Peyton Manning: Putting the Numbers Into Perspective

Peyton Manning went ahead and put together the greatest statistical season of any QB in NFL history.

A recap of the 2013 season for Manning.

Pass Attempts: 659
Pass Completions: 450
Completion Percentage: 68%
Yards: 5,477*
Touchdowns: 55*
Interceptions: 10
*NFL Records

Growing up Peyton had everyone watching and waiting to see if he would be as good as his old man.  Archie had a HOF worthy college career as well as the honor of being the 2nd overall pick in the 1971 draft.  I think its safe to say that Peyton has handled that pressure and even upstaged his dad by being the #1 pick in the draft 27 years later. 



Some guys handle it better than others.  Me for example, having a father who was enshrined into the FHOF put a tremendous burden on me at a young age.  Yea, I heard the whispers and knew the numbers....55...60...65 hours a week.  At the end of the day I knew I wasn't going to live up the lofty bar he had set--Hell, I couldn't even start a tractor.  I spent my early 2000's  carrying the label of the Ryan Leaf of farming.



As mentioned above Manning's 2013 will be talked about for years to come and might withstand the test of time as the greatest statistical season any QB will ever put up.  With all that said I have a problem with how these numbers came to be.

Why did Manning throw so much in the 4th quarter?
 
First off, Denver creamed teams this year with 6 of their 13 wins coming by 20+ points and 10/13 by double digits.  My question is how can the QB of a team who is usually up by a fairly comfortable margin in the 4th quarter end up leading the league in pass attempts?  The 659 passes he attempted this season not only led the league this year but was good enough for the 6th most in NFL history.  I would be willing to give him a pass here if he racked these numbers up in the first 3 quarters and then handed the ball off in the 4th and ran the clock out like any respectable team does when they are up by 14+ in the 4th quarter.  After some digging it turns out that the 138 passes that he attempted in the 4th quarter accounted for 21% of his total passes and only 7 QB's in the entire league threw more in the 4th than Manning.

  ----Typical Manning fashion on his record breaker, 4:34 left in the 4th QTR / 17 point game.----

How about a run inside the 10?

 When you throw 55 touchdowns there are obviously going to be some shorties mixed in there but Manning made a living off the short TD pass in 2013.
Total Touchdown Passes: 55
Touchdown passes of less than 10 yards: 27
Touchdown passes of less than 5 yards: 18

Peyton has no problem calling his own number when they get close.  This season Manning attempted 51 passes from inside the 10 yard line -- 30 of which came from inside the 5.  To put the in perspective Matthew Stafford ranked 4th with 25 passes attempted inside the 10, or in other-words 1/2 as many attempts as Manning.

Peyton Manning had more touchdowns passes (27) of less than 10 yards than Tom Brady had total TD passes (26).

Peyton Manning's (18) touchdown passes from 5 yards or less was the same number of total TD passes that brother Eli threw.

It's hard to argue with success.  Manning chucking the ball 42 times a game is their best bet to win so maybe I am just being a hater.

Now there is some controversy on if his yardage record will stand.  After watching the video I'm 99.9% sure that it is a lateral, which would give the record back to Brees.  This might be some karma coming back on Manning for all those runs that he checked out of when down inside the 5.

Being an Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas fantasy football owner this season made the excessive amount of throwing enjoyable for me.  However, if you were one of the players that had no piece of the Bronco fantasy cream pie than you probably didn't ask for a Peyton Manning jersey for Christmas and instead maybe this.