re: Jim Irsay: Colts underachieved in the playoffs with Manning

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Context is desperately needed for his playoffs. His post-season passer rating is higher than Brady's despite his regular season passer rating being lower, btw. Brady won 3 super bowls when he was not an elite QB. He has not won any since becoming elite. It is a TEAM sport. It takes the entire team and good coaching to win it all. Manning is one person. He cannot block for himself, catch his passes, kick field goals (frick you, Vanderjagt), or play defense. Vanderjagt cost him a few playoff games. The defense definitely cost them some playoff games. And Jim Caldwell's terrible coaching cost them the super bowl as well as the playoff game against the Jets in 2010.

Manning has the record for most 90+ passer rating playoff games with no turnovers that resulted in a loss. Why? Because the team around him has usually been not very good. The Colts went 2-14 as soon as he was no longer playing, the same team he took to the playoffs the previous year.

The Broncos should have beaten the Ravens last year. There was a blatant pass interference not called when Manning threw a pick 6 in the first half. Decker's arm was clearly yanked down before the ball got there, causing the ball to go through his hands untouched and land in the defender's hands. Then there was the ridiculous 80 yard bomb that tied the game. Those sorts of things never seem to happen to Brady. It certainly didn't happen to Montana, who had a top 5 defense every year he won the championship and a hall of fame coach that revolutionized the game of football.

Vanderjagt missed a 40 yard field goal to tie the game late in the fourth quarter in 2005. The Colts defense allowed Billy Volek to lead the Chargers to a game winning drive in 2007 or 2008 (Rivers and Tomlinson were both hurt). Peyton took the lead with less than a minute to go against the Jets in 2010, and the Jets returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards, then completed a pass, then Jim Caldwell inexplicably called a timeout, then Sanchez threw a 20 yard pass, and the Jets kicked a field goal to win as time expired. How any of these losses are on Peyton is beyond me. Yet he is someone called only a regular season champion. He has the record for the biggest comeback in an AFC or NFC championship game when he came back from down 18 to beat the Patriots in 2006. He had a perfect passer rating in a playoff game in 2003 ended up losing to the Pats in the championship game when they illegally mugged the receivers every single play, leading the stricter enforcement of the no contact beyond 5 yards rules that was totally ignored in that playoff game. I could go on and on. But all these lazy commentators want to focus on is the playoff record and the fact that he has only 1 super bowl.

So to base his legacy on how many rings he has is lazy analysis. It is not tennis.

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