Congrats to the Sheriff

Peyton Manning has now thrown the most number of touchdowns in the history of the NFL. He broke the record yesterday in style by shredding the vaunted and slightly overrated niners defense with a win on national TV.  The sheriff is well on his way to accumulating the numbers befitting the best QB in the history of the game - the new Dan Marino, owner of every single meaningful QB record in the book. And unlike Marino, he might have a shot at being recognized as the best ever because he has a Super Bowl ring as well. As a Marino fan, it pains me to see all his records get obliterated one by one by these QBs. The game has changed a lot and the records are not the same anymore. With that said, Peyton is a true legend and he is as good as Marino, if not better. He would have gotten to a lot of these numbers with or without the help of the modern NFL rules. It's truly a joy to watch the sheriff throw the football around when is on fire. He looks completely unstoppable most of the time.

Completing a pass in the NFL, even in this day and age, is hard and there are many QBs who remind you of that fact every Sunday. Just look at Andy Dalton's performance yesterday. But Peyton makes it look so easy. It's beautiful to watch the velocity, trajectory, and the accuracy on his balls. The only other QB that dominates the game quite like him in today's NFL is Aaron Rodgers. These two are in a class of their own and there is no real, near-term threat to Peyton's record because Rodgers started his career a little late sitting behind Favre. He may not have the time to put up Peyton's numbers despite his brilliance. The next legitimate threat to Sheriff's numbers might actually be the little Sheriff, Andrew Luck, who is also having an incredible season this year. Luck himself is so good that there is no regret in Indianapolis about letting Peyton go despite how good Peyton has been in Denver. Thats because Luck is just a younger, smarter, humbler, and more athletic version of Peyton. But he needs another 15+ years of sustained excellence to catchup to this record. Given the direction the sport if moving in, passing is only going to get easier and somebody will break Peyton's record sooner or later. But congrats to the sheriff here and now on his latest achievement.

Peyton and the Broncos look very much on track to get back to the Super Bowl. Then again, Peyton always looks great in October more so than in February. That is one knock against him. The team he lost to last year in the Super Bowl, the Seahawks, are looking rather mediocre and losing to teams like the Rams. The niners have a bunch of injuries and suspensions and are not looking great either. This opens up a great opportunity for the Arizona Cardinals who are leading the NFC West, the best division in the NFL, with a 5-1 record. The Cards have a couple of tough games coming up and have to still deal with the good niners, seahawks, eagles, and cowboys team in the NFC, but they are looking solid with a well-balanced offense and a stout defense. It should be a good stretch run in the NFC west. But then again, it always is across the NFL and thats why we like it so much as an entertainment option. Lets hope the Cardinals make it far this year. AFC West, NFC North, and NFC East are the other three divisions that are going to go to the wire. The NY Giants are not going to make it, but the SF Giants are probably going to win the World Series in 6 games. Thats my pick for the baseball World Series starting tomorrow.

Tom and Cam define week 1

I don't know what was more ridiculous. Tom Brady throwing for 517 yards or Cam Newton throwing for 422 yards. Where's the defense? What happened to the theory that offenses take longer than defenses to get into the groove, especially coming off a lockout shortened training camp? Brady shredded the Miami defense Monday night and he didn't even need Chad Ochocinco to do anything. It was beautiful to watch Brady throw those pin-point passes that hit his receivers in stride every time. Whether he is making passes at a super model or throwing passes to Wes Welker, I guess Brady knows what he is doing. I don't care how many more rings he accumulates, I will rank Brady second only to Peyton Manning, but I have to say, he is an elite quarterback and he was totally on-point Monday night. This league is definitely becoming more and more QB, offense and pass friendly and I am not complaining. You can't breathe on a quarterback these days and the corner-backs can't do much of what they used to do a decade back. All of that is beginning to show in the numbers. Brady threw for 517 yards and there is talk of him eclipsing Dan Marino's single season record for yardage (5084 yards) this season. Of course both Brady and Manning have already surpassed Marino's single season TD record. Too early for such discussions this season, but with the new NFL, I wouldn't be surprised if Dan the Man loses more of his records. Week 1 featured 5 games where both QBs threw for more than 300 yards. Thats almost 1/3-Rd of the league. Thats not counting Kyle Orton and Matthew Stafford who also threw for 300+ yards in their respective games.

The most surprising QB performance was Cam Newton's 422 yards. The rookie from Auburn was supposed to be so mediocre in year 1 that even a star WR like Steve Smith was barely drafted in most fantasy leagues. Their passing offense was supposed to struggle as Cam was expected to suffer through a steep learning curve despite his amazing physical tools. Coming into the NFL, he didn't look ready, but he showed us last weekend why the Panthers spent their first pick on him though there was some talk of other QBs possibly being more ready for the NFL than him. All last week before the games, most experts picked Cincinnati's Andy Dalton to have a better game than Cam in week 1, but they were not even close to being correct. Cam looked like Michael Vick without the dogs and was throwing long darts all over the field. He also ran for a TD and at 6'5", 248 pounds, this guy is going to be something else if he keeps this up. Of course thats a big question mark because he did all this to the Cardinals defense. I would like to think he is that good and the Cardinals defense is not that bad for selfish reasons, but I am afraid the truth is somewhere in-between and the Cardinals defense might just be that bad. We will know more this weekend as the super bowl champs will try and contain Cam and they should do a much better job than the Cards. It was good that Kolb and the Cards won their first game together, but the story of that game was definitely Cam Newton. Does he have another 400 yarder in him this season? Looking at the league right now, I have to say yes. Either way, I will be watching what he does rest of the way.

Some of the bigger games last weekend gave us some interesting results. The Baltimore Ravens pummeled the Pittsburgh Steelers much to my delight and sent the reigning AFC champion running for cover and searching for answers. Nothing good came out of that game for the Steelers except a new Tomlinism - "There is a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes. Obviously last weekend we were grape squashers.” I don't even know what that means, but it sounds so cool! Sunday night game between the NY Jets and the Dallas Cowboys was interesting for just one reason. Both QBs did exactly what their reputation would suggest. Mark Sanchez didn't seem to do much, but he won a big game as always. He should be the most unimpressive QB with the most impressive wins against better QBs. As for Romo, it was the same story as always - great for 3 quarters and major mistakes when it mattered most. QBs always get too much credit or too much blame for victories and defeats. Case in point - Mark Sanchez. He gets a lot of credit though the Jets mostly win despite him, not because of him. But Romo truly lost that game for Dallas. He fumbled at the goal-line once and then threw an interception with less than a minute to go in the game. He forced the ball to Dez Bryant, who was limping and covered by Darrelle Revis, one of the best corners in the world. Sometimes, Romo just gets blamed for the loss, but this time he earned it. I think his problem is simple. He doesn't take ball security in the clutch seriously. He needs a shot of seriousness injected into him in the 4-Th quarter to cure his nonchalance. He has to learn to protect the ball all game, but 10 time more securely in the 4-Th. Lets see how the boys respond against the Niners next week in Jim Harbaugh's second game as the head man in San Francisco.