Manning Is Almost Picture Perfect

If there were a class on the art of scouting quarterbacks, Ted Marchibroda could teach it. His students might call him Prof. Projector.

Taking a page from Sid Gillman, the coaching pioneer who always had a projector within reach and spent most of his honeymoon watching game films, Marchibroda used a 35-millimeter projector to determine how quickly the game’s best passers released the ball.

That method, he said, would give us even more insight today as to why Peyton Manning is so good.

Back when he was an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1960s, Marchibroda studied film of some of the game’s best quarterbacks: Johnny Unitas, Sonny Jurgensen, John Brodie, Joe Namath and Roman Gabriel among them. He would slow the film and count the number of frames between when the player took his left hand off the ball until the pass was released.

For all of them, the throwing motion took 12-14 frames when captured by a camera shooting at 32 frames a second.

When Dan Marino came along and everyone lauded his quick release, Marchibroda put him to the projector test. Sure enough, Marino was releasing the ball at eight or nine frames.

“It doesn’t seem like four frames makes a difference,” Marchibroda said. “But you’re talking about 33%. And Peyton is the same way, he’s got the same quick release as Marino.”

Marchibroda has seen enough of Manning to know, even though he hasn’t gauged him on his old projector. The longtime coach has been the color analyst on Indianapolis Colt radio for the last four seasons, and he’ll be at the RCA Dome on Sunday when Manning could break Marino’s single-season record for touchdowns passing.

With 46, Manning needs three to claim the record.

Regardless of whether Manning breaks the record, Marchibroda said, he deserves to be considered one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.

“He pretty much has it all,” he said. “Jimmy Brown had it all as a halfback, and Peyton is that level as a quarterback.”

Lest anyone doubt Marchibroda’s credentials as a judge of quarterbacks, consider this: He coached Jurgensen with Washington, Bert Jones with Baltimore and Jim Kelly with Buffalo, among others. “I think Peyton is probably as good as any quarterback who’s ever played the game,” Marchibroda said. “Just forgetting about his ability for a second, it’s his preparation. He probably prepares more than what the quarterbacks did in previous years. They didn’t look at film as much as he does. He’s got a great understanding of the game. He’s got a great understanding of defenses and his offense. From an ability standpoint, he’s as accurate as any passer that I’ve ever seen.”

There was a time, around the first season he covered Manning as a radio announcer, that Marchibroda thought Peyton and receiver Marvin Harrison were merely enjoying a lucky hot streak.

“I thought they were just fortunate,” he said.

“But they’re that good.”

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Even now, during the best season of his career, Manning has learned that he can’t please every fan, particularly ones in fantasy leagues.

“I’ve got a lot of fantasy thank-you letters,” he said on a conference call this week. “That’s probably the most common question I get now, or the most common statement besides, ‘Can I have your autograph?,’ is, ‘Hey, you’re on my fantasy team, throw more touchdowns, throw it to Reggie Wayne or Marvin Harrison more.’

“Hey, if the fans are excited about that, that’s great. That’s what the game is still about. It’s nice to have the fans’ interaction. You see fans at our games with the touchdown meters and those kinds of things.

“Like I said, that’s exciting stuff for the fans. That gets them excited for the games. I’m all for that. But a thing about fantasy, sometimes I’ll be, I don’t know, at an airport sometimes. A guy will say, ‘Hey, that’s a tough game, huh?’ I’ll say, ‘We won.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, it was 10-7. You didn’t throw any touchdowns.’

“I’ll say, ‘You and I have different goals here, buddy.’ ”

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Week after week, Stats Inc. comes up with NFL statistics that are sometimes quirky, often telling, and usually interesting. Some of this week’s gems:

* When San Diego plays at Cleveland, it will pit the AFC teams that have used the most and fewest starters in the conference this season. The injury-plagued Browns have used 43 starters; the surprisingly tough Chargers have used 30.

* San Diego tight end Antonio Gates has the most “clutch” receptions this season with 26, at least four more than any other NFL player. A clutch reception is defined as any catch on third or fourth down that results in a first down or a touchdown.

* In its last 19 games, San Francisco is 3-0 against Arizona and 1-15 against the rest of the league.

* Chicago has given up only one rushing touchdown in its last 10 home games. That said, the Bear offense has no rushing touchdowns in the last five games after scoring eight in the season’s first eight games.

* Since 2001, New Orleans is 3-28 when scoring 21 or fewer points, including 0-7 this season.

* The Raiders, who play host to Tennessee, are in danger of making team history. They have lost four consecutive home games; they haven’t lost five in a row at home since losing 11 consecutive home games over the 1961 and ’62 seasons. Also, Oakland has given up 363 points and is on pace to give up 447, the most of any Raider team since 1961.

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This week, I visited Landstuhl Regional Medical Center outside Frankfurt, Germany, with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and league executives Pete Abitante, Mike Haynes and Merton Hanks. The hospital has done an incredible job of treating U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, anywhere else in the Middle East war zone. Lives are saved every day.

One injured Marine from Philadelphia, days removed from a horrific firefight in Iraq, perked up when Tagliabue, Haynes and Hanks entered his room.

He had one request: “Promise me that you’ll stop fining T.O.”

Man, those Eagle fans are tough.

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How They Compare

Comparing Dan Marino’s record-setting 1984 season to Peyton Manning’s 2004 season, through 13 games. Marino finished the season with a record 48 touchdown passes:

*--* MARINO MANNING RECORD 12-1 10-3 PASSING YARDS 3,870 3,919 TOUCHDOWN PASSES 36 46 INTERCEPTIONS 12 9

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