Peyton has a lot more weapons to throw to. What's up with all the weather delays. I don't remember there being this many in past seasons.

The Giants pass-rush was completely ineffective the whole game and our offensive line was manhandled the entire game. I wouldn't say that the Giants have worse weapons (I think Wilson, Cruz, Nicks, Randle and Myers match about evenly to Moreno, Thomas, Thomas, Decker and Welker) but the Denver defense is just insane. And that's without Dumervil and Miller.....which is very scary.

As for the picks, I only saw two of them because I turned the game off. Too painful. One was Nicks cut inside on a play where he was supposed to go out and the other was deflected, bounced off the heel of a cornerback and into the hands of the safety. Bearing only those two in mind, I'm not that concerned.

Sorry Fasces, I don't really mean to start a debate, but how is Eli better than Peyton? I mean, just show me the statistical category, other than superbowl rings, where Eli is a better player? And I don't think superbowl rings do the debate justice as it takes a team to win a superbowl.

@Zack: Almost every post season statisitc:
Record:
E: 8-3 P: 9-11

Passing pct:
E: 61.5% P: 61.0%

TD-INT ratio:
E: 2.42 P: 1.52

Passer rating
E: 89.0 P: 86.2

Also Manning through 3 TDs and 7 INTs on his road to the Superbowl. It was one of the worst post season performances I've seen from him and its his only superbowl ring. Manning only had one good game that year, the 38-34 win over the patriots.

Meanwhile it was clutch performances by Eli in the 4th quarter of both his super bowl titles that contributed to the Giants rings.

While Peyton is far better then Eli during the regular season, Eli shows up, and wins when it counts.

If my team is down by 5 with 3 minutes to go in the 4th quater of a superbowl, and I could chose any one QB to play in the superbowl for my team, I'd pick Eli Manning.

Small sample size.

n is not ≥ 30.

Super bowl pick Bob Genghiskhan over seahawks

Under that argument no season counts, so lets never look at statistics.

Because football has only 16 games a year, you'll never get reliable data like you would in baseball or hockey. *sarcasm*

I hate football statistics. They are very misleading. Not only do you have a small sample size, so there are outliers all the time (cough cough Chris Johnson), but there is really no way to measure the "intangibles" that football talking heads love to wax poetic about. The fact is, Eli is one helmet away from having one less Super Bowl ring.

Where are you getting your stats?

Postseason stats

Passing Pct:
E: 61.5% P: 63.2%

Passer Rt
E: 89.3 P: 88.4

Yds per throw:
E: 7.1 P:7.1

You're right regarding the interceptions as well as the victories, but I'm not sure one can simply look at those. Peyton has never had a defense the caliber of Eli's Giants, and that is naturally going to keep them in games. It also will lower the scores, requiring that Eli throw less.

Finally, as for late game heroics, I agree that Eli has played tremendously down the stretch. But he also had some superb plays from people around him. In no way, shape or form is Manning's throw to David Tyree a good throw. He threw it into traffic and Tyree never should have made that catch. I'm not saying Eli isn't a good closer, but to say Peyton isn't is laughable, especially when his stats are not really statistically significant from Eli's.

Also, since 2005 (really since 2002, but we'll go from when Eli entered the league) a Peyton led team has made the playoffs. In the same time frame, Eli has missed the playoffs three out of the eight seasons. If he's not even getting his team to the playoffs with very good defensive support, that's a problem.

His other three playoff performances also resulted in sub 90 qb ratings for what it is worth, two of them sub 50.

I just think when one looks at the full body of work, Peyton is clearly the QB you want leading your team season in and season out.

Sorry, Peyton has a yards per throw of 7.5, not 7.1

Peyton has 7.3ypa not 7.5.
My source is the player profits on ESPN

*profiles not profits, autocorrect

Hmmm, but you do acknowledge the amended completion percentage?

@Fasces .. n ≥ 30 was a bit of sarcasm, actually criticism of ghug's comments before...

It's silly to only look at postseason stats for any sport. The football postseason may be relatively longer than that of baseball or basketball, but there's still so much more data that you could be using to make your claims, and there are numerous studies that have found context to have very little to do with player performance in all sports outside of extreme nervousness, which is obviously not something we can accuse either Manning of having problems with.

"Hmmm, but you do acknowledge the amended completion percentage?"
Nope, Eli has a better completion percentage and passer rating.
Peyton has a better YPA though
Remember this is post season only. I acknowledge that Peyton is better during the regular season, its just Peyton's a choker which is why I will never consider him to be the greatest QB in the league.

Post season is where it matters. Its where players step it up and everything is on the line.

@Ghug: Bullshit. As an avid hockey fan I know how BS that statement is, where every year I see players who were absolutely useless during the regular season step it up, and play solid great games for the last few games of the regular season and the post season.

Then you have players like Alexander Ovechkin who can perform amazingly and then during the big game where the season is on the line, this happens:
http://www.sportspickle.com/2013/05/alexander-ovechkins-controller-was-disconnected-on-xbox

Eli Manning also clearly shows clutch just by the NFL records he holds:
Most 4th-quarter touchdown passes in a season.
Most game-winning drives in a season.
Most passing yards in a postseason.
Most consecutive road play-off wins
Most passing yards in a post season

Why is it that all of Eli's records relate to either the 4th quarter or the post season? Clutch. Its a real thing ghug.

Nerves probably has a big component to do with clutch, but the fact of the matter is, Eli holds so many 4th quarter records for a reason, he has the best clutch in the league.

Or maybe he's just a very good player with good teams that tend to be in closer games. If you do well in the first three quarters, you aren't going to need to work as hard in the fourth quarter, and thus those stats won't be as impressive.

@Fasces ... the NHL is in one category, the MLB is in one category, and the rest of professional sports are in another category when it comes to performance in the regular season versus postseason. In the NHL in particular, "superstars" only play half a game, so it's no surprise that other players step up.

Peyton is better in the clutch than Eli. He wasn't last year; maybe that gene is gone, but he kept Indy relevant for a decade when we had some of the shittiest teams in the league. Our two Super Bowl teams weren't even our best years if you ask me; it just shows everything Peyton did and why he's one of the top five QBs ever.

Eli Manning does not have a better completion percentage in the postseason. I still do not know what stats you are looking at, but everything I have looked at as Eli as 61.5% and Peyton as 63.2%, not to mention the fact that he is less than a point off in passer rating.

"Peyton is better in the clutch than Eli."
Performance in a superbowl:
Eli 2-0
Peyton 1-1

Peytons superbowl win so him throw 3 TDs and 7 INTs on the road to the superbowl, in 2 of the 4 postseason games during that year, the colts defense won the game for Peyton. It was HIS worst year, and the only year he won.

While the Giants defense did contribute to Elis games, Eli stood out more then Peyton did in Elis 2 superbowl wins.

I'm not sure how the hell you could argue that Peyton has more clutch then Eli.

"In the NHL in particular, "superstars" only play half a game, so it's no surprise that other players step up."
Very few superstars will play more then 25 minutes a game, so its actually closer to 1/3 then a half. Point granted though, hockey is different then football because most offensive and defensive rushes happen when the best players aren't on the ice.

I'll agree with you that Peyton is one of the top 10 QBs of all time, maybe top 5, but I still stand that Eli is better.

Everyone quit yipping about who the best QB is...we all know the greatest ever is Tim Tebow!!!

How many playoff wins does Eli have in seasons other than those that he's won the Super Bowl?

I'm not arguing Peyton is more clutch than Eli. I'm saying Peyton is a better QB than Eli, and clutch is a completely subjective term that does not really define the greatness of a player, especially in a team sport. I firmly believe that Dirk Nowitzki and Kobe Bryant are both more 'clutch' than Lebron James. I think even this year, Lebron struggled late in games, particularly in game 6 when he had three straight turnovers and proceeded to brick a three before eventually hitting his second opportunity. However, to argue that either Dirk or Kobe is better than Lebron is simply asinine. He's the best player in the world hands down.

In the same way, Peyton is a better QB hands-down than Eli. I'm not saying he's the best of all-time, I do not even want to get into that. But Peyton is the obvious choice at QB.

HAAAAAAAAHAAAAA SUCK IT CLEVELAND TRENT RICHARDSON WELCOME TO INDY