In an ironic historical note, the first time that Peyton Manning faced the New England Patriots was way back in September 2001 when the Patriots beat Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 44-13.
Manning got off to an inglorious start by throwing two pick-sixes but the really ironic part is that this was also Tom Brady’s first start replacing the injured Drew Bledsoe. So began one of the greatest NFL quarterback rivalries of the age.
For the past 12 years of NFL action true fans have perked up whenever these two guys step onto the gridiron at the same time and rightly so.
The two Canton bound quarterbacks are 4 & 4 for their past eight games but over the entire period Tom Brady holds a definite edge of 10 to 4 over Peyton including a 2 to 1 advantage in playoff action.
Peyton Manning is seeking his fourth conference title and looking for a third Super Bowl appearance while Tom Brady will be playing in his eighth conference title game and questing for his sixth Super Bowl appearance.
Sports writers and commentators have already starting calling the coming conflict the ‘Manning-Brady Bowl XV’ and the matchup promises to be one of the best head-to-head rivalry games of all time, at least we hope so.
So far in these 14 meetings Tom Brady has thrown for a total of 26 touchdowns with just 13 picks for a total of 3,403 passing yards. Peyton Manning has 3,971 passing with 29 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
The last meeting between these two great field generals was back in November 2013 at Foxborough for an NFL week 12 matchup which went into overtime as we saw 86 passes from the two quarterbacks. Brady threw 50 times and completed 34 for 344 yards while Manning passed 36 times and completed 19 for 150 yards. Brady had three touchdowns and Manning had two with one pick.
In another ironic note, it was former Patriot Wes Welker who muffed a punt in overtime that resulted in a New England fumble recovery and led to the Stephen Gostkowski field goal that won the game for the Patriots, 34-31.
The Broncos still managed to win home field advantage as Peyton Manning set new NFL records passing for 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns.
But Manning has yet to beat Tom Brady as a Bronco and sports fans everywhere are eager for the game to get underway.
