The Broncos’ DEFENSE had a far better record during Manning’s games, many of those wins their defense got the only TDs. Notice that even though he missed a bunch of games Manning had the second highest number of picks on the year. Don’t credit the record to the QB, it’s a 53 man roster and pretty much anybody can put up points.
Patriots defense is pretty good, too. 99.9% of the experts and former players had given the Patriots that game. Manning played a good game, not great. The Broncos defense played at an exceptional level and Brady was just hammered like I’ve seen only on a few occasions. The bottom line is Brady was not the better QB on this day. He threw 2 interceptions and was lackluster all day until he put together an amazing last drive and 2 insane 4th down plays. Not to take away from Brady as a QB, but the statement that he was the better QB is simply not true on this day. Manning executed his game plan, along with his teammates. Brady was not able to.