Don’t tell Buick this, but Peyton Manning once earned a Cadillac for being selected Super Bowl MVP.
This might surprise the blanket-stating NFL analysts, but Manning has performed well enough in the postseason to play in two Super Bowls. It’s not like Manning, the Broncos quarterback who just set all of the league’s significant regular-season passing records, is adverse to playing well just because it’s the postseason.
Yet, this is the kind of sweeping perception aroused when arguably the NFL’s biggest star of the past 16 years has a 9-11 playoff record.
“I think football has so many layers to it that we want to direct a narrative to focus it simplistically and say he’s 9-11 and Tom Brady is (17-7), so he’s not as good as Tom Brady,” said ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer, whose otherwise pedestrian NFL quarterback career was validated by a Super Bowl title with Baltimore in 2000. “That’s the water-cooler talk that people want to make.”
When it comes to the postseason, Manning has come to symbolize the notion that good is the enemy of great. Restrict data to the regular season and Manning arguably is the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history. His 167 victories rank second, behind Brett Favre’s 186, but Manning has the better winning percentage. Manning will soon win his fifth league MVP award; no other NFL player has won more than three.
And he either has or is approaching all of the significant statistical passing records.
It all adds up to Manning being the best of the best at his position.
But in the postseason, his 9-11 record is worse than all but Dan Marino’s and Warren Moon’s among the 29 quarterbacks who have made at least 10 playoff starts. Marino and Moon are Hall of Famers — but Manning belongs to another conversation, where the greatest of the greats are subjects.
And this is where 9-11 is a long way from Joe Montana’s 4-0 Super Bowl record.
Yes, there were two long runs to Super Bowls in the 2006 and 2009 seasons, when Manning posted a combined 6-1 playoff record. And Broncos fans know Manning hardly seemed jittery or uptight in the 2003 and 2004 first-round playoff games, when he threw for a combined nine touchdowns while leading the Indianapolis Colts to 41 and 49 points against Denver at a time when 41 and 49 points meant something.
But there were eight other seasons when Manning’s team lost its first playoff game, including last year when the Broncos were stunned by Baltimore in Denver, losing 38-35 in double overtime.
As Manning was preparing this past week to play in the 21st postseason game of his career, his second with the Broncos, Sunday against the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, he was asked if he has put too much pressure on himself come playoff time.
“That’s not how I feel,” he said. “I guess everybody has a different theory or analysis. I don’t believe that to be true. I’ve always enjoyed it and I felt fortunate to be in every opportunity when you get a chance to play in the postseason.”
Soft defenses no cushion
It seems Manning has led similar teams to the playoffs before. Manning set NFL records with 55 touchdown passes and 5,477 yards passing for Denver this season largely because he had an unparalleled pass-catching group featuring Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Wes Welker and Julius Thomas. Just like Manning had all those years in Indy with Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, Brandon Stokley and Dallas Clark.
Denver’s running game, led by tailback Knowshon Moreno, has gouged nickle- and dime-set defenses at times this season, just as the Colts did for so many years with Edgerrin James and Joseph Addai.
So many of those Indy teams were soft on defense. This year’s Broncos have allowed an average of 24.9 points per game — easily the most among teams remaining in the NFL tournament’s Elite Eight.
Given the makeup of so many Manning-led teams, it’s pretty much up to the offense to carry them. And it’s looking that way again Sunday, even though in their last meeting, Dec. 12, the Chargers abused the Broncos in yards rushing, 177-18.
Only one player was charged with a loss from that game. And it wasn’t anyone playing up front.
“I can tell you from studying Peyton over his entire career that he’s played really well in some playoff games they’ve lost,” Dilfer said. “He’s played not so great in games they’ve lost, but it’s not the playoffs that makes him play bad. He’s had dropped balls. They haven’t been able to run the ball as well. Protection has been an issue. There are reasons for some of his performances that aren’t so hot.”
Super season in name only
Manning’s playoff record has nothing to do with Manning. At least that’s what his postseason statistics say. Look at 2006, the only season Manning’s Colts won it all. They went on a 4-0 playoff run even though he threw seven interceptions against only three touchdown passes.
In his other 16 playoff games — 11 of them losses — Manning threw 29 TD passes and 14 interceptions. His passer rating in those 16 games was 22.1 points higher than during his four-game run in 2006. When in the past six seasons Eli Manning has won two Super Bowls and Peyton Manning has won none, it can’t all be about the quarterback. Aaron Rodgers, who is widely regarded as the NFL’s best pure passer, happened to “carry” the Green Bay Packers to the Super Bowl title in 2010 when his defense not so coincidentally ranked No. 2 in points allowed.
The next season, the Packers were 15-1. But their defense ranked 19th in points allowed. Rodgers and the Packers lost their opening playoff game at home that season to Eli’s underdog New York Giants.
Yet, Manning and Manning alone has his legacy at stake when the Broncos meet the Chargers. Imagine if John Elway’s career was judged before his last two seasons, when he played at 37 and 38 years old.
Elway didn’t have great passing stats when the Broncos won their first Super Bowl title to cap the 1997 season, but the “Helicopter” might be the most famous play in franchise history.
Manning is 37. And next season, when his contract is fully guaranteed, he will be 38.
“Maybe, as you get older, you think more in those lines that, ‘Hey, this is a pretty unique opportunity to be in this position, to be one of just a few teams playing,’ ” Manning said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere Sunday, playing a good football team, and there is nothing else I would rather be doing than be in that opportunity.
“And so that is certainly my goal to enjoy the preparation — not just the game — to actually enjoy the preparation part of it, enjoy being around the guys. Because certainly, the light is at the end of the tunnel for me, no question. And so, I think you enjoy these things maybe even more than maybe you have in the past.”
Mike Klis: mklis@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikeklis
