Last weekend, Peyton Manning won a game while losing — and it was terrifying.
It happened late in the first half, with the Colts down 17-6 to the New York Jets.
To that point, Manning had been pressured, bruised and swatted by the suffocating Jets defense. Reggie Wayne had gone missing, thanks to all-universe corner Darrelle Revis. And the Colts’ running backs, to no one’s surprise, were under-whelming.
But then Manning had his “A Beautiful Mind” moment.
He figured out the NFL’s top-ranked defense. First on a dump pass to Austin Collie that went for 18 yards. Then he threw a soul-crushingly perfect bullet through double coverage, placing the ball gently in the hands of Collie for 46 yards up the seam.
And that was it.
Everyone watching knew the game was over. The Colts went on to score, of course, and the Jets came out in the second half with all the life sucked out of them, failing to reach the end zone again and again as Indianapolis cruised to a 30-17 victory.
This has been a recurring theme all season: When Manning slides into his tunnel-visioned groove, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him.
Blitz and he’ll throw dump passes. Double-cover and he’ll throw underneath. Lock down the sidelines and he’ll make you pay in the seam. Not to mention, he’s this team’s de facto offensive coordinator.
Like many, I got a little desensitized to Manning’s routine brilliance.
Watching him torch the likes of Houston and Jacksonville all season was less than moving. It didn’t help that the Colts ended the regular season with a whimper, resting their starters for two games before rolling over Baltimore in a 20-3 playoff snoozer.
The AFC Championship, however, was a cold reminder of Manning’s steely otherworldliness. He demoralized a Jets defense that made a Johnson out of a Chad Ochocinco and put the final nail of embarrassment in LT’s (LaDainian Tomlinson) coffin. The New York defense was big, fast, smart and brutalizing, but Manning shrugged them off all the same.
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And here’s the scariest part: He didn’t sit tight and exploit their mistakes — which were few. Instead, he absorbed their best and demonstrated time and again that it wasn’t good enough.
That was his best game of his best season, and it just happened to come right before the Super Bowl.
There are countless factors that can decide the outcome of a football game — for instance, as the Vikings can tell you, turnovers — but I just can’t fathom betting against Manning. He’s facing a hot-or-cold Saints defense that tends to give up big plays at just the wrong moment. He’s made his gang of mostly anonymous receivers into household names. Oh, and he’s coming off an apocalyptic performance.
I’ve long been drinking the Kool-Aid with the Saints this season, and I know Drew Brees is capable of Manning-esque insanity, plus he has better receivers.
But that doesn’t overturn one inescapable fact: This is Manning’s year. We’re just lucky enough to witness it.
