Thomas: Leads the team in yards, YPC and is tied for TD receptions. Breakout year for him.

Stats: 86 receptions, 1317 yard, 12 TD’s

Julius Thomas: Has blossomed this season into a reliable TE option. Is tied for team lead with 12 TD receptions.

Stats: 60 receptions, 752 yards, 12 TD’s

Has had a breakthrough season with Manning at the helm

Knowshon Moreno: Has over 1000 rushing yards to go with over 500 receiving. Showing he can finally stay healthy as well in his 4^th season.

Stats: 55 receptions, 507 yards, 2 TD’s

All other RB’s, TE’s, FB’s combined

Stats: 70 Receptions, 606 yards, 5 TD’s

Now Brady and The Patriots:

Patriots Stats:

11-4 Record

410 Points scored

318 Points allowed

Difference (+92)

The most reliable WR on the team, he has taken over for the departed Welker

Julian Edelman: Drafted as a QB out of Kent State, he was essentially signed as an afterthought this summer when they lost Welker to Denver. He has been their Welker-clone and leads the team in receptions, TD’s, Yards and times targeted.

Stats: 96 Receptions, 991 yards, 6 TD

At times, they have been dead on but it hasn't been easy

Danny Amendola: Free Agent signing that just hasn’t quite clicked yet with Brady. Signed to take the place of Welker

Stats: 53 Receptions, 624 yards, 2 TD

When he came back from injury he was a force.

Rob Gronkowski: Missed first 7 games, blew out his knee on a dirty hit in the game against Cleveland. In between, helped turn the 24^th best Offense into the 2^nd best.

Stats: 39 Receptions, 592 yards, 4 TD

Aaron Dobson (17): Rookie WR who seems to have issues with his route running.

Stats: 36 Receptions, 513 yards, 4 TD’s

These 2 rookies have had some good moments at times but have dropped way too many passes

Kenbrell Thompkins (85): Rookie Free agent signing. Has issues with actually Catching the ball.

Stats: 32 Receptions, 466 yards, 4 TD

Has been a key part of the offense since his return.

Shane Vereen: Has returned from IR and excelled out of the backfield. New security blanket now that Gronk is out. Newer, younger and faster version of Kevin Faulk.

Stats: 44 Receptions, 385 yards, 2 TD

All other RB’s, TE’s, FB’s combined

Stats: 66 Receptions, 650 yards, 2 TD’s

Clearly, you can see who has the better supporting cast this season and yet there is Brady only 1 game back of Manning in the standings, having rallied back from 24 points down in their head to head match-up earlier this season to beat Manning yet again. That game stands out as massive, especially if the Broncos and Patriots end up with the same record after their games this weekend.

Despite all the different targets he has had to work into the offense, the Patriots are still 11-4

 

Career statistics also show that Brady, although he has some catching up to do, is still well within range of doing so (as long as he stays healthy. After being chosen 1^st overall in the Spring of 1998 by the Colts, Manning started his first game in September of 1998 and, up until his final season with Indy when he was out all year because of his surgeries, had not missed a game. Out of his 16 pro years, he has missed one full season. He has career totals of 64, 698 (and counting) passing yards, 487 TD Passes, 219 INT’s, Almost 8500 pass attempts and over 5500 completions. His career completion percentage is 65.4%. His career Win Loss record is 166 Wins, 67 Losses in the regular season and 9-11 in the Playoffs. His overall record is 175-84 with 1 Super Bowl win in 2 appearances. His career winning percentage is 67.6%.

Brady started out as 6^th round pick 4^th string QB who worked his way up to being Drew Bledsoe’s back up in 2000. He played in 1 game that season, making 3 pass attempts and completing 1 for 6 yards in mop up duty for Bledsoe during Belichick’s first season as head coach. By game #2 of the 2001 season, Bledsoe would be out with a severe chest injury and Brady would be the Starter, a role he has not relinquished since. He missed the entire 2008 season because of a cheap shot he took on his knee from then Chiefs DB Bernard Pollard. The injury actually changed the way QB’s are protected now in the NFL as a new rule was instituted that any defensive player that comes in low on a QB and hits him below the knees will draw a penalty flag of 15 yards. The Brady Rule has been credited with saving many a QB already in the 5 years since it was instituted. He has thrown for just over 49,000 yards with 358 TD passes and 133 INT’s, 6500 plus pass attempts and 4100 plus completions. His career completion percentage is 63.5%. Brady’s career Win Loss Records stands at 147 Wins, 43 Losses in the Regular season with a Playoff record of 17-7 and 3 Super Bowl win in 5 appearances. His overall record is 164-50. He has the highest ever win % by a QB at 76.7%.

Each time these 2 play each other, its like a Heavyweight Boxing Title Fight....

Perhaps the single biggest point in Manning’s favour over Brady can be seen in how the two teams reacted and played without their field general when they were each out for a full year. Indy fell apart at the seams. Without Manning, the team went 2-14 and ended up getting first overall in the next draft where they selected their next franchise QB to take over for Manning, Andrew Luck. With a full off-season to prepare, many blame bad coaching as well as to why the Colts were not able to weather the storm to a greater extent without their leader. Others point to owner Jim Irsay and speculate that he knew it was time to move on without Manning and secretly wanted his team to fail as miserably as they did so they could start fresh with a new QB, GM and head coach.

Brady went down at the 7:53 mark of the 1^st quarter of the first game of the 2008 season. With no prep time, Matt Cassell was thrust into the starting role and proceeded to pull off a remarkable season in going 11-5. Incredibly, as might happen again this season in the NFC with the Arizona Cardinals, 11 wins was somehow not enough to get them into the playoffs based on complicated head to head match ups and strength of schedule of the other 2 teams that won 11 games. Under Belichick, the team stiffened defensively and SHOULD have been AFC champions again. The team was able to turn Cassell into a tradable asset (a guy who had started a total of 4 games in his college career) in the off-season once it was clear that Brady would return and packaged him and veteran LB Mike Vrabel off to the Chiefs (the same team that had caused the injury to Brady in the first place) for a 2^nd and 4^th round picks. Unlike the Colts, with a solid foundation and structure in place, the Patriots have been the model of consistency over the last 13 years, the envy of every other franchise in the league.

This 6th round pick uses that disappointment to continuously fuel his passion for the game

 

Getting back to the two men specifically, trying to extrapolate what may be in regards to their future performances is always difficult but for fun, let’s just say Manning retires in 2 years and Brady in 5 (if both stay healthy, that is what each of them have indicated that they would like to do).  Manning should easily pass the 70,000 yard mark, the 500 TD mark as well and he should be able to get to 200 career wins as a starting QB. Brady on the other hand might fall just shy of the 70,000 yard mark (unless his young receiving corps starts to gel for him next year), he will be able to get past 200 career wins as well and he might be on the fringe of 500 TD’s. The biggest difference between the 2, when you see that stats between them should be relatively close, is of course winning when it matters most and Brady has the 3 rings and career playoff record to prove why he should be considered greater (along with 5 total Super Bowl appearances to Manning’s 2). The only real way to determine who is better is to ask yourself whether you would prefer to have more stats or more championships, in which case it should be obvious who is the better QB.

The last time Manning broke this particular record, his team got torched in the playoffs by the Patriots. If he and his Broncos lose the season finale in Oakland this Sunday and give up the top spot to (who else?) Brady and the beat up Pats again (who need to beat Buffalo at home as well to have this become a possibility and at least secure the #2 seed), we will see a repeat of 2003 and 2004 in Foxborough yet again. They lost to the Pats already once at Gillette Stadium earlier this season back when they were at the peak of their season, rolling along scoring at a crazy clip yet it would not surprise me one bit to see Manning choke at Gillette stadium yet again.

Expect to see that look on Manning's face in about 3 weeks time when he shakes Brady's hand again