The NFL is slowly but surely becoming the personal property of the Mannings. Looks like the little one might be almost as good as the elder one. But then again nobody is as good as Peyton Manning these days. I love good QB play more than anything else in the NFL and I look for it in every game. I was a huge Dan Marino fan because he was the ultimate, pure QB. He still might be and I thought he will always be the best pure passer ever, but Peyton Manning is shaking my commitment to Dan-da-man. Manning is on top of his game like no other right now. His mastery of the mental aspect of the game is next to nobody. We have seen many great QBs and there are still a few good ones in the league. It's fun seeing Tom Brady and Brett Favre play and be in control, but nobody seems to know everything the defense is trying to do quite like Peyton. He seems to know what's coming even before the defensive coordinator on the other end calls the play. He often audibles and confuses the defense and gets what he wants out of them. It's usually the other way around with the defense confusing the offense, but not with this guy.
Peyton's physical talents are comparable to any of the other great QBs, though clearly slightly inferior to Dan Marino and the likes, but his mental capacity seems to be way beyond everybody else. It comes from hours and days and weeks of film study. It's no accident. It's a pure joy watching him play. Of course if you are puling for the other team he is playing against, then it's the ultimate torture. Like it was for me last weekend when the Colts played the Cards. Of course the Cards took it easy on me by completely sucking. That game deteriorated to a point very quickly where it didn't matter what Peyton did. I was not hanging on to his every pass. In any case, both the Mannings are undefeated and look unstoppable right now. Peyton is making stars out of Pierre Garcon, Austn Collie and Donald Brown and Eli is making stars out of Mario Manningham and the other Steve Smith. Archie should be a proud papa. Eli got a scare with a non-contact injury that looked bad. I think he should be fine.
Brett Favre had a breakout game today against his Packers. He looked awesome and after downplaying the game all week, he gave conflicting answers after the game which kinda proved the obvious - that this game meant a lot more than he would admit too. But he was awesome on the field - 24-31, 271 yds, 3 TDs. This team looks scary right now as the young receivers are learning to play with him. The Vikings D harassed Aaron Rodgers all night. Neither team could run the ball, but the Vikings D made it hard for the Packers to consistently mount an attack. A-Rod is very good and he still passed for 384 yards, but he needs better protection. He also needs to get rid of the ball quicker sometimes. He holds on to the ball a little too long. The Packers were still in the game and a critical 4-Th down call in the second half I think hurt them. They should have taken the 3 points instead of going for the TD and failing when they were trailing 14-28. That made it harder for the Pack. Of course Donald Lee could have and should have still caught that TD pass and A-Rod could have thrown a slightly better ball too. No such issues with Favre. He was on the money and was hitting everything. I also liked Sidney Rice going way up and catching both those on-side kicks. Thats some real athleticism right there and goes to show you how much of a team sport football is. While Favre gets all the press, it's little plays like that which clinches these football games. I am a big A-Rod fan and am disappointed for him and the Packers, but as always A-Rod looked good, but it was not enough. Favre looks more than enough right now for the Vikings.
The other great game of the weekend was Baltimore at New England. As always, it was close and as always, it was a frustrating, heart-breaking loss for the Ravens against the Pats. This time, Flacco was driving them cooly and assuredly towards the end zone when Mark Clayton dropped a pass on 4-Th and 3 deep in Patriots territory. The ball hit him between the numbers and he flat our dropped it. Lucky Patriots and Brady, who also got bailed out a couple of times with absolutely ridiculous personal foul calls. NFL needs to take another look at these stupid QB calls. In other games, San Francisco shut out St. Louis and Jacksonville embarrassed Tennessee. JaMarcus Russell still sucks and Derek Anderson showed us again that he is better than Brady Quinn, though neither of them can save the Cleveland Browns. San Diego and Dallas are still two of the most over-rated teams in the league, though Philip Rivers is a much more consistent QB than Tony Romo. Denver of all teams is 4-0 and I have to admit, I thought they'll absolutely suck. I guess I was wrong. They beat Dallas and if I was Wade Phillips, I would be getting ready to find another job next season. Dallas seems to be going nowhere and I am not sure what's Romo's problem either. Wonder if he is longing for TO in his team now.
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