TedyB54

Well, it would seem that the last few weeks have proven what many coaches, players and fans outside of Indy have believed for a very long time: Howard Mudd made Peyton Manning an elite QB.

While Colts fans will point to the list of key players out with injuries as the cause for Mannings struggles this season, the rest of the NFL world can't help but notice that Howard "The-Best-In-The-Business-At-Stealing-Signals" Mudd is no longer roaming the sidelines and feeding info to Manning.

The media created this mystique about Manning and his uncanny ability to quickly recognize defenses and adjust the play at the line of scrimmage. All those years of watching Harrison, Clark, Wayne, James, Addai, etc. running free into wide open areas were just a product of Manning being told what defense was coming.

Now, in his first year without Mudd, Manning is looking more and more like an average QB and the last few games have dropped him into Favre territory. The INTs are coming at an alarming rate and he's cornering the market on "Pick-6's".

Injuries don't make the QB throw the ball to the wrong team. Not knowing the defensive coverage ahead of time will do that.

RodThePat

Wow....I can't even find the words for this one....

IcyPatriot

Howard Mudd

Colts losing Howard Mudd to retirement

Mudd and Moore officially retire from Colts

Rob0729

Actually, losing Tom Moore might be more of the issue. Manning is making bad decisions without pressure on him by opposing defenders. So I doubt Mudd is the reason. Without Moore though (he is just a consultant and not on the field during games), I don't know if Manning has anyone to tell him what he is doing wrong or get him to stop make the stupid decisions.

ivanvamp

I don't know what the reasons for Manning's struggles are, but I do know that he has a hall-of-fame receiver on one side (Wayne, who's been there all year long), and Pierre Garcon on the other. It's not like all Manning has is a bunch of schleps. Except for Moss, Brady has never had a receiver as good as Wayne.

Peyton's last 3 games:
105-148 (70.9%), 1046 yds, 8 td, 11 int

So the completion percentage, the yards, and the td are there...it's just the picks that are killing him.

Season stats: 353-534 (66.1%), 3709 yds, 32 td, 20 int, 89.4 rating

With the Colts at 6-6, there's no way he can be in the MVP running right now. I'm sure he still is, especially if Indy finishes with a flourish, but geez...

MoLewisrocks

He also misses Moore, the only OC he's ever known, and the OL misses Mudd - who was as good as Dante at coaching chicken salad out of chicken ****. And the whole team misses Dungy whom Caldwell is just a sad facimile of. Dungy had that quiet strength mistique going. All Caldwell can manage is a bizarro unemotional deer in the headlights look on the sidelines. And he misses precision veteran weaponry surrounded by well coached albeit marginal talent. Polian really F'ed up this season. He's allowed his well oiled machine built around Manning to just circle the drain on the heels of a SB loss. It will be hard to get that machine well oiled, up and running again absent a substantial talent infusion on and off the field. Which will be harder than ever to accomplish what with having fir to Paymeanotherton under a new cap... It took Polian several seasons of Peyton's youth to get that machine rolling like a regular season freight train. He hasn't got that kind of time to work with anymore.

Peyton can still read defenses. What he doesn't have confidence in is relying on his protection or his targets. He is a guy for whom perfection is the norm and any deviation opens the door for disaster.

Palm Beach Pats Fan

Maybe Peyton's argument for making 20 million per year for 5 years is taking a bit of a hit.

As bad as the Dolphin's Henne has been, maybe Peyton can be the next big shot to "take his talents to South Beach"



Either way, the Colts roster is a mess, so I expect that like the Yankess with Jeter they will be bidding only against themseleves. Trouble is, in a salary cap sport that 20 million dollars every year can hamper any efforts to build a good team around Mr. Ginormous Bulbous Forehead.

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It is what it is, so just go out there and do your job!

Rob0729

BTW, we all know it isn't Manning. It is the Super Bowl loser curse. It is the football gods screwing with Peyton.

SaCaCh

IS that the dude from Star Trek??

Uncle Rico

Interesting stats. I ran them through a passer rating calculator and got 77.7. If the picks drop down to "only" 6 (still a lot in three games), rating goes to 91. Three picks (one pr game) put him at 100. So, other than his interceptions (Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln ...), Manning and his receivers are still connecting quite a bit.

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