After reading the story on Manning last night, I clicked on the video that was attached to the link. NFL Network has a whole bunch of lists that it runs through, and the video was for the Best Single-Season Performance. Now, I cannot prove that this was made after the 2007 season, but the video is dated June 4, 2008, so presumably Brady's 2007 was included in this list, and not judged as well as Peyton Manning in 2004. And, they are, of course, correct.
Here is the link to the video (Improvement for SBNation: Emded videos from NFL.com, not just YouTube. They are so much better quality).
Now, this contradicts what shake n bake just told us the Stats Gods at Football Outsiders figured out. I'm gonna go Terry on them, and say it isn't all about the stats! Well, just different ones
- Manning destroyed the single season for passer rating at 121.1, besting Steve Young at 112.8. Brady was a pedestrian 117.2, also besting Young, but not at Manning's level.
- Manning did not play in week 17. He could have padded his TD stats against the Broncos, seeing as he threw 4 of them against them in the playoff game.
- Last year over on Pats Pulpit, a series was written on comparing Brady and Manning. One of the things that was a "plus" for Brady was his ability to spread the ball around, and he claimed Manning did no such thing. In Brady's magical 2007, he found Randy Moss 23 times, and the next highest was 8 for Wes Welker. Doesn't sound like spreading it around. The 2004 Colts set another record that year: the first time in NFL history a team had 3 players with 10+ TDs, as "the record breaker" gave Stokley 10 on the season. I never understood why this was such a distinctive stat, but since he used it, I'll make use of it as well, in favor of Manning.
- The 2004 Colts played the 11th toughest schedule, according the Sagarin. The 2007 Patriots? 19th toughest.
By the way, #1 is on the way in the next few nights. I'm attempting to pull together videos, as they tell the story much better than I ever could...