MMQB Review: Who Knew Peyton Manning is a Student of the Game? Edition

Peter King enjoyed the Hollywoodiness of the Week 15 games in the NFL. It was all very dramatic. Peter also defended the choice of Peyton Manning as the "Sports Illustrated" Sportsman of the Year, and Peter's defense basically consisted of Peter say, "But it's Peyton Manning." Peter also recalled the story which caused him to rename his "Annoying/Aggravating Travel Note" after a Starwood Preferred member. Nothing says Christmas like hearing the same story over and over again. This week that whole line of demarcation thing between the Seahawks and every other team has gone away, Peter talks playoff tie-breakers, and in the most important story of the week, discusses how bad it smells when a guy burps continuously on a plane.

Surprisingly, there appear to be a couple of quotes from Cam Newton in this column. I'm not sure if Peter actually collected these quotes or piggy-backed them from another writer. It's interesting to me because of the whole "entertainer/icon" thing that happened prior to the 2011 NFL Draft which has caused Peter to be upset that Newton was upset he felt he was taken out of context. Maybe Peter called Newton "precocious" and that is part of their beef as well.

About that whole "massive line of demarcation" thing. Here is what Peter wrote:

Fine Fifteen

1. Seattle (12-2).

MASSIVE LINE OF DEMARCATION

2. San Francisco (10-4).

Here is what I wrote:

The 49ers and the Seahawks just played a very close game two weeks ago and the 49ers ended up winning that game. I guess if the Seahawks are playing at home then this is a massive line of demarcation, but considering the 49ers beat the Seahawks just two weeks ago I don't think the line of demarcation is that massive.

Sportswriters love to make bold, hard-and-fast statements like this and then act very, very surprised when their bold statement turns out to not be as true as they thought. The Seahawks are beatable at home and the Seahawks aren't tremendously better than every other NFL team. It wouldn't surprise me if the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, but they aren't heads and shoulders better than every other NFL team. But this doesn't stop Peter from writing something ridiculous despite evidence to the contrary (barely beating Carolina in Week 1, the 49ers beating the Seahawks in San Francisco) that the Seahawks are beatable. Seattle is tough at home, but the Cardinals proved they could be beaten in Seattle. It's dumb to suggest otherwise, though this doesn't ever stop Peter and many other sportswriters from writing stupid declarative statements like this now and in the future.

Before we start on the three big events of the weekend (by my estimation: Panthers slay the Saints, Peyton Manning makes history, Arizona shocks the world),

I'm shocked Peter didn't include the Cowboys staying alive in the Wild Card chase among his big events.

let’s talk about My Favorite Tiebreaker.

I'm not entirely sure why Peter capitalized this. I guess he thinks it's a real thing and not simply a matter of opinion.

In a five-way playoff tie, you first break ties within divisions. The Jets would eliminate Miami by virtue of a better division record (3-3 to 2-4). Pittsburgh eliminates Baltimore by having a better division record (4-2 to 3-3). That narrows it to Pittsburgh, San Diego and the Jets.

Peter is praying it's not San Diego so that one of his Northeast teams can make it into the playoffs. It makes it so much easier to cover games when they take place closer to Peter. San Diego is just so far away and Peter wasn't even sure they still had an NFL team until he saw they could make the AFC Playoffs.

We go to conference-games tiebreaker. Pittsburgh would be 6-6. San Diego and the Jets would be 5-7. That’s it. And Pittsburgh would make it … after being 2-6 at the midway point, losing to Minnesota in London and Oakland in the Black Hole, and giving up 55 points to the wounded Patriots. Crazy league.

Any team that is 8-8 probably has one or two really bad losses on their resume, so while the NFL is crazy, this isn't all that insane in my opinion. A team goes 8-8, then they probably lost a few games ugly or lost games they should have won.

Time was drawing short for Cam Newton to justify why he’d been the first pick in the 2011 draft, and why the Carolina Panthers made him the franchise cornerstone 32 months ago.

Because carrying the Panthers offense over the past two seasons while the defense has been bad apparently wasn't justifying his choice as the #1 overall pick. Oh, by the way, Matthew Stafford just got a new contract and hasn't justified his choice as the #1 overall pick. But I guess if Stafford has helped his Lions team not be in playoff contention, while Newton has helped his team get in playoff contention then it is Newton who gets the criticism for not justifying his selection as the first pick in the 2011 draft. Stafford has been in the NFL two more years than Cam by the way. I realize I am making a straw man argument, but it's simply silly to say Newton had to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the first overall pick. It's overdramatic and typical of Peter King.

In the last 20 minutes of the NFC South title game Sunday in Charlotte, he’d gone three-and-out four straight times. Four series with the division on the line, 16 yards. Playing at home. Losing, 13-10, the only touchdown coming on a 43-yard run by DeAngelo Williams. Sitting there at NBC, I’d seen enough. I tweeted: “Has Cam Newton made a play today? One?” Then: “Carolina drafted Newton first overall for games like this, and he’s failing them miserably today.”

Peter King did Tweet that and it was ridiculous even as Newton was being really, really bad prior to the final drive. Newton was terrible, but Peter had these Tweets ready to go and fired away joyfully. For some reason Peter was ignoring anything Cam may do in the future or in the past, but this very drive is when Cam had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick in 2011.

One of the marks of great quarterbacks is playing big when it counts, and Newton’s 65-yard, 32-second, no-timeouts drive to all but win the division (the Saints need to beat the Bucs and have the Panthers lose to the Falcons in Week 17) was as big as it gets, and on this day, it showed that the Panthers’ faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed.

This wasn't the final justification on whether the Panthers' faith in Newton in 2011 was well-placed. If Newton had been terrible and didn't drive the Panthers down the field to win the game, this one game wasn't the final decision on whether he should have been the #1 overall pick in 2011. Again, Matthew Stafford got a new huge contract and Peter doesn't feel like he has to continuously justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.

Good for Newton, 

Said Peter King through gritted teeth.

who has morphed from a quarterback too reliant on his running ability to a good all-around quarterback who can make the biggest plays when it counts the most.

Newton threw for more yards during his first two seasons in the NFL than Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick. I wouldn't say Cam has ever been too reliant on his running ability. This is just a lazy statement. Newton has always had running as part of his game, but this isn't the year he became a good all-around quarterback. Newton still has the same flaws he had the previous two seasons, it's just the Panthers are winning.

“Luke Kuechly, with 24 tackles,” said Newton. “That’s unheard of.”

Then Newton for old time's sake threw a pass 10 feet over his receiver's head .

Peyton Manning thinks his records are temporary.

They probably are. Manning threw his 51st touchdown pass of the season with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter in a 37-13 rout of Houston Sunday, breaking Tom Brady’s six-year-old record.

Which leads me to asking why Manning was still throwing the ball when his team was up big late in the fourth quarter. But that's just me and my silly insistence that coaches don't allow players to break personal records when there is still a game left in the season for this player to break a personal record.

Offensive coordinator Adam Gase sent in the play, with first down at the Houston 25. This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.

How very kind of him to stop trying to score with 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

This would be the last series of the game the Broncos would try to score, and Gase thought of a smart one.

No one is a student of the game like Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning can't emphasize this enough.

“I will enjoy it while it lasts,” the 37-year-old Manning said. “I’m such a fan of the game, a student of the history of the game. 

I didn't know that at all. It's not like every analyst takes the time to point this out to the audience during every Broncos game nor did "Sports Illustrated" do 20 pages this past week on what a student of the game Manning is after naming Peyton Manning "Sportsman of the Year" for achieving the accomplishment of being Peyton Manning and continuing to exist.

Manning, being the history guy he is, will give the ball to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

BUT IS MANNING A STUDENT OF THE GAME? NO ONE HAS EVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE!

Stats I think mean something.

They don't.

1. In the most storied passing season by a quarterback ever, Peyton Manning could lose out in passer rating to a guy who was a second-stringer the first month of the season. Nick Foles has a 5.7-point lead (118.7-113.0) over Manning entering Week 17.

Peter King can't get enough Peyton Manning this week. 

2. Denver, the presumptive top seed in the AFC, has four players with at least 60 catches and at least 10 touchdown catches. Seattle, the presumptive top seed in the NFC, does not have a receiver with 60 catches, and does not have a receiver with 10 touchdown receptions.

An AFC team may make the playoffs by winning 8 games and an NFC team might miss the playoffs after winning 11 games. I guess that statistic doesn't suck at Peyton Manning's teat enough, so Peter doesn't mention it.

3. I agree the buck stops with the head coach, and Jim Schwartz is very likely to take the fall for the Lions’ going 1-5 down the stretch and falling out of the NFC North race they once owned. But Matthew Stafford has been awful down the stretch—undisciplined, not focused, clearly not as attentive to Calvin Johnson (four targets in five quarters against the Giants on Sunday) as he should be. Stafford’s being paid like a franchise quarterback, and he’s performing like a quarterback who should be benched for David Carr.

Yet Peter manages to refrain from sending out Tweets saying Stafford has to win THIS VERY GAME to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick.

4. Manning broke the touchdown-pass record Sunday against Houston, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Texans defense. Manning previously broke the touchdown-pass record held by Dan Marino in 2004 with his 49th against San Diego, with Wade Phillips in charge of the Chargers defense.

Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.

5. How times are changing (thanks to Elliott Kalb for reminding me of these): Seven years ago Manning led the NFL with 31 touchdown passes. Andy Dalton has 31 this year, with four quarters to play.

Isn't it weird that Peyton Manning did something Peyton Manning football Peyton Manning right before the end of the Peyton Manning? I mean, Peyton Manning it all.

Perhaps more important for the rest of the NFC, Arizona burst the bubble of Seattle’s Pacific Northwest invincibility. We all thought the Seahawks would breeze to the Super Bowl in New Jersey

Don't "we" us Peter when you are the one who is wrong. "We" didn't think all think the Seahawks were going to breeze to the Super Bowl. You did. Don't blame the masses for you being wrong. When Peter is wrong it's "we" who thought what he thought, but when Peter is right then the "we" stuff goes away. It's like Peter thinks we believe what he believes because we read what he writes in MMQB.

Arians is a funny play-caller.

Funny like a clown? Like he amuses you? Like a clown?

If Carson Palmer throws four interceptions, as he did in Seattle, Arians is going to tell him to keep firing.

If Rashard Mendenhall is averaging 3.1 yards per carry, then Arians is going to keep ensuring that Andre Ellington doesn't get to touch the ball as often as Mendenhall does. It doesn't make it right, just like telling Palmer to keep firing after he has thrown four interceptions isn't necessarily right.

At the NFL meeting in Dallas earlier this month, a cadre of teams met to discuss something other sports have taken the lead on: pricing tickets to a team’s 10 games differently, depending on the quality of opposition and whether it’s a preseason or regular-season game.

My inclination is to hate this idea.

I do not, however, see this solving the problem of the NFL charging full prices for preseason games. It is possible that a team charging, say, $750 for a full-season ticket (eight regular-season games, two preseason games) would still charge $750 next season.

An NFL team absolutely would still charge full price for a preseason ticket. A person would have to be naive to believe these NFL teams are going to charge less money for a preseason ticket when they have a captive set of people who are forced to buy season tickets that include the preseason games. What will happen is ticket prices for "exciting" games will increase while other ticket prices stay the same. No NFL team is going to do anything to save their fans money or lower ticket prices. NFL teams know the fans will show up, so why lower prices?

But the way this was explained to me by a source with knowledge of several teams’ plans is that it would address the value of tickets on secondary markets like StubHub and Ticketmaster. A preseason game, rightfully, would have a lower base price than a decent game in November.

The preseason ticket cost may be lower than a decent game in November, but it doesn't mean the preseason tickets will be cheaper. It doesn't matter if the base price is cheaper for a preseason game if this only happens because the other games are so much more expensive.

Let’s say a good Chiefs’ season-ticket costs $1,000 for 10 games in 2014. The Chiefs have an attractive home slate next year. They could take visits by Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and the cross-state Rams, call them Tier 1 games and put a face value of $150 on those tickets. They could make the next four most attractive games Tier 2 at $100, and then call the final regular-season game and two preseason games Tier 3 at $50. (Those are my approximations, no one else’s.)

Great. Let's say Chiefs fans have to buy season tickets to 10 games or they don't get season tickets. Why would the team reduce the price of the preseason tickets if the fans are going to pay that money anyway to get tickets to the other eight games? NFL teams are greedy, never forget this.

A team like Buffalo, for instance, could put a premium price on the Patriots game and a much lower price on a game involving a less desirable team.

Or the Bills will raise the price for the Patriots game and keep the ticket price the same for the other games...assuming the NFL allows this to happen.

“I think you’ll see teams experiment with different price points the next couple of years,” said one executive of a team that will likely change pricing next season. “Then I think you’ll see the real final product in two or three years, when teams find out from their fans what they want the most.”

I love the idea that NFL teams can't figure out what fans want. What is really happening is NFL teams want to know the price-point at which NFL fans will stop buying tickets. What NFL fans want is easy. Don't make them pay full price for shitty preseason tickets and don't jack up ticket prices to other games. But yeah, good luck taking 2-3 years figuring this out. What NFL teams really want to know is, "If we raise ticket prices to exciting games by $20-50 will the fans still buy tickets to these games and will it affect how they purchase preseason game tickets?" It's all about money and the NFL teams want to know how much they can rip off the consumer before the consumer stops buying their product.

Fine Fifteen

1. Seattle (12-3). It’s only one game, against a variable Cardinals defensive front that changed things up on Russell Wilson consistently. I wouldn’t be too worried.

Because no other NFL team will change up their defensive front against the Seahawks. I'm surprised Peter didn't write that the Seahawks are still going to be in the Super Bowl and then claim "we" were wrong when they don't make it that far in the playoffs.

6. New Orleans (10-5). I wouldn’t throw the season in the dumpster just yet, Saints Nation, but barring a stunning upset by the Falcons Sunday over the Panthers with a Saints win over the Bucs, New Orleans will have to win four games away from the Superdome to win the Super Bowl this year. Points scored in the last three road games: 7, 16, 13.

In defense of the Saints (those are five words I don't write often) they did play the Seahawks, Panthers, and Rams on the road in those three games. Those teams are 1st, 2nd, and 13th in points allowed per game. It's not like they have played some shitty defensive teams in those three games on the road.

9. Indianapolis (10-5). The season’s long. Week 3: Colts travel to San Francisco and crush the Niners 27-7. Got crushed a few too many times since. But this is two straight weeks that the defense showed up and looked like it did that day by the Bay. There may be some January hope for this team.

There may be hope in January for them or there may not be. Ask Peter again in January when he can definitively tell you all of the flaws the Colts may or may not have after he has seen these flaws.

11. Philadelphia (9-6). Just when you think you’ve got the league figured out, a week after giving up 48 point to the Minnesota Vikings the Eagles go and beat the Bears by 43.

Every week in MMQB Peter talks about how the NFL is so hard to figure and he marvels at this. At some point, maybe he'll drop his child-like (precocious, if you will) wonder at how the NFL is unpredictable and just expect the unexpected.

13. Pittsburgh (7-8). Seven weeks ago the Steelers were 2-6. Just a friendly reminder that the season’s 17 weeks long.

Says the guy who had the Broncos playing a road wild card game against the Patriots four weeks into the season. Peter was also talking about the Undefeated Bowl (between the Chiefs and Broncos) four weeks into the season. But yeah Peter, your readers are the ones who should know it is a long season. The 2013 season has been the season of Peter King making overly-presumptuous statements, but he wants his readers to know it is a long NFL season.

15. Chicago (8-7). I’m open about who to put at No. 15. Ideas?

You just put Chicago there.

Offensive Players of the Week
 
Peyton Manning, quarterback, Denver.

Peyton Manning threw the Peyton Manning to the Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.

Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina.

This is a case of Peter over-compensating. Newton was terrible for 59 minutes of the game. He doesn't deserve this award for three passes.

Defensive Player of the Week
 
Luke Kuechly, linebacker, Carolina.

He deserves this.

Coach of the Week
 
Bruce Arians, head coach, Arizona.

He deserves this. Has any head coach ever won back-to-back Coach of the Year awards for two different teams? Peter would tell me to Google or Bing it, but I'm guessing it's not happened. Of course, I am liable to take this Coach of the Year award away from Arians if he doesn't play Andre Ellington more.

Then Peter criticizes a New Jersey climatologist for giving a prediction about weather on Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently Peter fancies himself a weather expert as well as a coffee expert. Peter can do every job better than someone who currently holds that job.

I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.

Eh, not so sure. Every year Peter expects the NFL to be predictable and every year he marvels that the NFL isn't predictable.

In the wake of the success of so many running backs picked outside the first round, and after seeing the production (or lack thereof) of Trent Richardson since his trade for a first-round pick to Indianapolis, the lot of the running back in the modern NFL should teach us all one thing: Do not use a very high draft pick on one.

I do agree in part, but if a team wants to draft an elite running back then the best chance to do this is draft that guy in the first round. Peter then cherry-picks the 2008 draft to prove his point. Looking at the NFL leaders in rushing yards for the 2013 season there are nine guys drafted in the 1st three rounds of the draft and six guys drafted in either the first or second round. Including the players who are 11th-20th in rushing yards on the 2013 season there are seven players drafted from this sub-set in the 1st three rounds and all seven were drafted in the first two rounds. So drafting a running back in the first two rounds is still the best way to get an elite, productive running back. There are, of course, exceptions to this statement.

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

You know me. I’m not one to complain about little travel situations. (Oh really!) And on the scale of grand travel maladies, this would rate pretty low. But I present it to you for your delight.

If Peter knows his readers don't like his travel notes then why does he keep writing them?

Last Tuesday, returning from Sports Illustrated’s presentation of Sportsman of the Year to Peyton Manning in Denver,

Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning.

I was fortunate to be upgraded on my Delta flight, a good thing because I had a ton of writing to do. So when I sat down for the 8:30 a.m. flight, I thought it only slightly odd that the 40ish man next to me, informally dressed, said to the flight attendant: “Jack and Coke, please.” When it was delivered, he drank it like a man being handed a thimble of water in the Sahara. Gone in an instant. Then he asked for another. So … two stiff drinks before 8:30 a.m. I see.

Not doing that "ton of writing" you claim you have to do and are taking up time observing what everyone else around you is doing instead. I see.

Then, for about an hour, he belched. Not the loud kind of belch; rather, the modest kind with lots of air let out. Aromatic air. And I don’t mean aromatic in a good way. Every six or seven minutes, there’d be a slight guttural sound, a verbal whoooooosh, and a scent approximating a landfill. What did this guy eat Monday night? Deep-fried skunk?

I'm guessing this guy who knew who Peter was and wanted to end up in MMQB. Kudos to this guy for daring to mind his own business and have a few drinks (then burp) at an hour that Peter King deems to be too early to drink alcohol.

“Peyton Manning has thrown more touchdown passes this season (51) than his dad threw in his first five seasons combined (47).”

—@LATimesfarmer, Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, after the Manning record was set Sunday afternoon.

Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning all day.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think this is what I liked about Week 16:

g. Antoine Bethea, one of the most overlooked players in football. Always shows up, always hits the way a safety’s supposed to hit.

Peter King, one of the most precocious sportswriters, always clicheing (I made that word up) the way a sportswriter is supposed to write a cliche.

k. Carson Palmer made his share of gaffes (share is putting it nicely), but he did come through when it counted, finding Jake Ballard (remember him?) for 17 yards to convert a key third down with the game in the balance at Seattle.

It's a good thing Palmer won this game because he had to justify his selection as the #1 overall pick for the Bengals in 2003 and this was THE GAME where he had to justify this selection.

r. Unless something quite strange happens, Julian Edelman (96 receptions, 991 yards) is going to have a 100-catch, 1,000-yard receiving season. Raise your hand if you had that in your office pool out on Cape Cod in August.

"We" certainly never thought that would happen!

2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 16:

c. You’ve got to block Greg hardy around the edge, Terron Armstead, though I also think Drew Brees shouldn’t be taking a sack and taking his team out of field-goal range either.

Unfortunately, this was the game where Brees had to win it and justify his selection as the first pick of the 2nd round by the Chargers. Sad for Brees that everything he has done prior or will do in the future means nothing now.

i. I do not use this word lightly, but the Cowboys sure make some stupid plays.

From earlier in the column when Peter was joking about how he isn't stupid:
 
I’m not so stupid that I cannot learn.

j. What a terrible, horrible injury for the Broncos, the apparent torn ACL for Von Miller. That’s going to play a big role in the AFC pennant race over the next month.

A pennant race in football. I still don't get why Peter uses this term for anything other than baseball.

4. I think the Jets should not fire Rex Ryan. Period. End of story. A 7-8 record with a game to go, with that team? Hardly a fireable situation. Extend Ryan one year (his contract is up at the end of next season) and push this decision off until the end of 2014. Ryan, and Jets fans, deserve that.

Great idea. The Jets and Jets fans deserve to deal with a potentially lame duck coach two years in a row. I'm not sure why it's a good decision to kick this decision on Ryan down the road, but I don't think the Jets and their fans deserve to have to wonder if Ryan is going to get fired or be the Jets coach at the end of another season.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

c. Filled with sadness at the death of Claire Davis, the 17-year-old Arapahoe (Colo.) High School senior who was minding her own business Dec. 13 when a classmate shot her in the head for no reason whatsoever. Utter madness.

I'm surprised Peter was able to hold off on giving another lecture about guns and Congress and how he is shocked that Congress hasn't done anything about guns yet. I'm guessing his editor just took that part out rather than Peter actually held back on this lecture. 

f. Coffeenerdness: Diner breakfast Sunday in New York. Coffee-flavored water. Miserable. Who drinks this swill?

Someone who goes to a diner and pays $1.99 for bottomless coffee. If Peter wants bottomless coffee than he can't expect it to be a top of the line brew. Of course, no matter the situation Peter expects the best, even if he is staying at a hotel he can't see why the coffee can't be the best. 

h. The thing I hate about this time of year: The 20 or so coaches and families who are on the edge of their seats wondering if they’ll have to move in a week. Sort of takes away from the joy of the season, totally.

Yeah, totally. NFL teams should not be able to fire their head coach or any coach on the staff until at least March right before the Combine. Peter is going to sit down and have a lobster dinner with Roger Goodell in Cincinnati and have a discussion to see if he can this changed, as well as get ticket prices to certain games jacked up. 

The Adieu Haiku
So long to The ’Stick.
Seems every step I took there,
I stepped in a bog.

Can we say "Adieu" to the Adieu Haiku? Have I used that one yet?