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Now, given that Manning is considered by many to be among the greatest players that ever lived, not many expected him and the Colts to cower under the strain of the Jets' relentless pressure. But this? Indianapolis exploded for 461 yards and 27 first-downs in the win, as Manning gutted the Jets for 377 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover on 26- of-39 passing. Even with his top two targets shut down, Manning reinforced his genius by throwing early and often to options three and four - second-year-pro Pierre Garcon (11 receptions, 151 yards, 1 TD) and rookie Austin Collie (7 receptions, 123 yards), respectively - who both had gigantic games and proved generally uncoverable for a battered Jets secondary. After some initial success blitzing Manning, the Jets failed to register a sack over the final 50-plus minutes of the contest.
Manning was in his typical understated form after the game, saying, "Once we got something we liked we kind of ran with it. Guys did a great job...it was kind of the game we expected." Head coach Jim Caldwell, who became the first rookie coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl since the Raiders Bill Callahan in 2002, was a bit more effusive with his praise.
"He performs best in the most difficult situations," Caldwell said of Manning. "Facing as fine as a defense we faced all year and he takes his game to the next level. That's something we've grown accustomed to over the years." In the build-up to their Super Bowl XLIV matchup against the New Orleans Saints on Feb. 7th, the questions of legacy will now arise concerning Manning. Remember that this is a player who didn't win a playoff game until his sixth season in the league (2003), after going 0-3 in his first three postseason outings. Manning got the playoff monkey off his back by leading Indy to the 2003 AFC Championship, where they lost to the Patriots.
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NFL: Colts hope Manning stays locked in for one more game
NFL Editor (Sports Network) - If you ask a typical NFL fan for a sketch of a frightening NFL player, you might get a picture back of Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, or in another generation, Dick Butkus or Conrad Dobler. Quarterbacks aren't supposed to be scary. But based on the show Peyton Manning put on in Sunday's 30-17 AFC Championship win over the New York Jets, at least one NFL signal-caller is the thing of an opposing defender's most grisly nightmare.
The Jets, you might remember, entered the conference title game as the league's most dominant defense of the last two months. During that 7-1 stretch of football, Rex Ryan's team allowed a mere 9.4 points, never surrendering more than 15 in a game, and were one week removed from holding the high- powered San Diego Chargers to just 14 points.
After bowing out in consecutive years to three eventual Super Bowl Champions - the 2003 and 2004 Patriots, and 2005 Steelers, the knock on Manning became that he couldn't get to the Super Bowl. The perennial Pro Bowler quieted that talk in 2006, when he led Indy to a Super Bowl title over the Bears, including a brilliant performance in that year's AFC Championship versus New England.
With all of those personal hurdles cleared, and with statistics piling up that suggest the 33-year-old Manning will own all of the meaningful NFL records some time before the age of 40, the only thing left to discuss is the fact that No. 18 has not won multiple Super Bowls. A win over the Saints would change that, and would get Manning one title closer to Patriots QB Tom Brady, the player he's bound to be compared with until the end of time.
All of the above is going to make for great talk over the next two weeks or so. Just don't expect to hear any sort of self-penetrating answers from Manning, who never enters a spotlight without taking 52 other teammates with him. That means others, like Caldwell, will have to do the exalting for him.
"He has a way of making people around him better," said Caldwell. "Like a great point guard, he can put the ball in the right place at the right time. He's so accurate that he creates opportunities for people, so I think it kind of works hand-in-hand.
JET RESPECT : Jets head coach Rex Ryan was talking a lot about Manning in his Monday postmortem with the media, and the notoriously outspoken head coach was not suggesting anything along the lines of "he got lucky." "Even after looking at that film, we still lost and we deserved to lose," said Ryan. "They won the game. No question about it. It's a nightmare watching Peyton Manning do that again to us.
"I've been beat by that guy [Peyton Manning] twice. He's cost me two Super Bowl rings, I look at it as. In 2006 when I was a D-coordinator in Baltimore, I thought we had the best team in the NFL that year. We were 13-3. We were playing at home. We had led the NFL in more categories on defense than any defense in the history of the National Football League. I knew we were built to win it that year. I felt this year, that even though we might not be as good in some areas, I thought this was the best team that I have been around. He did it to me again, but this time in a more convincing fashion. It felt like I got kicked in the butt." "You look at Manning's stats and you realize, oh boy, you don't have a chance," he continued. "It was crazy, I thought Raymond Berry was out there. They have a system. He got hot. It's crazy how good he is. I love the guy and all that, but man, I'm tired of getting beat by him. He's great. Maybe that's my thing, find a way to get him."IN CHARGE Let's just say he's come a long way from Wake Forest.
It was after the 2000 season that Jim Caldwell was fired after an eight-year, mostly unsuccessful run as the head coach of the Demon Deacons, leaving Winston-Salem with a record of 26-63 record and very few people suggesting that he'd ever be a head coach again. Then, Caldwell joined Tony Dungy's staff with the Buccaneers, and Dungy and his staff - Caldwell included - were fired after just one year. Perhaps Caldwell began to think there was something wrong with him.
But now, seven years after he joined Dungy in Indianapolis and in his first season as a head coach, Caldwell is on the cusp of joining the former Colts head man in a very small fraternity, as a Super Bowl winner. Caldwell can become the first rookie head coach to win a Super Bowl since George Seifert did so with the 49ers in 1989, and frankly, there are some similarities between the two men. Seifert was also a longtime assistant under a legend - in this case Bill Walsh - and was asked more to not fix what wasn't broken than to make wholesale changes. Also, like Seifert, he's a coach that prefers to steer clear of the spotlight, and perhaps most importantly, is universally respected by players.
"He does a good job communicating effectively with us," Colts linebacker Gary Brackett told USA Today last week." And what he's been as far as keeping our bodies fresh, what he does in practice the latter part of the season and his time management, has been excellent. He's a very smart man who knows what he is doing as far as taking care of his football team."NEXT UP: THE SAINTS The all-time series between the Saints and Colts is knotted, 5-5, with Indianapolis evening the series with a 41-10 home victory in the 2007 regular opener. Indy has won its last two games against New Orleans by a composite score of 96-31, and Manning is 38-of-55 for 602 yards, nine touchdowns and no interceptions in those contests.
The Saints' most recent win over the Colts was a 34-20 affair at the Superdome in 2001, and their only other matchup against Manning was a 19-13 victory in 1998, in what was the quarterback's fourth career NFL start. Brees is 1-2 head-to-head against Manning, including 1-1 while with the Chargers (loss in 2004, win in 2005)
in addition to the 2007 defeat while with New Orleans.
North American Sports Betting Analysis, News & Views. The latest online betting info on NFL from Bookmaker.com January 21 2009
