heydave76

Teams in the NFL don't play a balanced schedule. The only teams that you play a similar schedule to are the ones in your own division. You play all the same teams that the other teams in your division are playing except for two. Sometimes a worse record winning a division doesn't mean the team is not as good as a wild card from another division. That division may just have played a much harder schedule than another did. If you can't beat the other teams out that are playing close to the same schedule you are, you don't deserve a home game.

I take it all back. I'm sold.

Going into negotions Irsay said he was wanting to make Manning the highest paid player in the league. Manning asked his agent to take less because of the uncertainty of his injury. So Irsay just matched Brady's contract instead of one upping it. Supposedly the 28 million signing bonus due in March was done instead of all up front because Manning or the team were not completely sure of what his staus would be. That could have all been PR spin though.

For me the interest in this matchup has more to do with the history the two teams have had with each other. I don't generally sit down to watch Eli because I think he's going to do somethin amazing. Although I have seen him do some remarkable things. I don't get to watch a lot of Giants games but it doesn't seem that Eli consistently has that big much watch individual game as much as the other elite QBs. If I saw him play game in and game out, maybe I would have a different opinion. Although a lot of times it seems that big game tends to come in the playoffs.

When I think of elite QBs I usually think of games I watch just because I want to see the QB matchups. Like Rodgers vs Brees or Peyton vs Brady. I don't think Eli is there just yet. He's getting close though.

I'm not saying Manning did everything he could to win the chargers game. That last one if I remember right he gets one more first down and the chargers don't get a chance to tie it and put it in overtime. My question is why does he get so much of the blame when he put up better games against the chargers than Brady. I think the whole team has a lot to do with it. I think the new coaching staff they are putting in place is going to start building a team more like I would like to see. I think a different organizational philosophy would have made a big difference in the way those early exits played out.

My point was he had better games against teams the colts loss too than Brady did against that same team but his team won. I'm just saying why is that Manning's fault they lost to the Chargers when Brady had less tds and more picks against them in the same year. Manning has led his team to game winning field goal drives in the playoffs just like Brady and his kicker missed. Why is that Manning's fault. They had Pro Bowl defensive ends that were great pass rushers but not run stoppers. Often times a good run stopping team is more important in playoffs. I just feel the team was built for great regular seasons but not for the hard nosed football you typically see in the playoffs. They have had losses that Manning has completely put up stinkers, but I think he did his part against the chargers. Against Pittsburgh I felt the coaches had a horrible blocking scheme. Pittsburgh completely took advantage of that line and hit Manning all day.

I guess it depends on what you call elite. If elite means on same ability level as Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, or Brees I don't see his skills being at that level. At the beginning of the season I wouldn't have put him in the elite status at all. I think now he's in the conversation. Elite is such a relative term I guess it all depends on what you consider elite.

My whole point is that the teams Eli and Ben are on are all around better teams than the Colts have had. Do you think that if Peyton played for the Giants or Pittsburgh they would have accomplished less? Edit to add: I do have to say I don't think Peyton breaks out of that sack that Eli did in Superbowl XLII.

The year the Colts won the Superbowl I thought the Colts had one of the worst defenses I had ever seen. Manning dragged them into the playoffs. Suddenly a few players are healthy the defense makes a complete turn around along with a few lucky breaks and they win the superbowl. I think that's pretty much what happened with Eli this year. The Giants defense is way better than their ranking. Now that some players are healthy there back to playing at a high level. The Colts defenses that were ranked highly had a lot to do with playing teams that couldn't keep up with the Colts offense. Those teams were not as good as they appeared and it was exposed when they played playoff intensity football.

I think you drag inferior playoff teams to playoff wins. I always felt Manning dragged non playoff teams to high playoff seeds. I'm not saying he didn't have some playoff stinkers, but so did some of the other QBs we call clutch yet they won. I think the problem with winning in the playoffs is a lot deeper than Manning. Vinatieri hits a field goal against Miami he wins his second playoff game. He put them in position to win and the team didn't pull through.Vinatieri hits a field goal against Pittsburgh maybe that game plays out differently. Some of the players we call clutch had kickers that hit field goals at key spots. Patriots got lucky beating San Diego when they fumbled a game clinching pick back to the Pats. I think luck has a lot to do with it. Last year Caldwell doesn't call a stupid time out they beat the Jets. Poor game plans inferior coaching was a part of it. Manning has hid a lot of deep weaknesses these teams have always had. Including bad coaching. These weaknesses were exposed in the playoffs.

I'm not sure how much you can blame the chargers losses on Manning choking as opposed to total team play. In the first game Volek only threw the ball 4 times. Manning threw for 402 yards 3tds and 2 int. The next year they played Manning threw for 310 yards 1td and 0int. I think Manning did his part. The interceptions in the first game hurt them but consider what another great QB did against them during the same era. In the 2006 playoffs Tom Brady played San Diego and threw for 280 yards 2 tds and 3int. In 2007 in Brady's record breaking year they played the chargers again and he threw 209 yards 2tds and 3 int. and won both games. Manning had better games than Brady against the same teams yet Patriots won. I'm not making this a Brady vs Manning thing. I'm just using Brady because he had a record breaking offense that was tremendously slowed down by that same Chargers team.

I've always enjoyed the pro bowl. I never expected much of a game, but it's always been my way to say a final goodbye to the football season. I liked seeing many of the major players all together for one event especially the super bowl participants. Putting it before the super bowl pretty much took away the whole reason I watched it.

I don't think it applies once they become a runner.

It has to get back to the line of scrimmage unless there's a receiver in the area. If you throw it near a receiver it doesn't matter where you throw it. Edit: I see you just added that tidbit to your post.