No quarterback's failure takes place in a vacuum, and Manning's interception issues seem to have many layers. To help peel some of them back, I called both ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski and longtime NFL Films guru Greg Cosell, who serves as creator and executive producer of ESPN's NFL Matchup, the smartest and most respected football analysis show on television for many years now. Jaworski is one of the show's co-hosts. Cosell and Jaworski watch as much game tape as anyone in the league, and they both see Manning simply trying to do too much, out of necessity.
"They're throwing the ball way too much,'' Cosell said. "As great as Manning is, and I happen to think he's the greatest quarterback ever, it's too hard when you're throwing as much as they're throwing. When you're a one-dimensional team, it's just too hard to succeed. You're too easy to defend. And you can't ask an offensive line to block 50-60 times a game against defenders who are faster. They're being forced to throw way too many times in every game, and he's overcompensating to try to make up for what they lack.''
Through 12 games, Manning is on pace to throw 712 passes this season, which would be 21 more than Drew Bledsoe's NFL record 691 attempts for New England in 1994. His 44.5 attempts per game (not counting his 13 sacks as pass attempts) are significantly higher than the totals for his most recent three seasons (35.7 in 2009, 34.7 in 2008 and 32.2 in 2007).
In Manning's past three games, losses to New England, San Diego and Dallas, he has attempted 52, 48 and 48 passes (49.3 per game), respectively, completing a sizzling 71 percent of them (109 of 148) for 1,046 yards and eight touchdowns. But it's those 11 interceptions, with four being returned for touchdowns, that have been so uncharacteristic of Manning.
After starting the season with strong, MVP-worthy statistics through the season's first half, Manning already has 15 interceptions, just one fewer than his entire 2009 season total, and his second highest season total since 2002. His frequency of interceptions hasn't changed much per attempt (one every 35.6 passes this year, compared to 35.7 last year), but he's throwing more passes this season and thus more picks. Since starting the season with nine touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first three games, Manning has 15 touchdowns and 15 interceptions over the past nine.
Read more:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...12/09/peyton-manning/index.html#ixzz17ehCiFV6
Jeez Peyton... throw 4 ints... AGAIN?
What the hell man.. come on get it together.
I couldn't come up with it at the time. But yeah, I agree with you 100%. His job is to play. Sure he can speak up on a 1-on-1 basis if he has some suggestions to further team progress, but that's just... stupid.
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