Say, did any of you see Peyton Manning last year? If you did, you most likely saw him chasing after a cornerback taking one of his passes back for a touchdown. He may watch a lot of film, but I don't see him making better decisions on the field than a lot of QB's. Some of Manning's much vaunted "football intelligence" probably cost three years off of Jim Mora's life. Seems like Tom Brady might be a better model. Maybe comparing Carr to Manning is an insult to Carr ; ).
Manning was the 4th rated passer in the AFC last year, despite having to throw 547 times, more than any other player except last-ranked John Kitna. Having interceptions returned for TDs is a function of two things: 1. throwing too many interceptions 2. throwing tons of passes with an unreliable running game 3. luck. Since it wasn't a problem before this year, I'd guess that if cuts down on the INTs, that won't be a problem. Meanwhile, Manning had thrown 15 INTs in each of the past two years. I'd guess this season would be the anomaly. The most important two ratings of Manning's are his completion % and yards per attempt. The completion %? 62.7, good for 3rd in the AFC. Yards per attempt? Good for 2nd at 7.55. So, how did the guys ranked above him fare in the other categories? Rich Gannon, 1st in %, was 7th in YPA. Tom Brady, ranked 2nd, was 8th in YPA. McNair, ranked 1st in YPA, was 4th in %. So, perhaps Manning simply played well statistically, but didn't contibute to his team's success? Wrong. The Colts were #1 in the AFC in total offense and PPG. Manning, despite playing worse than he had the previous two years, did very well indeed... and without Egerrin James or a decent #2 receiver.
I thought Manning had a 1000 yard rusher: that undrafted rookie, Dominic Somebody? Granted, better to have Edgerrin James but 1000 yards is still 1000 yards-- unless you do it in a 14-game season. Ask Jim Brown. Maybe this rookie did it in that or fewer games. I hope that McNair has had his breakout year. I thought his performance was phenomenal given that absence of any kind of running game.
Giddyup: Good point, just a couple of observations about Rhodes: 1. After James left, the defenses didn't really guard against Rhodes. He racked up the yardage, but mostly because the defense was protecting against Manning. 2. The Colts propensity for turnovers didn't end with Manning - Rhodes fumbled 6 times, and the Colts lost all 6 of them. Part of that is bad luck, but it still counts against his productivity last season, even though it doesn't mean he's not a decent RB. 3. He caught only 34 passes for 224 yards, despite playing in an offense where James had prospered catching the ball out of the backfield. I'm not knocking Rhodes - he was a decent RB last year. Just not the type that really changes an offense or that teams have to guard against.
ahhhhh... it's a misleading and ultimately meaningless stat because it fails to quantify yards after catch.
