Peyton Manning? Or Drew Brees?
The half-smile/half-smirk that washed across Gus Bradley’s face suggested, “Do I really have to go there?” Well, yes, because few know the opposing quarterbacks in Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup between Manning and his Indianapolis Colts and Brees and his New Orleans Saints better than the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator.
The Seahawks faced Manning during the 2009 season and all he did was complete 31 of 41 passes for 353 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Colts scored on four of their first five possessions en route to 34-17 win.
Bradley went against Brees twice each season from 2006-08 while with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That last season, the Bucs’ defense intercepted Brees three times in a 23-20 victory, but also was riddled for a 23-of-32, 343-yard, three-TD performance in the Saints’ 24-20 win.
So who better to compare and contrast the Super Bowl QBs?
“There is an advantage for New Orleans to have a couple of weeks to prepare for this game,” Bradley said. “But I still think that it bides more to Peyton Manning’s side, just because if you give him two weeks to prepare there’s no telling what he’ll come up with.”
With that said, here’s how Bradley breaks down the passers in Super Bowl XLIV – and top two vote-getters in this season’s MVP balloting.
First, Manning, who won his fourth league MVP award after passing for 4,500 yards and 33 touchdowns.
“He’s just incredible,” Bradley said. “The more you watch film on him, the more you come away with just how impressive he is.”
Watching the Colts’ victory in the AFC Championship game, Bradley was struck by how long it took Manning to decipher the blitz schemes thrown at him by the New York Jets’ No. 1-ranked defense. When the Seahawks played the Colts in Week 4, Manning seemed to make them pay every time they blitzed by throwing immediately to the area vacated by the blitzer.
“There’s not a look that he hasn’t seen,” Bradley said. “The Jets did a good job initially with him, but it didn’t take him too long to figure out.”
After Manning started 1 of 3 with two sacks on the Colts’ first two possessions, he finished 26 of 39 for 377 yards and three touchdowns. He also was not sacked the rest of the game.
“The Jets kind of came up with some unique pressures, and tried to give him some confusing looks (in coverage) while they pressured,” Bradley said. “But once he understood the concepts, they ended up with more than 400 yards in offense.
“So it’s tough. He’s tough to deal with, no doubt about it.”
The game-day production stems from the during-the-week preparation. Bradley learned that from, among others, former Colts linebacker Cato June, who played for Bradley with the Bucs.
“Just hearing the process when he goes out there and what he demands from his guys – running the route properly, having the right splits, making sure everything is precise,” Bradley said. “That’s what he expects in practice and that’s how he plays the game.”
Now Brees, who had the league’s best passer rating (109.6) while throwing for 4,388 yards and 34 TDs.
“He’s different,” Bradley said. “Just physically, he’s like 6-feet tall. So he’s not a physically imposing-type guy, but what he can do is. He understands concepts so well. He understands zones, the concept of looking guys off – looking guys off one way then coming back the other way; getting the zone to shift one way and then coming back.
“He’ll have some homerun plays, but he really tries to attack the defense at Level 1 and Level 2 – that zero to 15-yard range.”
That was the case in the Saints’ shootout against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship game. Brees had a 38-yard completion to running back Pierre Thomas for a touchdown and also a 28-yarder to running back Reggie Bush. But his next-longest completion was a 17-yarder to tight end David Thomas and his other TD passes were a 9-yarder to wide receiver Devery Henderson and a 5-yarder to Bush.
Brees was only 17 of 31 for 197 yards. But he had the three TD passes, threw no interceptions and completed a key 12-yard pass to wide receiver Robert Meachem in overtime to setup the game-winning field goal.
“(At Tampa), we always had a little more success against him if we were able to get pressure with a four-man rush,” Bradley said. “If you can do that, and play your zone coverages, it gives you a feather in the hat.
“If you can’t do that, and you’re relying on blitzes to provide pressure, he’ll make you pay for it.”
No wonder more than a few are calling this the best QB matchup in Super Bowl history.
