Peyton's Place

Peyton Manning is perfect, a genius really, he is the embodiment of flawless precision at the Quarterback position. The way he changes play calls at the line appears seamless in its brilliance yet effortless in its effectiveness. Let's face it Peyton's understanding of defenses makes Bobby Fisher's understanding of a chessboard seem pedantic. I'm not even sure what pedantic means, but I know that Peyton's sweat contains the cure for the irrigation problem in Ethiopia. 

One of my favorite things about Peyton's flawlessness if- wait WHAT? What do you mean they lost? But that's impossible. Weren't we just discussing whether or not Peyton ranks higher than Joe Montana and Tom Brady? 

Brees and the Saints played to win from the drop and never took their collective foot off of the gas. It wasn't flawless (Bucs loss) but the right team won the 44th Super Bowl.

Look, Peyton is one of the all-time great quarterbacks. No argument, but he isn't in the top five all-time. Until further notice he ranks just ahead of the Dans, Marino and Fouts. That's it, no higher than that. Congrats on the stats, but they don't mean di(& unless you win. In fact if Drew Brees continues winning championships Peyton is going to slide DOWN the list.

The Colts got cute late in the season by easing off of the gas. Sure they beat the Ravens and the Jets but lets remember that the Ravens were playing with thteir fourth and fifth cornerbacks because of injuries and everybody considered the Jets the second coming despite the fact that they needed both the Colts AND the Bengals to mail it in in order to even make it into the playoffs. 

Mean while the Saints were forced to beat two of the best five offenses in the league in order to MAKE the Super Bowl. The paths were different and the Saints were forced to play with the pedal down the whole way. 

The Colts played "well enough," to make it to the Super Bowl. That's great and all unless the other team doesn't roll over. Teams that win championships play with the killer instinct from week one until they hoist the Lombardi Trophy and the Colts didn't do that. 

It's just the way that it works. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME. Maybe Peyton and the boys would've had a different outcome tonight if they had taken that motto to heart.