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QB Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts

HT: 6-5, WT: 230, Born: 3-24-1976, College: Tennessee, Drafted: Round 1, Pick 1

2008 Projections

2007 Game Summaries

Week 1 - Manning and the Colts got off to a slow start in the first half, but got it rolling in the second half and put up big numbers offensively against an over matched Saints defense. After going three and out on the first drive of the game, Manning lead the Colts on a 58 yard scoring drive. Manning hit Marvin Harrison on a 27 yard strike in the back of the end zone. It was the 107th touchdown pass Manning and Harrison have connected on over there career together. The Saints didn't give Manning too many looks down the field in the first half as they kept their safeties back in coverage and played a lot of cover two. Manning's biggest pass play of the first half was a strike to Dallas Clark up the middle for 39 yards.

Manning and the offense came out firing in the second half. He hit Marvin Harrison for a big gain of 42 yards on Indianapolis' first drive of the second half when the Saints came on a blitz leaving Harrison alone on man to man coverage. Manning put a perfect deep pass for Harrison and he was tackled on the two yard line. That play would lead to a two yard rushing touchdown. He would come back on the Colts next possession and lead the offense down the field for another touchdown, hitting Reggie Wayne for a 29 yard touchdown pass. Manning came back to Wayne again for another big play late in the third quarter, hitting him on a 31 yard pass that set up another Indianapolis field goal. Manning kept going to Wayne in the second half as he hit him in full stride on 45 yard pass for his third touchdown throw in the game.

Week 2 - Manning spread the ball among his wide receivers and tight ends, generally taking what the Titans' defense would give. His only INT came on a play where targeted WR Reggie Wayne stopped running with some apparent leg pain. Manning targeted his tight ends a total of 15 times as the Titans tried to focus on stopping the deep routes.

He took a hard hit from Albert Haynesworth on the first play of the second quarter but appeared fine for the duration of the game. The Colts made five trips to the red zone but only came away with a single touchdown which was the touchdown run by RB Joseph Addai. The other four trips ended up in FG attempts by PK Adam Vinatieri. In the red zone in the third quarter, Manning overthrew WR Reggie Wayne in the endzone.

Week 3 - Manning opened the game by guiding the Colts on touchdown drives on their first two possessions. He was ten of 12 on the first two drives, with his only incompletions coming on a dump off pass to Addai to avoid a sack and ball thrown into coverage. The Texans were not able to apply any consistent pressure on Manning without blitzing, but when they blitzed Manning would hit his open receivers on quick slants and screens. Manning targeted six different receivers during the game, completing passes to all six. Manning did almost have one interception on a pass thrown to Marvin Harrison that was into double coverage, but the Texans defenders were unable to come up with the interception.

Week 4 - Manning had a very efficient game, going 20 of 27 for 193 yards. Three short touchdown passes made his outing look strong on the stat sheet, while the biggest smiles came from his one yard rushing touchdown, a QB sneak early in the third quarter. Manning's numbers might have been slightly deflated by not having Marvin Harrison in the second half. Manning did manage to target eight different receivers, completing passes to all eight.

Week 5 - Manning was very patient and accurate as he typically is, except on a forced deep pass to Reggie Wayne where the ball was under-thrown and intercepted. Manning showed once again why he is considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league by commanding the game and controlling every aspect of the offense, only making one real mistake all game.

Week 7 - Manning had a very solid game, even though his final stats were not exactly spectacular--at least not for him. The Colts emphasized the rush, which allowed them to control the clock against a very fine Jaguar defense that had been extremely stingy versus the run in recent weeks. When asked to throw, Manning picked apart the Jaguar secondary with mostly short passes, and he had eyes especially for Reggie Wayne. With WR Marvin Harrison still hampered by a knee injury, the Colts moved Wayne all over the field to create opportunities, and they obviously succeeded. Harrison was actually pretty active in the first quarter (three targets), but Manning threw to him only twice more after that. Manning threw his only TD pass with about four minutes remaining, hitting a wide open TE Dallas Clark from thirty five yards out for the final Indianapolis score. Manning also ran in a TD in the second quarter on a one yard quarterback sneak. Manning did have a few shaky moments in this game. He was stripped of the ball on one of the two Jacksonville sacks, and he threw an INT in the fourth quarter when Jacksonville still had a chance to get back in the game. He also misfired on a few passes. All things considered, though, he put in a masterful performance on the road in a critical game against a very good defense.

Week 8 - Manning started off slowly but brought the Colts on strong as the game went along. He completed 14 of 30 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns. He would have had a third touchdown but a penalty brought back a short pass to Addai that went for a score. After the penalty, the Colts ran Addai and he scored from 12 yards out. Manning was slammed to the turf on a late hit. He was shown on the sideline working the smelling salts to clear his head and he did not miss any playing time due to the hit.

Week 9 - Manning had an up and down game against the Patriots. His first half was vintage Peyton Manning. He was nine of 15 for 145 yards, including the 73 yard touchdown pass to RB Joseph Addai. That was enough to give the Colts the lead at halftime, 13-7. The second half was a different story for Manning and the Colts, who managed just seven points for the half, mainly a result of turnovers. The score came on a Manning quarterback sneak, but his two second half turnovers certainly hurt the Colts chances of putting away the Patriots, who trailed 20-10 following the Manning touchdown. He was pressured constantly by the Patriots, who not only forced the two turnovers, but also added three sacks and held the Colts to five of 12 on third down conversions. Manning's fumble on the team's final drive ended up being their last possession of the game.

Week 10 - Peyton Manning completed 34 of 56 passes for 328 yards two touchdowns and a surprising six interceptions. Without two of his three favorite targets in Marvin Harrison and Dallas Clark, Manning appeared to start the game out tense forcing balls into tight coverage, and putting a little too much on his own shoulders rather than letting things come to him. The Chargers capitalized, picking him off four times in the first half of the game. Eventually Manning got into more of a groove, finding some chemistry with backup tight end Bryan Fletcher, as well as the always reliable Reggie Wayne. With the Chargers up as much as 23-0 in the first half, the Colts running game became less of an option, though it was fairly ineffective even when they did go to it. To top it off, the Colts starting offensive tackles Tony Ugoh and Ryan Diem were both unavailable due to injury, forcing backups into the game in a make-shift line. Despite pretty strong play from those backups, the odds were against him leading a comeback. The Colts had a chance to take the lead with 1:31 remaining in the fourth quarter, but Adam Vinatieri missed a 29 yard field goal wide right, essentially allowing the Chargers to run out the clock. There was a last ditch effort with mere seconds on the clock, but Manning ended the game with his sixth and final interception on a desperation pass.

Week 11 - Peyton Manning had one of his worst games in recent memory. He appeared to be bothered by the loss of his longtime main receiver, Marvin Harrison. The remaining Colts receivers did not help out his numbers by dropping five balls that were catchable. Manning showed why he is considered one of the best quarterbacks in the game by adjusting the passing attack after half time to take advantage of what the defense was giving them when they blitzed. In the second half the Colts countered the Chiefs pressure by throwing quick, short passes to move the ball. Also, Manning was a perfect four for four on the Colts' game winning drive in the fourth quarter and gained the final first down on a quarterback sneak on a fourth and one on the Chiefs three yard line.

Week 12 - Manning welcomed back Anthony Gonzalez with eight targets and 105 yards passing. Manning looked a lot better this week with a competent second wide receiver to complement Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. He started slowly but eventually tore apart the defense on several drives, but still had ten incompletions on the day. Six of those incompletions came targeting Reggie Wayne.

Week 13 - Manning overcame a strong initial pass rush by the Jaguars to end with excellent passing numbers. Although he targeted Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne with the majority of his passes, he did so on a wide variety of routes, and usually connected with them. Manning once again showed complete command of the offense, and was comfortable making any throw he attempted. Manning showed a killer instinct by going deep to Wayne for a 48 yard touchdown on the play immediately following a ruling by the referee that overturned an apparent fumble recovery by Jacksonville. He overcame an interception in the end zone by showing poise as the Jaguars continued to try to pressure him, and led his team to the victory.

Week 14 - Manning had an extremely efficient evening, despite only playing two and a half quarters. He threw four touchdowns despite only attempting 17 passes. Rookie wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez was his preferred target, and Manning hooked up with his WR twice on deep balls for a touchdown. The game was well in hand in the third quarter, so Manning left the game and let backup Jim Sorgi see some game action.

Week 15 - Manning put up pedestrian numbers by his standards, 22 of 39 for 276 yards and just one touchdown, but he engineered a 91 yard come from behind drive in the fourth quarter. He was sacked three times and was pressured most of the game.

In the first quarter Manning moved past Joe Montana for seventh all time in the NFL for career completions.

Week 16 - Manning greatly rewarded owners who believed head coach Tony Dungy when he said he was going to play his starters like he usually would. Manning put up huge stats through just three quarters of work, and he would've been replaced in the fourth quarter regardless of what week it was since the Colts were up 38-7. He was so efficient with all of his passes that his seven incompletions looked better than the majority of Sage Rosenfels' 22 completions. Nearly all of Manning's 35 passes could have been caught, and a great many of them were. He was under some pressure in the first half, but he did a good job of moving his feet and getting himself into a good throwing position, as usual. And the Houston defensive backs never really had much of a chance. Despite having to deal with the early losses of Joseph Addai and Anthony Gonzalez, Manning simply moved on to the next best available targets and made the most of those players' abilities. He made a fantastic throw to Dallas Clark on Clark's second score. With Clark cutting from left to right and the defender crossing from right to left, Manning put the ball a hair behind Clark in a spot that only he could get to. It was a perfectly thrown pass and was typical of how well Manning saw the entire field and basically couldn't be stopped.

Week 17 - Manning came out throwing as the Titans were giving the receivers room to operate close to the line of scrimmage. Manning took advantage by hitting his receivers on short routes mainly on the outside part of the field. As hard as it is to believe, his numbers could have been better but Bryan Fletcher dropped a catchable pass for Manning's first incompletion. When Manning left the game he was on the sideline acting as a mentor to Jim Sorgi.

Week 19 - Manning was seemingly channeling Tom Brady's performance of one night prior by opening up 11-11 with 123 yards and a touchdown through the first quarter of play. It appeared as if he could do no wrong and the Chargers would be powerless to stop him whatsoever. He was completing passes to every pass-catcher on the team and there was no semblance of a pass rush to really speak of for the better part of three quarters. Even both of his interceptions weren't his fault, as they were the result of tipped passes that ended up in San Diego hands. In fact, the one ball Manning threw that SHOULD have been picked off, wasn't. LB Shawne Merriman dropped back into coverage and had a Manning pass hit him right in the hands. He batted it around several times before it fell incomplete. It appeared as if some of the magic the Colts had found in last year's postseason was going to carry over to this year, as they came back from 14-10 and 21-17 deficits in the second half (both times culminating with touchdown passes courtesy of Manning). But they had two opportunities with the ball over the final five minutes of the game and were unable to capitalize with any points. On the first possession, Manning drove them 70 yards to the doorstep of the San Diego end zone. But on second, third, and fourth down, Manning's passes to Joseph Addai were all knocked away or fell incomplete. On the fourth down play, Manning was being chased down by LB Shawne Merriman and under pressure for really the first time all game. The pass was thrown on the run and fell awkwardly incomplete. The Colts had one last chance to come back and had the ball down four at their own 32 yard line with 1:30 left to play. But they moved the ball just five yards on four plays, the drive culminating with an incomplete pass that was just out of the reach of an outstretched Dallas Clark along the sideline to essentially end the game.