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Friday, October 5, 2012

Brady Vs Peyton: This Never Gets Old

In the thirteenth meeting between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady things are a little different.  Manning has traded in the blue and white for blue and orange.  He now plays for a team that for the most part has had Brady's number, aside from last year.  He did miss all of last season and is taking a few weeks to get his full arm strength back, but in some of the games he played he showed flashes of the Peyton we grew up loving.  We know one thing, it is great to have this rivalry back in the limelight. 

Peyton has gone through a large transition in his football career.  He switched out Reggie Wayne for Demaryius Thomas and Austin Collie for Eric Decker.  He needs to get used to a whole new offensive line. Manning likes to learn his guys strengths, he already knew them in Indianapolis.  Peyton has had an up and down season early on.  In two wins for the Broncos he had a 92 and 94 QBR.  In the two losses he had 56 and 21.  Now the Broncos have had a slaughter house of an early season schedule.  They have played the unbeaten Falcons and unbeaten Texans.  They had one easy game against the Raiders and another harder game against the Steelers.  Now they get New England coming off a game where it seems Brady and Co. have seemed to figure it out on offense.

Brady has had a great season early on.  He lost one of his favorite weapons in Aaron Hernandez and his number one receiver is on the newspaper about things like playing time and contract disputes.  Doesn't matter, Brady is still torching defenses with what he is given.  He hasn't had a game with under a sixty percent completion percentage all season and he only has one interception in four games (and it was tipped at the line).  Point is, this is just Brady being Brady.

So what are we to expect on Sunday?  Is this going to be the same kind of game we saw in late January with the Pats and Colts fighting for their playoff lives?  I would like to think that Peyton had this date circled on his calender the second the schedule came out.  You have to get up for this game if you are either quarterback.  This is the greatest quarterback rivalry we have had in 20 years.  For almost the past decade there was no question who the two best quarterbacks were.  These were the men that every high school and college quarterback was emulating.  This was where they wanted to be.

The best part of this rivalry is they come from such different backgrounds.  You have Peyton, who is low key but has been hyped since high school.  He was expected to be great and was chosen number one overall.  He lived up to the hype and you have to cheer for him since so many before him couldn't handle it.  Then you have Brady, who grew up in California and went to Michigan where he shared time with Drew Henson.  He was chosen 199th overall and nobody expecting him to last in the league.  He is now considered one of the best of all time and is married to a supermodel (sorry had to throw that one in there).  So basically you have the live up to the immense hype and pressure story and the nobody believes in me I can prove them wrong story.  No matter who you are you can compare you life and struggles to something in this rivalry.

Eyes will be glued to their screen to watch Denver take on New England on Sunday with hopes that this rivalry can take new shape in different colors.  Manning-Brady is one reason why football is now the greatest sport in the world.  They took the torch from the Marinos and Aikmans of the world and ran further than even they could have imagined.  Now it is time to see this rivalry in its twilight years while we wait for the Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Staffords to hopefully put on the same kind of show we've become accustom to over the last twelve years.

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