Quote:
Originally Posted by Basileus777
His postseason play is a huge black mark on his career though, it's not easy to handwaive away a whole career of offensive underperformance in the playoffs with a number of embarrassing losses to less talented teams. Peyton has that James Harden stink on him.
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Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. Personally, I am just a bit more forgiving than the average fan when it comes to postseason performance. I feel like it is wildly variable.
Looking back, he started out 0-3 in the playoffs. He didn’t lose to anyone important but I’ll give him some grace here as that was pretty normal for QBs back in those days. He was drafted #1 overall to a bad team. It makes sense that it’d take a few years to build up the team enough to compete when the margins get thinner in the playoffs.
The next three postseason trips ended at the hands of the Patriots and Steelers. In the mid-2000s that was the equivalent of losing to the current Chiefs or 49ers. There’s no shame there.
Next run was the SB win over Chicago. Manning had a 3:7 TD:INT ratio in that postseason. Sheesh.
Next two years he lost to those super talented Chargers teams.
After that was the SB loss to the Saints. He did throw a backbreaking pick 6 late in that one.
Next year was a loss to the Jets, which sounds bad, but that was the year the Jets also knocked out the Pats.
Following year was the Mile High Miracle. Ravens ended up winning it all that year.
Year after that was the 43-8 ass whooping from the Legion of Boom Seahawks. To be honest, I’m not sure there are many SB squads who beat the birds that night if you magically transported them there.
Next year was a bad loss to the Luck-led Colts. Bad loss but Manning’s quad was hurt that year.
Last one was the SB win over the Panthers.
In retrospect, I think what really hurt him was not establishing something in that first six years in the league and those two losses to those Chargers teams.