This post is going out in response to Saturday's playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Denver Broncos. I waited an extra day to finally comment, so that I would let some of my personal views get pushed back inside myself and be more constructive with my criticism of the so-called "greatest quarterback to ever play the game", Peyton Manning.
Is Peyton Manning one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game? Yes, he is a great quarterback. His mind and ability to read defenses at all levels of the play is second to none. He has always been able to put his players in position to make plays and that has made him an extremely successful regular season quarterback. Is he a first ballot Hall of Famer? Absolutely.
His legacy, however, has got to start being looked at as one of the, if not the biggest playoff choke artist in the history. Is this an unfair claim? Perhaps, because football is and always has been ultimately a team sport. However, all facets of sports media have put this man on such a pedestal for his entire career that he deserves to have the equal level of criticism.
Fact: yes, he did win a Super Bowl, but again did he win it or did Rex Grossman hand it to him. Yes, Manning was the MVP of that game, but it was greatly undeserved. One can make better cases for Dominic Rhodes, who ran through the Bears defense that day and sealed the victory for Manning or sadly one can make the argument that the Colts MVP that day was indeed Bears starting quarterback Rex Grossman, who accounted for 5 turnovers that day. Is this enough of an absolution for Manning, that indeed he did win the Lombardi Trophy? I say no, when one looks at what he has had placed in front of him, the one Super Bowl victory, does not absolve him of the label of choker.
Fact: The Indianapolis Colts led by Peyton Manning won the most game in the NFL in the past decade. They made the playoffs every year after 2001. As a matter of fact, from 2003-2009 they won at least 12 games every season!!! What does the team with that level of dominance have to show, that's right 1 Super Bowl victory in 2 appearences!! Peyton Manning's record in the playoffs with the Colts was 9-10! So, the media-hyped greatest quarterback ever doesn't even have a winning record in his postseason career. 7 of those 10 playoff losses came in their first playoff game of that season!! 4 of those games at home and twice as the #1 seed in the AFC!! Manning has thown 19 INT's during those years with the Colts. Ironically enough, he threw the most interceptions in his postseason career the season that they won the Super Bowl (3TD's to 7 INT's). Is all the blame on Manning? No, but if the quarterback is the leader and gets the credit, then he gets the lion's share of the blame.
This takes us back to Saturday night. Once again, Manning was a #1 seed, home-field advantage throughout the road to the Super Bowl and once again he was one and done. Now, some blame can go on John Fox for not going for the kill with a 3rd and 7 and the Ravens out of timeouts, but no Fox played the odds of the Ravens not being able to go the length of the field and ran a third straight dive play and punted. Well, the Ravens got down the field, rather quickly hitting a 70 yard bomb down field. The safety, who to his credit took the enitre blame of losing this game, tried to make an interception; when all he had to do was make sure that no one got behind him. The rest is history. The Broncos decided with 3 timeouts and 34 seconds left to kneel on the ball and play for overtime. Near the end of the 1st overtime, Manning scrambled out of the pocket and tried to throw across his body over the middle of the field and he got intercepted. Ravens kick field goal and Manning goes home again. Now, his career post-season record sitting at 9-11.
Manning is just not a clutch quarterback. He's this generation's Dan Marino, where his counterpart Tom Brady is Joe Montana. Manning is a stat machine, but at the end of the day he can not come big in the biggest moments. He never won a national championship at Tennessee. Yes, he got one Super Bowl and had the chance to end any of this talk in his second appearence. He was driving his team late in the 4th for the go-ahead score and he threw a game-ending pick 6 that once again showed his inability to play the game at the highest level when the stakes are the highest. If I were an owner and had one game to win and had my choice of quarterback to play for my team in that game, there is no way I would pick Manning. I would take Brady in a heartbeat. Brady won 3 Super Bowl's with less talent around him than Manning had at that time. Yes, Brady has lost 2 Super Bowl's, but both times he gave his team the lead very late in the game, only to watch as his defense imploded around him. I would even go so far as to take Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and his Peyton's little brother Eli over Peyton in that theoretical one-game situation. Last Saturday, Joe Flacco showed that he has more ability to rise to the moment, when he made the play of his career so far to send that game to overtime.
Manning's legacy is going to always be over-hyped based on his numbers and the offensive changes he has made to the game. His multiple audibles has got to be an extreme burden on any defense. No matter what though, one has to look at his legacy as tarnished. With all the records and regular season wins, to come up short so many times in the playoffs has to be looked at as a huge weakness on his Hall of Fame career. The press and the anaylsts on all sports networks have to stop making excuses for the man and report it as it is, that as great as Peyton Manning is in the regular season he is equally as awful in the post-season. The respect of the Manning name carries with it a lot of weight. It is almost as if, reporters and anaylsts are afraid to say negative comments about Peyton, yet they have no problem bashing Eli, who has proven to be the greater Manning by rising to the occasion twice. Eli defines the moment, whereas Peyton allows the moment to define him and he is defined by falling short on the grandest of stages.
