Nearly Impossible To Compare

You are all familiar with the term 'rivalry,' right?

Maybe you all have heard of a specific rivalry that I will writing about... Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning? It is pretty well-known in the sports world, you may have heard of the two. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady will be facing off for the 15th time this Sunday in the AFC Championship game. This is also known as the "Branning Bowl." Clever, right? I wish I could say I came up with that one.

Legendary.

I'm going to throw some statistics at you now just to show how 'hall of fame-like' these two are.   

• The combined record between the two, including post-season, is 343-136.
• A total of 126,169 career combined passing yards.
• The total earnings between the two in 2013 was 68.3 million dollars. That turns out to be a pretty nice pay check, right?
• Over their career, combined, 850 touchdown passes have been thrown. 
• Last, but not least, these two Hall of Fame quarterbacks have combined for a total of six MVP awards... Well, that is until this year. Peyton Manning is most definitely the favorite to win it this season with the numbers that he has put up and the records that he has broke. 

I know those are some pretty impressive numbers that I threw at you. Forget about those for a moment because when it comes down to it, it's all about what is on the scoreboard when the game clock hits 00:00, correct? Who cares if you, the QB, throw for 326 passing yards in a game. It is all about if your team gets that W. Considering that, it is safe to say that Tom Brady has the edge in this rivalry then. Tom Brady is 10-4 against Manning and his team. I might add, half of those wins have been by a margin of at least ten. On the other hand, the four times that Manning came away with the win there was only one time that the point differential was greater than ten. The other times the margin was seven, four and one. 

New England has won the last three meetings between the two teams, this including both of the games that have been played since Manning left Indianapolis and went to Denver. Three of the 14 meetings have been post-season, the Patriots have taken victory twice. Peyton Manning and his Colts won in 2006 during the AFC Championship game... Do we see a repeat? It's hard telling. 

So, I gave you the stats combined between the two. I should probably tell you why these two future famers are so great on an individual level. The assumption is that since the Patriots have the better record when the two teams have met, Brady has the better individual stats... 

Not necessarily. 

While Brady has the better completion percentage and passer rating at an impressive 108.2%, Peyton is right behind him with a 92.5% passer rating. Peyton also wins in passing yards and total number of touchdowns thrown. 

Manning's better passing percentage could be from that while he was in Indy, the Colts were always a pass happy team, they didn't really have much of a dependable running game. Although, when you are throwing to players such as Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne, I might have been throwing a lot as well. Being pass happy could come with some hindering results though, even if you are Peyton Manning. He has thrown seven interceptions to Tom Brady's three. 

Tom Brady and the Patriots have benefitted from a better ground game. In rushing yards comparison the New England Patriots are greater than Indianapolis and Denver. Peyton has Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and Julius Thomas to throw to for the Broncos so, again, I can't say I blame him for wanting to throw more rather than run the ball. 

Alright... Taking a break from those two and their offense, let's bring up the other guys. The defense. They play a pretty big role in getting the team win so it's only fair to compare them, too. 

This may seem surprising, but the Colts and Broncos have the defensive edge when the two teams meet. In four of the past five meetings, Indianapolis and Denver finished ahead of the Patriots. More so in the pass defense area rather than rushing defense. 

That was short and sweet... Back to the quarterbacks.  

If any of you have watched a New England Patriots game and/or an Indy/Denver game where either of these teams were down, then you've heard of how amazing it is to watch those QBs lead their team down the field... With just minimal minutes left at times, too! This brings up the term 'clutch.' To save some time (as this has happened far too many times in these guys' careers), I'll just talk about the post season. 

So, which one is it? 

Peyton Manning is 10-11 in his career during the post season while Brady won his first ten post season games. That seems pretty impressive, right? 

Since then, Brady and the Patriots have went 8-7 (2005-2013) and Manning is right behind him at 7-6 with a slightly higher winning percentage. 

Okay, I know that I shot a lot of stats and numbers at you to compare these two phenomenal quarterbacks. That was my sole purpose. 

Well, kind of. 

Understand that we could throw around these twos' stats all day long, but it really only comes down to one thing. One is not necessarily better than the other. It almost seems impossible to compare the two. You can't just look at the wins and losses columns and proceed to claim one as the winner. The QB can not do it all... It doesn't matter who you are. Yes, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady included. 

I think I will just wrap this one up by saying that Sunday's AFC Championship game is a MUST-watch. Two outstanding, hall of fame, record breaking, football dominating quarterbacks? You will not want to miss this. 

A friendly meeting? Probably not, but a respecting one.