CloakNNNdagger
Hall of Fame
...............if you have a Peyton Manning or a Drew Brees. Can modern day teams offer consistent championship performance with the old formula of strong run and iron man defense? Or has the NFL evolved, leaving behind an archaic blueprint? Do we still really ever see teams maintaining a level of sustained excellence cultivating a truly "balanced" approach? Certainly, there are many ways to "skin" a cat. But, this article from my home town Kansas City Star makes me wonder about a lot of the present day limitations to being an all around "best."
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Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
Brees and Manning have strong-armed the NFL
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
If theres any question that passing the ball is the way to play for a championship, just look at the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.
The gaudy numbers that they posted this season some of them the NFLs best were the key to a much-anticipated meeting next Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees completed an NFL-record 70.6 percent of his attempts for 4,388 yards and led the league with 34 touchdown passes and a 109.6 passer rating.
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning threw for 4,500 yards and 33 touchdowns, and was sixth in the NFL with a 99.9 rating. He became the first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in six straight seasons, while Brees joined him as the only other QB with four consecutive 4,000-yard seasons.
Teams are building for the passing game, said ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski. Youre going to see every once in a while a team like the Jets hang around with their running game and good defense. But its all about percentages and whats going to give you your best chance of winning a world championship, and thats through the passing game.
Manning is a four-time MVP, and Brees is the NFL Offensive Player of the Year. With them at the controls, the 14-2 Colts and 13-3 Saints are the first pair of No. 1 seeds to reach the Super Bowl since Dallas and Buffalo did it in 1993.
If you get a guy like Peyton Manning or Drew Brees, it is so much easier to win football games, said CBS analyst and former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason. They truly are difference-makers.
In the case of a guy like Peyton Manning, he is offensive coordinator, hes coach, hes the guy who is really running the entire football operation on the practice field. Those players are the ones who step up. And Drew Brees has been that, reigniting his career under (coach) Sean Payton.
Brees started pitching from the start, throwing six touchdown passes in the season-opening win over Detroit and sparking the Saints to a 13-0 start.
Manning, who had to break in two young wide receivers second-year man Pierre Garcon and rookie Austin Collie earned his fourth MVP award in leading the Colts to a 14-0 start.
Indianapolis ranked No. 2 in the NFL in passing, and New Orleans was fourth. They likely would have finished 1-2 had Manning and Brees been allowed to finish out the regular seasons.
The Colts decided to pull Manning and key starters in the second half of game 15 against the New York Jets, forgoing a chance at an unbeaten season. Brees was held out of the regular-season finale against Carolina. He completed at least 35 passes to seven different players this season, joining Dan Marino of the 1995 Miami Dolphins as the only quarterbacks in history to accomplish that feat.
Marques Colston, the 252nd overall pick in the seventh round of the 2006 draft, led the Saints with 70 receptions for 1,074 yards and nine touchdowns in 2009, plus he caught passes for 105 yards and a touchdown in the playoffs. In his four year career, Colston has 60 catches of 20-plus yards, including 10 touchdown catches of 20-plus.
Devery Henderson is the deep threat, averaging an NFL-best 20.4 yards per reception since 2006. He has 16 catches of 50-yards plus in his career, and his average of 24.8 yards per catch ranked first in the NFL last year. Robert Meachem, a first-round pick in 2007, blossomed this season, making nine touchdown catches among 45 receptions. Running back Reggie Bush caught 47 passes coming out of the backfield.
Devery Henderson and Robert Meacham are two of the best-kept secrets in football, said former NFL head coach and current ESPN analyst Jon Gruden. People dont realize last year Drew Brees was 16 yards from the all-time single-season passing record (of 5,084, set by Marino in 1984). He threw for 5,000 yards without a 1,000-yard receiver.
Manning, of course, has an array of receivers in wide receiver Reggie Wayne and tight end Dallas Clark, who caught 100 passes each in the regular season, plus the emerging Garcon and Collie.
Garcon, a sixth-round pick from tiny Mount Union (Ohio) in 2008, caught 47 passes for 765 yards and four touchdowns in the regular season and set an AFC championship game record with 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown. Collie, a fourth-round draft choice from Brigham Young in 2009, caught 60 passes for 676 yards and seven touchdowns in the regular season and seven catches for 123 yards and a touchdown against the Jets.
Former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe, an analyst with CBS, gives Manning credit for bringing out the best in Garcon and Collie.
You take a Pierre Garcon or Austin Collie, and Peyton Manning says: You know what, theyre probably going to take Reggie Wayne away. Theyre probably going to double Dallas Clark. You two guys are going to have favorable matchups. I need you to step up and play for me. You dont know what that does for a persons confidence, Sharpe said.
If you really look at it over the next four years, you can just hand Peyton Manning the MVP because hes going to have between 4,000 to 4,500 yards, between 30 and 40 touchdowns, and his team is going to win 12 to 14 games every year.
Hes that good.
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