Last season had a very satisfying end. . .Peyton Manning and his Broncos suffering the kind of savage beating we usually associate with elevators, Ray Rice and women.
After hearing all year how Peyton Manning was Jesus-in-an-orange-jersey, he showed up for the only game that mattered looking like Joel Osteen-in-an-orange-jersey.
Joe Montana never got beat like that. Hell, even in his last game, when he was a broken-down shell of himself with the Chiefs, Montana still managed to keep his team in the game, losing to Dan Marino's Dolphins 27 - 17.
None of the great QBs ever got beat in the playoffs the way Manning did against the Seahawks. Manning's been a great regular season QB his whole career. . .but an average playoff QB. The cold hard truth: Peyton Manning is not one of the ten or even twenty greatest QBs of all time, let alone the Football God the Media annointed him last year, as he was piling up all his gaudy passing stats. All those yards and td passes Manning racked up? It just means he was still chucking the ball in the fourth quarter when the games were already over.
I suppose Drew Brees will be the next Peyton Manning, all the meaningless yards and td passes records, but with a .500 playoff record.
Hell, let's look it up. Peyton Manning is 11-12 in the playoffs. . .not even .500. Brees is 6-5. I guess Brees is the Greatest QB Who Ever Lived!
Here are the twelve QBs who have started at least ten playoff games with the highest post-season winning percentage:
Bart Starr: 9 - 1 in the playoffs.
Jim Plunkett: 8 - 2 in the playoffs.
Terry Bradshaw: 14 - 5 in the playoffs.
Troy Aikman: 11- 4 in the playoffs.
Eli Manning: 8 - 3 in the playoffs.
Ben Roethlisberger: 10 - 4 in the playoffs.
Joe Montana: 16 - 7 in the playoffs.
Tom Brady: 18 - 8 in the playoffs.
Kurt Warner: 9 - 4 in the playoffs.
Joe Flacco: 9 - 4 in the playoffs.
John Elway: 14 - 7 in the playoffs.
Roger Staubach: 11 - 6 in the playoffs.
I'm not saying these are the 12 Greatest QBs of All-Time. . .but I am saying they are all BETTER than Her Royal Highness, Peyton Manning.
That's right, Joe Flacco is better than Peyton Manning. I know I'm probably the only one who believes that. But the fact is, Flacco, as a huge underdog in a playoff game, beat Manning on Manning's home field. Oh, but Flacco doesn't throw for 400 yards and 4 tds every time he plays the Cleveland Browns! That's right, in Fantasy football, Peyton Manning is the King. In Fantasy football. In real football, Joe Flacco is better.
So that's a dozen who were significantly better than Manning in money games, and I'm only counting the QBs who played in at least 10 money games. Johnny Unitas, who certainly was a better QB, was 6 - 2 in the playoffs. Bobby Layne, who certainly was a better QB, was 3 - 1 in the playoffs.
Here are Peyton Manning's equivalents: Jim Kelly (9-8), Danny White (5-5), Brett Favre (13-11), Bob Griese (6-5), Steve Young (8-6), Kenny Stabler (7-5), Donovan McNabb (9-7), Dan Marino (8-10), Daryle Lamonica (4-5), Dan Fouts (3-4). Good quarterbacks, but not Football Immortals. And I'd take Kenny Stabler any day of the week over Manning.
Hell, Peyton Manning's only the third best QB in his own family. . .
2014-15 Predictions:
Super Bowl: New England over Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers (5-4 in the playoffs) is a much, much better QB than Manning, and he will beat Seattle in the NFC title game, but I see Brady, in maybe his last chance, finally getting ring #4.
Teams Besides The Kansas City Chiefs That Will Fall-Off:
Philadelphia Eagles: Who replaces DeSean Jackson? And no way Nick Foles goes 27 tds/2 ints again. Don't be surprised if Mark Sanchez (4-2 in the playoffs) has to step in half-way through the season.
Carolina Panthers: Their defense should still be solid, but no receivers for Cam Newton to throw to, and Atlanta and Tampa Bay will be better. They won 12 last year, this year 9 wins is pushing it.
Arizona Cardinals: Great defense, but how do you win 10 games again with Carson Palmer (0-2 in the playoffs) in a division with Seattle and San Francisco and a better St. Louis?
Teams That Will Win Four Or More Games Than They Won Last Year:
Houston Texans: Got rid of unstable head coach and unstable quarterback, plus added Jadeveon Clowney to an already tough defense.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Got rid of unstable head coach and unstable quarterback (though they did that early last season). Made the best coaching hire of the off-season. Lovie Smith won a ton of games with shitty quarterbacks in Chicago, so even though new QB Josh McCown is really just a retread who earned a shitload of money with a seven game hot streak in Marc Trestman's EZ QB system, and who will probably revert to his previous mediocre form in Tampa, Lovie will have the defense, special teams and run game to get Tampa back to at least .500.
The Iowa Of The NFL:
Indianapolis Colts: They play in the worst division in the NFL, and get their intraconference games against the worst division in the NFC (east).
Team That Had The Best Pre-Season Injury:
St. Louis Rams: Samantha Bradley did the Rams a HUGE favor by getting injured yet again. They'll win more games with Shaun Hill under center than dump-off Bradley. Hill don't look like much in a uniform, and he has a rather unorthodox style of both throwing and moving around in the pocket, but unlike Samantha, he's hard as nails and doesn't get tight around the collar when the game is on the line. The Rams have a tough defense, a tough running game, and now a tough quarterback. They're in the toughest division in the NFL, but they still might sneak into the playoffs as a wildcard, all thanks to Samantha Bradley's tissue paper knees.
Team That Hired The Most Delusional Coach:
Detroit Lions: Jim Caldwell is one of those old-timey negroes who reads his Bible and believes Exodus relates to the black man in America, etc. He believes God gives a shit about football, and that he's in Detroit for a reason. Well, he is in Detroit for a reason, but it's not for the reason he thinks. He thinks he's in Detroit to reach the mountain top. Sorry, Jim, I don't know your particulars, don't know what God is trying to reveal to you, but I do know the Detroit Lions, and God uses the Lions to teach people through failure. Jim Caldwell thought he walked into the best opening in the NFL, the Lions with their shiny Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush and Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, the Lions, ready to win. Sorry, Jim, but seventeen weeks from now, with your eleven or twelve typical gut-wrenching Lion losses, with the colossal failure of losing with a *sure thing,* God will have taught you something about yourself and about your life through your failure with the Lions. It's a hard lesson, but welcome to Detroit!
It is strange how good Detroit can look on paper if you don't look at the heading that reads "Detroit Lions."
ReplyDeleteOne to add: the Falcons will win more games this year. They'll go 7-9, Ryan will be on his ass a bunch, and Witness Protection Mike "Smith" will be gone when the problem really is DudeBro Dmitroff.
Big difference between Brees and Manning? Manning can play well with poor coaching. Brees can't.
ReplyDeleteAbout Manning and the collapse of the Colts. . .remember, they didn't have a decent back-up QB, they had to play with Painter. . .and even more important, their coach was Jim Caldwell, who I always believed was the worst coach in the NFL. He wasn't Belichik winning 11 games with Cassel. Caldwell had no answer when Manning went down. And one last thing about Manning. As soon as the Colts got another half-way decent QB, Andrew Luck, and a non-ignoramus as a coach, Pagano or whatever, they immediately started winning again.
ReplyDelete