Peyton or Eli, That is the Question

After another impressive fourth quarter comeback, in the Super bowl no less, Eli Manning has risen his name to be considered an elite quarterback along with the likes of Brees, Rodgers, and Brady. That short list, at one point in time included a man by the name of Peyton Manning (ever heard of him?). Peyton has a long resume including, but not limited to: 1 Super Bowl ring, four NFL MVP’s, and 11 pro bowls. Without a doubt Peyton is a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee, but what of his brother?

Eli was asked earlier in the season if he felt he was on the same level as Tom Brady; Eli answered yes without a second of hesitation, as the entire sports world let out a huge sigh of “yea, right.” Eli obviously proved us all wrong with the way the Super Bowl panned out but there still is the question, is he better than Peyton?

A good way to compare the brothers is to take a look at how they played against each other, in “Manning Bowl” I and II.

Peyton came to Eli’s house to open the 2006 season for Manning Bowl I and beat Eli on his own field. It was a close game ending 26-21 won on the back of Peyton and his ability to dissect the Giant defense. Although Adam Vinatieri had to kick 4 field goals to put the game away, the Colt’s offense was solid the entire game. Peyton had an average game by his standards throwing 25/41 for 276 yards with 1 TD. Eli had a similar numbers with 20/34, 247 yards, 2 TDs and both brothers threw 1 pick in the contest. The deciding factor in this matchup was the ability for the Colt’s to put points on the board to finish drives, even if they were field goals.

In Manning Bowl II, week 2 of the 2010 season, Peyton again won the battle, this time in grand fashion, 38 – 14. This game was played on Peyton’s home turf and he did a great job defending it. Peyton dominated most of the offensive stats in a game that was won mostly by Indianapolis’s defense and run game. Peyton was 20/26, passing for 255 yards, 3 touchdowns, and finishing with 145.5 rating. Eli had a tough time dealing with Indy’s stout defense going 13/24, 161 yards with 2 touchdowns, 1 interception and a passer rating of 85.6. Another stat that further separated the two brothers, was short passes for 10 yards or less. Peyton was 17/18, 2 TDs, and 138.7 rating. Eli on the other hand, was 9/14 with 0 TDs and a 73.2 rating. The elder brother scored on 3 of 4 visits to the redzone while Eli’s offense didn’t even make it into the redzone scoring only on two big plays.

Let’s take a look at the lifetime numbers of these two quarterback brothers. Eli currently has a completion percentage of 58.4, 185/129 TD’s to interception ratio and a total passer rating of 82.1 for his career. Eli is middle of the road when stats are concerned, but has improved during 2011 regular season (92.9 rating) and played his heart out in the 2011 postseason (103.3 rating).

Peyton has had a stellar career, most seasons he was among the league leaders through the air. Peyton’s career isn’t over if he has anything to say for it, but it may be hard to keep up with what he has previously recorded. Peyton has a lifetime completion percentage of 64.9, 399/198 TD/Int ratio, and a passer rating of 94.9. The Colt’s ownership now has a difficult decision on their hands which may have Peyton playing for a new city in the 2012 season. Peyton being Peyton he will likely take it in stride and resume with his Hall of Fame career.

The bottom line is at age 35 and missing the entire 2011 season with repeated neck surgeries, the future for Peyton may be grim. However he does have good news, about 70 percent of athletes who had the same surgery returned to play and only reported some neck stiffness. Peyton should be able to return to the NFL, most likely not full strength, but he will still be Peyton. Eli (age 31) on the other hand, is making a name for himself in a big way. With a young, terrific defense behind him, Eli looks to have the stars aligned for more playoff runs in the future. Eli may have the better team and better chances but Peyton now has a chip on his shoulder because his baby brother has more rings than he does. Who is the better Manning? Numbers say Peyton, Super Bowls say Eli but believe me, Peyton doesn’t want to sit at the Christmas table looking at Eli sitting there with a grin on his face and two Super Bowl rings on his fingers.

All stats were taken from Elias Sports Bureau www.esb.com

All other information: Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org

Why the 49ers Will Win the Superbowl

First of all, Defense wins Championships. Period. It has been proven time and time again. Ray Lewis’ Ravens and the 1985 Bears won it all with the best defenses EVER in 2000 and ’85 respectively. Have you ever heard of the Steel Curtain, sure you have, because they won four, that’s right, FOUR Superbowls – 1974, ’75, ’78, ’79. Do we need anymore proof?

Enough about the past, let’s talk about the future. Before the Niners have a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, they have to get past the New York Giants and their surprisingly stout defense. The Giants squeaked into the playoffs with a 9-7 record, but have bested the reining champions, the team with the best record in the regular season, the Green Bay Packers. The Giants have also shut down the Atlanta Falcons in the first round of the playoffs 24-2. This will be a tough for the Niners because the New York offense is full of weapons. With the likes of Nicks, a surprising rookie Victor Cruz, Manningham, Ahmad Bradshaw, and Brandon Jacobs this is no easy win for any team. Not to mention Eli Manning is playing the best football of his life.

Make no mistake, there is a way to shut down the Giants. Stop their run game, simple as that. In each Giants loss this season, they have been held under 100 yrds rushing, excluding only the G-men’s loss to the Packers in week 13, when the Packers ran for exactly 100 yards. The equation is simple - stop the run and make Eli Manning beat you through the air. There is no team better suited to do this than the Niners. They had the best run defense in the league, allowing only 77.3 yards a game in the regular season. Also, the San Francisco defense had the most takeaways this season. We saw the tenacious defense of the Niners take the ball away from Drew Brees and the best offense in the league five times (3 fumbles, 2 Passes) in the second round of the playoffs.

His entire NFL career, Alex Smith has been criticized and blamed for subpar performances and seasons. Finally the 49ers have put together a defense good enough to keep Smith confortable and confident. This is his season to silence the critics and prove he can be an elite quarterback and lead his team to victory against the Giants and in the Superbowl.

Mr. Tebow: Overrated, Overhyped, and Overwhemled

All the Tim Tebow fans will surely be going into hiding after his past two weeks of miserable performances. Most recently against the Buffalo Bills (6-9) in which the final score was 40 -14, this may seem familiar to the loss to the New England Patriots (12 -3) 41 – 23. However, against the Pats, “Tebow Time” was never a factor as the Denver Broncos (8-7) were never within one possession of the game lead in the final 7-8 minutes. “Tebow Time” was in full effect during the Bills game, with just over eight minutes left on the clock, this was comeback kid’s time to shine as he had done multiple times before. Unfortunately, “Tebow Time” did not pan out for the hopeful Broncos fans; the loyal fans had to sit back and watch their beloved quarterback throw a pick-six with the Denver already down 14- 26. Adding insult to injury, Tebow again threw a pick-six the very first play of the next Bronco possession. Here were two things we haven’t seen happen to Tim very often since he started in week 5 against the Bolts.

Was the pressure too much for the second year quarterback to handle? Was he trying to make up for a let down versus New England? Could it have been the fact that Tebow has never played a game in his college or NFL career in below freezing temperatures? The most likely answer to Tebow’s lackluster performance is a combination of all these factors together.

Tebow has long been praised as a crunch time player who performed in big situations, but in the past two weeks, Tim has been far from it. The week before the Denver – New England game, you could not turn on a sports network without seeing the Media’s golden boy’s face. Now it appears the television personalities of ESPN, FOX, CBS, NFL Network, and others, yet again over-hyped a young quarterback who was not up to the challenge. The American Public is very used to this happening, with first overall draft picks, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady, but with this much hype surrounding a glorified halfback with the throwing motion of a seven year old girl, maybe we need to know when to turn off the TV.