Peyton Manning, In Case You Forgot, Is A Postseason Choke Artist
In the latest edition of “Football Nation Today,” Alex talks about the latest news around the world of the NFL:
1st Down: Alex briefly talks about the top storylines from last weekend’s wild card games, including how shocked he is that so many national football pundits are letting Mike Shanahan off the hook for his handling of Robert Griffin III last Sunday. Shanahan was negligent and irresponsible in his handling of Griffin over the past month, Alex says, and it cost the Redskins the game last Sunday.
Looking ahead to this week’s divisional match-ups, Alex talks about what he thinks the most underplayed storyline in football is: Peyton Manning’s track record of choking in the postseason.
Alex also says Matt Ryan has the most pressure on him out of any playoff QB, the Texans don’t have the mentality to compete with the Patriots and he tries to prognosticate the stellar Packers/49ers game.
2nd Down: The NFL coaching carousal was in the headlines again this week, with Chiefs and Bills hiring Andy Reid and Doug Marrone to fill their coaching vacancies. Alex gives his opinion on those hires, and shares his epiphany on what kind of coach every team with a coaching opening should be looking to hire.
3rd Down: In the “Big Up or Slow Down” segment, Alex debates whether Ray Lewis had a right to steal the show at the end of last week’s Ravens win, if a Dan Shaughnessy column will fire up the Texans and if the Jets are setting themselves up for further disaster by forcing their next general manager to keep Rex Ryan as head coach.
4th Down: In the “Reimer Rant,” Alex rants about the backlash Brent Musburger’s comments about AJ McCarron’s girlfriend, Katherine Webb, have caused over the past couple of days. Apparently in today’s society, calling a woman “beautiful” is grotesque and inappropriate. Why are people so soft?
Email Alex at areimer@bu.edu, and follow him on Twitter @AlexReimer1.
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If nothing else, I guess this makes it easier to see why they are the 2 best QB's with losing records in the playoffs.
Great stats on Marino, and you're absolutely right on him. That's why I can't put Marino among the "best QBs ever." To me, at that position, you have to do it in the playoffs.
Now, Peyton Manning is among one of the top QBs in the game, and is one of the best of all time. But I can't put him up there with Brady because of the postseason records. If Peyton wins this year, though, that's a different story.
Manning has made it to the playoffs 11 times in his career. He has lost in his first game seven of those 11 times. His career playoff record is 10-9. For somebody with his ability, and Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, the playoff record is underwhelming.
Now, it is true that Manning had to be PERFECT to win with a lot of those one dimensional Colts teams. As Tom Brady has shown us (6-6 in his last 12 playoff games), it is difficult to carry a one dimensional team to playoff wins.
The whole point I'm making is, Manning's playoff record is less than stellar. He has a track record of performing poorly in big games. But yet, nobody has mentioned that this week.
Feel free to listen to the show, I expand on my points there.
Manning is such a great QB he was able to carry several poor Colts teams to the playoffs. Thank goodness he got one ring out of it!
But, his turnover in OT versus the Ravens kinda proves your point. The first int. shouldn't be counted against him. The receiver couldn't hang on to the ball in his hands. Also, Brady got credit for a "tuck" rule on a fumble just like Mannings in the game. Brady would have one less ring if that play was called like they called the play on Manning.
But, that final interception was a pass that most rookies don't even throw. Very un-Peyton Manning in the regular season.
Too bad you nailed this one. I think the Broncos were really good and the Manning story was nice, too.
He played well for the duration of the afternoon, but the last throw was atrocious. Just a horrible decision, which Manning has a track record of making in the final moments of playoff games.
The Denver defense, though, deserves a lot of blame for the loss too. Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller were invisible, and the secondary was awful. The Ravens didn't target Ray Rice once in the passing game, and Dennis Pitta was a minimal factor. How the Broncos let Joe Flacco lob it up there for Torrey Smith twice, and Jacoby Jones at the end is beyond me. Talk about no safety help.
Oh, and John Fox/Mike McCoy coached not to lose at the end of the game, which of course, is not the way to go about it. If I were a team coveting McCoy, I would pass after seeing the plays he called with 3 minutes to go and PEYTON MANNING WITH THE FOOTBALL. All they needed was one first down there. Instead, three runs up the middle for nothing. Sweet.