12.) 2004 Week 3 - Packers
31 @ Colts 45
It is hard to remember now, but the 2004 Colts didn’t start out on the path of the best passing offense (to date) ever. He had a good start to the season, with 4 TDs, 1 INT and a 104.9 rating through two games. The team had scored 55 points. In the third game – their first at home – against Brett Favre and the Packers, the Colts first showed just how amazing they would be. The Colts started the game with the following four drives: TD, TD, TD, TD. All those drives ended with TD passes by Manning, all from outside the red zone. First to Wayne from 36 yards, then to Marvin from 28 yards, then to Stokley for 34 yards, and then Stokley again for 27 yards. Following their lone first half punt, Manning threw another TD, this time to James Mungro from 1-yard. In the first half, the Colts racked up 351 yards. Manning himself went 23-31 for 320 yards and 5 TDs.
It was magic. It also was the first time Manning absolutely
destroyed the blitz. No one really ever would blitz him without regard again in
his Colts career. The best part about the game was for three drives, the
Packers kept up. Favre was basically as good in the first half, but nothing
really ever compared to Manning’s 2004 season. He would actually have a pretty
average next game against Jacksonville, then rang up a 9-game stretch with 35
TDs, 7 INTs, a 9.9 y/a, and a 130.1 rating. The 2004 Colts regular season was
the greatest passing offense relative to its league ever – and it started in
reality in this Week 3 showdown between Manning and Favre. Favre played his
part with two long TDs to Javon Walker to start the game, but Manning’s assault
on the Packers truly was a sight to behold.
11.) 2015 AFC Championship - Patriots 18 @
Broncos 20
For all the people that say that the Broncos won the Super Bowl in-spite of Manning, I submit this game. If you reverse the two QBs, and one guy goes 17-32 with two TDs and no INTs, and the other throws two picks and throws a third on a 2-point conversion that would have sent the game to OT, I guarantee you Manning gets slammed for that performance and Brady gets hailed for being ‘mistake free’. Well, Manning was mistake free – rarely even throwing interceptable passes. Manning’s first drive, going 4-6 for 60 yards and a 21-yard TD to Daniels, was the last great drive he would lead in his career, and it was perfect. Two throws with great anticipation, one bullet throw on the move, and one last perfect seam throw to a TE. Even his 2nd TD showed Manning’s incredible touch ability that he kept late into his career.
However, let’s get real. This game was about the Broncos defense,
and that is the real reason the game was memorable to me. Sure, it was fun to
see any team do that to Tom Brady, hit him 23 times, sack him 4, make him
basically ground the ball 10 more. But really it was more fun having Manning’s
team do that to anyone. For so many years, his defenses never had a year like
this. For his entire career, the two times he had a defense nearly this good
(2005, 2007), first his team imploded after Tony Dungy’s son committed suicide
in ’05, and then Freeney got hurt for the year in ’07. For once, everyone was
healthy, and Manning got to enjoy his defense dominating the other team. He got
to enjoy the defense carrying him, making 20 points hold up. For once, he put
his defense on the field, and unlike his team’s playoff losses in 2007, 2008,
2009, 2010 and 2012, his team held onto a 4th quarter lead. It was
the most bizarre experience for a Manning fan to watch his team basically
reverse everything we knew about Peyton Manning team’s in the playoffs – and I’m
sure it was just as fun for Manning. Two years earlier, he had the highest
scoring offense ever, and a defense dominated them. Two years later, after
Elway said he would build a stronger, tougher team, his defense was doing the
dominating.
10.) 2009 Week 2 - Colts 27 @ Dolphins 23
Over Peyton
Manning’s career, he won games in ways no one else had. He was the master of
the big comeback. If you ask people who they would want down 4 in the 4th
quarter, most would probably say Brady. I won’t argue that as a reasonable answer.
If you ask them who do you want down 14? The answer is Manning and it isn’t
close. This wasn’t one of those comeback games, but maybe the most absurd game
he won in his career. The Colts won the game with 14:53 time of possession –
that is the lowest total ever for a team that didn’t have a defensive or
special teams TD. The Dolphins ran 84 plays, they ran for 239 yards (this was
basically at the tail end of their Wildcat being effective). They only turned
the ball over once – and that was the last play of the game on a desperation
throw. Manning and the Colts offense needed to be perfect. It was. Manning went
14-23, but for 302 yards and 2 TDs. He hit Dallas Clark on a perfectly throw
deep seam pass for an 80-yard TD on the first play. The Colts took the lead for
good on a perfectly timed Manning audible to a WR-screen to Pierre Garcon – at this
point basically an unknown player – for a 48 yard TD.
The drive stats for this game are absurd. The Colts scoring drives
took 0:12, 4:07 (their longest drive of the game), 0:43 (a 5-play field goal
drive to close out the half), 3:17 and 0:32 (a 4-play 80 yard drive that ended
with the Garcon TD). It was as efficient as you can get, which was needed when
the Dolphins had drives that went 8:45, 7:24, 6:22, 6:16 and 6:06. Peyton
Manning had some ridiculous throws in this game. With 8-seconds left in the 2nd
quarter at midfield, he hit Clark for 20 yards – the play ended with 2-seconds
left. On the final drive, he had back-to-back 15-yarders to Wayne and Clark
that took a total of 10 seconds. This was Manning conducting a quick-hitting
sniper attack. However, other than the 15 minutes time-of-possession, the real
reason why this game is memorable is this is the game where Jon Gruden coined
Peyton Manning as ‘The Sheriff’.
9.) 2006 Week 8 - Colts 34 @ Broncos 31
Manning’s 2006 season ended with his first Super Bowl, so it will
always be memorable for that reason. However, that season also represented
maybe Manning at his most efficient best. I have long been a proponent of
Football Outsiders’ statistics to measure performance at a more advanced level.
Their flag-ship stat, DVOA, measures all plays against a baseline success level
for a play given the down and distance, and adjusts the success level for
opponent and game score. By that stat, the best single-season for a QB was
Manning’s 2004 season, at 58.9% better than average. The #3 season: Manning’s
2006 season, at 51.3% above average (Brady’s ’07 is in between). Manning’s ’06 season,
when the Colts had a historically bad run defense, was a thing of beauty. By
this point, the league had basically adjusted to his ’04-’05 exploits, and
played the Colts differently. It didn’t matter, and this game was one of those
masterpieces.
The Broncos entered the game 5-1 (the Colts were 6-0), giving up
just two TDs in 6 games. The Colts scored three in the 2nd half.
Peyton was absolutely brilliant against a great defense, going 32-39 for 345
yards, 3 TDs and no INTs. Champ Bailey erased Marvin Harrison (5-38), so Peyton
Manning locked onto Reggie Wayne, just obliterating the Broncos coverage. He
and Wayne connected for three TDs, including one just absolutely perfect
rainbow for a 19-yarder, and connected on the two point conversion. The Colts
had absolutely no margin of error, as the Broncos moved the ball with ease,
running for 227 yards, and the Colts basically did not get stopped after a
first-drive punt all game. In the second half, Manning was 18-22 for 213 yards
and all 3 TDs, again doing this on the road against a defense that had given up
just two TDs all year. It was a masterful performance by Manning, another in a
long line of him dominating the Broncos all the way up to the point he became
one. It was also one of the signature regular season performances during a
magical 2006 season for him and the team.
