Simmons loves on Manning some more

It’s akward and disgusting, but I can’t look away

SG: That arrived in my mailbox at 4:42 p.m. ET during the Jets-Colts game. And Aaron couldn’t have been more right. Old Peyton Manning Face is either gone or hibernating. New Peyton Manning Face is carrying the day.

And if you’re trying to talk yourself into the Saints on Sunday, you keep coming back to one question: “Has Manning reached that hallowed MJ/Montana/Bird/Federer ‘Don’t Bet Against Me, It’s Just a Bad Idea’ level?” That Jets game was his masterpiece. New York had all the momentum. They had gotten two big plays, gone up by two scores, taken the crowd out of the game and had Manning as (seemingly) rattled as he’d been in a while. They just needed to make it to halftime. What happened? Manning trotted back out and just throttled them. Four plays, 80 yards, two world-class throws. The game was never the same.

What shocked me most: I was sitting there expecting Manning to come through … a player I always assumed would choke in big moments as recently as four years ago. Isn’t that the final stage for a great athlete, when we expect an impeccable performance from him during a truly dire situation? Look, I hate the Colts and bleed Brady. Nothing makes me unhappier as a football fan than the increasing likelihood that (a) Manning is cementing his claim as the best quarterback of his generation (and possibly the best ever), and (b) the Brady-Belichick salad days may have come and gone. It’s a worst-case scenario for me. I hate it. But if you like football, if you care about it at all, how could you not appreciate what Manning inflicted on the Jets? Within the span of an hour, he singlehandedly broke the will of an overachieving team that had been firing on all cylinders. By the end of the third quarter, everyone on New York’s defense had the body language of a boxer who was getting his butt whupped but still had four rounds to go. They were done.

We saw Brady hit this level during the first 10 weeks of New England’s 16-0 regular season; Manning has been banging it out for five solid months. And if you’re thinking about betting against him in the Pierre Bowl, ask yourself this: How dumb will you feel in the fourth quarter, with the Colts leading by 10 and driving for another score, if Manning has the New Peyton Manning Face going? Would you be kicking yourself? Would you be saying, “Why did I go against Manning? What was I thinking?” More on this at the end of the column.