3.) 2009 AFC Championship Game - Jets 17 @ Colts 30
I wrote surprisingly little about this game at the time. The post was entitled 'The Beatification', it was supposed to be a 2-parter, with the second being 'The Canonization' after the Colts won Super Bowl XLIV. Of course, they lost that game, and a weird five year journey started right after. Because I wrote so little, I will put my updated thoughts after the post:
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Jay Feely split the uprights, 17-6 Jets. Down 11, to the NFL's best defense, and I was not the least bit nervous, and the sole reason is the man pulling the trigger for the league's version of an AK-47. Manning. That was all I needed to know and to see to make me feel like this normally large lead was just the Colts spotting a team points. I've seen Manning come back from 35-14, 27-10, 31-14, 17-0, 15-0 and 31-10. I've seen him come back from 21-3 in that same round of the playoffs, against a team with a better offense and a defense led by a more master-mindery mastermind. I've seen him lead the largest comeback in Championship Game history. This was nothing. I was not surprised that within 10 game minutes, the Colts were up, sweeping the leg of any Karate-Kid like upset that the Jets were planning. It was over. Manning had come, the game was done.
Pierre Garcon was great and so was Austin Collie, but in the end it is all about Manning. The Jets did a great job of taking out Manning's top-2 targets, contracts and injuries "took out" two other top Manning targets by week 2 (Marvin and Anthony Gonzalez (remember him, you will next year)). Manning just passed to a second-year player with three catches coming into this year, and a 24-year old rookie. I now laugh at the heated debate that media people were able to have about two years ago. Brady vs Manning defined a decade, but that decade ended a bit too soon. That debate has been put to rest. I don't think anyone rationally can say that Brady is the better player. Essentially, Manning had his Welker (Gonzo) out for the year, and lost his Gaffney (Harrison 2008 version), and was left throwing to his Moss (Wayne) and Sam Aiken and Julian Edelmen for a whole year. All Manning did was win a fourth MVP and win every game he played in. He came back from down 17 twice, including doing it in one quarter. He won a game where his offense had the ball for 15 minutes. He led four straught fourth quarter comebacks and seven overall. He hasn't been beaten. He is now beatified, a Saint of football. The last step is almost here.
Rex Ryan was football's hottest defensive mind. He had schemes and blitzes that could put nightmares in any QB's head. He was cocky and cool, confidence spewing from that gregarious gut. He was helpless. Rex Ryan could have tried whatever he wanted, Manning was not going to be stopped. Manning's throw to Austin Collie was as beautiful a throw of any I have ever seen. I have really watched the NFL for 10 years now, and each Sunday I watch Manning play is one more day that I am spoiled. Manning will not play forever, and when he eventually retires, I will have to watch the Jim Harbuagh's and Jeff George's of the world QB the Colts. However, when those dark days come, I can always pop up this game (I will go to any length to get it on DVD), and watch QB as it is meant to be played.
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It is tough to read back at that piece six years later, his career now over. I cringe at how much I wrote about his entire 2009 season, and that performance putting the Manning / Brady debate to rest. In 2009, I still enjoyed having the debate. After he lost the Super Bowl, then shockingly left Indianapolis and had to rebuild his career and fight off 'noodle arm' jokes for a half-decade, it became less about Brady Manning than it did just wanting Peyton to win another Super Bowl. He has that Super Bowl. Given that, I can start to look back fondly at his masterpiece.
I truly believe that the 2009 AFC Championship Game was Peyton Manning's best career performance. Advanced stats go a long way in telling us that. By most statistical calculations, the 2009 Jets were the best defense in the NFL. By my most favored advanced stats website, Football Outsiders, the Jets ranked as a Top-10 defense in their entire time rating teams. This was a great defense, one that rated quite close to the 2013 Seahawks, or even 2015 Broncos. And Manning destroyed them. He was the only QB that year to throw for 300 yards, and one of just two to have a passer rating above 100. He was brilliant.
Rex Ryan actually one a couple of the early rounds. He sacked Manning twice on the Colts first two possessions, and the Jets did stiffen in the red zone (though one of those was due to a clear mis-communication on the part of the Colts offense inside the 5-yard line). But slowly Manning figured everything out, not only about the Jets defense, but at that moment it seemed he figured out Quarterbacking.
There have been many stories told about that game, from literal audio clips of Rex Ryan being in awe of the Manning performance during teh game, to a long cited story in Colts-fan circles of Manning recognizing a particular coverage formation from a 2005 Baltimore regular season game (when Rex was in Baltimore), and blitzed that defense three straight plays for passes to Austin Collie for 80 yards and a key TD to make it 13-17 before halftime. Manning threw deep when the Jets played tight, masterfully called out blitzes and checked to the run. Everything was in his control on that day. He threw perfect touch passes on fades, and bullets 45-yards deep. It was his magnum opus.
When Manning was active, and fighting to get that 2nd ring, I always felt slightly sad when remembering games like these. They were amazing performances, undoubtedly, but at the end of the day these seasons ended with pangs of despair. This season ended with, in terms of his legacy, maybe the worst loss of his career. So much of Manning's career is different if the Colts beat the Saints. He gets that second ring six years earlier. He caps off maybe his most incredible personal season. I still don't think he ever leaves Indianapolis. I invested a lot of time - even created this blog - during that 2009 season. Super Bowl XLIV would have been the cherry on top, but now with his second ring in hand, I can sit back and appreciate the sundae and just think of this game against the Jets as the cherry.
