Posted on 12/26/2004 1:35:58 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
P. Manning Breaks Marino's Record With 49th TD Pass Quarterback Snaps 20-Year-Old Mark With Toss Against Chargers By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports
INDIANAPOLIS (Dec. 26) -- Peyton Manning broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 49th of the season on Sunday against San Diego.
Manning hit Brandon Stokley on a 21-yard post pattern with 56 seconds to play, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. Edgerrin James' run tied the score at 31.
Per Manning's request, the game was not stopped, and Manning strode calmly off the field before being mobbed by teammates on the sideline.
Manning entered the game with 47 touchdown passes, needing two pass the player he grew up idolizing as a young quarterback in Louisiana.
Game Ball: Peyton Manning throws for 383 yards, two TDs and leads a 15-point comeback. Game Summary Team Stats | Play-By-Play Drive Charts | Gamebook
He tied the mark with a 3-yard shovel pass to James Mungro in the third quarter, then hit Stokley to break the mark in dramatic fashion.
Marino threw 48 while guiding the Miami Dolphins to the Super Bowl in 1984, and now Manning is hoping to follow a similar path. The record stood for 20 years, and was at one time thought of as untouchable, football's answer to the home run record.
But just as Roger Maris' 61 was shattered by Mark McGwire and then Barry Bonds, it was only a matter of time before Marino's mark fell once Manning got going this season.
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He has thrown five touchdown passes in a game three times this season and six against Detroit on Thanksgiving. But his bull-rush on the record slowed to a crawl in recent weeks, with two TD passes against Houston, then just one in a 20-10 win over Baltimore last weekend.
Still, he entered Sunday's game against the Chargers seven scoring passes ahead of Marino's pace.
Marino threw 44 touchdowns in 1986, and the closest any player got to his record after that was 41 by Kurt Warner with the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
Many thought it would take a near flawless season to pass Marino, and Manning has delivered just such a performance. He entered the game with a 123.9 quarterback rating, far superior to Steve Young's season record of 112.8.
12/26/04 16:12 EST
Forgot to change my tagline for this post.
Post #21 was supposed to be to you. I don't know what happened there.
I like the one for the soups where McNabb's mother has taken on the responsibility of feeding the Philly team .......... then she gets the Gatorade treatment. LOL.
*****
Speaking of hating commercials, how about that obnoxious Matthew Lesko yelping about FREE GOVERNMENT GRANTS? I nearly die when I see that guy!
Very interesting way to put it! I have always been a little suspect of excellent athletes who continue to pile up huge numbers on weaker opponents.
Having said that, Manning is a real nice kid, a great QB, and is fully capable of winning a few Super Bowls. I just hope he lets the Steelers win this one.
I think guys like Manning can get unnecessarily rattled, and here is why. When a pro like Manning is used to being so highly successful and scoring so many touchdowns against many mediocre opponents, they sometimes have trouble when confronted with nasty, aggressive excellence across the line of scrimmage. Guys like Manning, so used to his complete dominance of games, can fail in tough games because they get extra pressure by the defense and then FORCE things - thusly very untimely interceptions and a few foolish and costly decisions. Guys like Manning, so used to success, can force mistakes on the rare occasions that they are truly tested. (Usually they get over it eventually like John Elway at the end of his career.)
All in all, I love the guy. If the Steelers didn't have this great rookie, Ben, Manning would be deadly for the Steelers.
We'll see what happens. It should be fun........... keep that BUS running.
GO STEELERS
My favorite commercials are those Bud Beer ones with that conceited football player (Leon?).
I didn't like Manning's commercial.
I love the guy after living in the SEC football market for 15 years, including all four of his at Tennessee. But he has a little trouble delivering the 'big' games. His relentless changing of the play after the line is set just won't work at Heinz Field. If he can stick to a passing game plan as designed before he takes the field, the Steelers are going to have to put a lot of points on the board to counter it -- something they seem up to the task of doing against the weaker defenses like Indy's.
I like the Steelers chances and would honestly like to see that game come to be.
Great point! Btw, the people upstairs with all the electronic gizmos yesterday said that yesterday's Heinz Field crowd was the loudest of the season, so it could cause him some trouble with all those absurd signals.
But here is another thing (from this morning's paper):"We have a lot of guys hurt right now, but now we control our own destiny," "That's what's important, having home-field advantage," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "Teams have to come in here, with the weather, field, fans. ...You couldn't ask for a better situation."
"This is Pittsburgh Steelers football weather," defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen said. "The colder it is, the more fun it is. You've got to run the ball in this weather, and that's what we do best."
"We're on the road to try to get to the Super Bowl," defensive end Aaron Smith said.
Even if that road, secured yesterday, is North Shore Drive.
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Here's the point I'm trying to make -- it's about the field surface at Heinz Field. This rather crumby and idiosyncratic surface is something that is hard to get used to by visiting teams (sort of like the old Boston Celtic's parquet floor). I think this could be a bigger problem for Manning's performance than the noise. We'll see.
Personally, I don't wish to play Manning. He's due after last year, and he is great.
But this Steeler team is hot, and so far, the offensive line is healthy, that is such a key! We'll see what happens.
That's right. They seem to have serious problems in Foxboro and Pittsburgh. I hope, but don't think, the Colts are Superbowl caliber yet. They're close but not quite there.
GO COLTS!!!!!
I like the old style "bust em up the middle with the running attack" vs the new style "audible at the line passing offensive play". Someone was bound to break the record sooner or later with the amount of teams focusing on the pass these days. Pittsburg is a breath of fresh air of how tough defense and good offense wins games...
How many does Marino have? JOE MONTANA!
Freeny is a monster. I don't regularly get to see the Colts play but I saw one of their games recently and Freeny was all over the place. His motor never stopped running.
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