Does anyone still think Manning is better than Brady?

Do you think Manning is better than Brady, BTE?

 

Whatever, Billy Beane. I know what I saw!

 

Not really. He does some things better. Does some things worse.

But I think he'd have 3-4 rings had he been drafted by New England. Better coaching. Better GM. And I maintain the 3-4 years New England was able to pay Brady below his value greatly enhanced their ability to surround him with championship talent.

 

Yeah and how the hell was Manning supposed to beat Norv Turner and Billy Volek in Indianapolis?

 

Even better is he thinks Brady isn't left in to run up the score and pad stats.

He was in the game with 3 minutes left up 45-7 just this past Sunday.

 

Beats me. Spy on their practices, maybe?

 

It's funny. I was a big supporter of "Peyton Manning throws meaningless stat-padding TDs," especially in some of the blowout wins this season.
It's a perception, not reality. He threw a couple TDs that put his team up 21 late in the 4th and with what we saw in Seattle, a 14-point lead isn't always safe.
I think Manning cared about his stats more than Brady, but I don't think either of them was "padding" numbers.
I remember the 18-1 season, a lot of people bitched about the Pats running it up. Belichick would run the ball to kill clock, get in a spot on 4th-and-short and instead of kicking a field goal from a distance that would guarantee 3 points - which would be running up the score, by definition - he'd go for it. Because the opponents were garbage, the Pats would convert and continue down the field and eventually score because the opposition had given up.
It's conveniently forgotten than on a couple occasions, Belichick pulled Brady for Matt Cassell, only to have Cassell screw something up - throw a pick, almost throw a pick, fumble, sack - and his thinking - which I totally agree with - was that having negative plays wasn't going to help the team get better. So he pulled Cassell and would put Brady back in to hand the ball off and throw dump passes.
Manning's done the same thing. He never comes off the field in blowouts. Remember earlier this season when Osweiler was supposed to come in but was a half-second late getting on the field? Manning came firing off the sidelines to finish things up.
I don't understand why that's such a negative for either player.

 

That is some great revisionist BS Rhody.

 

He has, but he did not in '01, '03 and '04. In the effort to create the legend of the 6th-round pick who became Super Bowl champion, Brady has gotten *far* too much credit for the title-winning Patriot teams.

He was purely a game manager in '01. He threw ONE TD in the whole of the playoffs (so did Drew Bledsoe) and was, as was stated earlier in the thread, inexplicably named SB MVP (Ty law gets my vote).

The '03 Patriot offense was so vaunted that when they faced a team that is arguably one of the weakest in Super Bowl history, the over/under was 37.5. I don't think this is because most bettors thought the Pats would win 35-3.

He was middle-of the-pack in yards/game and completion percentage in '04, as that was a team with a very good defense and a balanced offense thanks to a reformed Corey Dillon.

As he improved and has had to carry the team, his results have been similar to those Manning has achieved. There have been awful playoff losses at home, offensive flameouts, an all-time gack in the Super Bowl and head-scratching plays, e.g. intentional grounding for a safety. All of this, mind you, with the best coach in the league on his sideline.

Gun to my head, I take him over Manning in a big game, but to say he's leaps and bounds better isn't right, either.

 

No kidding. Belichick in 2007 practically introduced meaningless touchdowns to the NFL as part of his Pissed At The World Tour. The fourth-quarter touchdown pass to make it 45-0 against Washington was especially nice.

At the time Manning/Dungy were pretty well-established that they would just sit on the ball once the game got out of hand. Everybody was that way, really.

 

When Manning looks bad, he looks awful. He's just had too many games where it looks like the defense has figured him out and he hasn't made the big throws.

Brady's physical tools have held up better. While he has had a habit of throwing awful picks in playoff games the past 4-5 years, but he is still smart and precise enough to get it done most of the time.

 

Yeah, the whole 2007 season made Brady the poster child for padding stats. I don't know if there is a more extreme example of this in the last 20 years. Belichick wasn't content just to go 16-0, he wanted Brady to get the passing records, Moss to get the receiving records and wanted to demolish every team they played.

Nothing wrong with it, but let's not pretend Brady's stats are more or less significant than anyone else's.