The Cruel Irony of Peyton Manning's Genius

Peyton Manning is undoubtedly one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. The future Hall of Famer's name is one of the easiest to find in the NFL record books. It is etched across the top of categories such as most career touchdown passes, most passing yards in a season and the most games with a perfect passer rating, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

Even in his prime, the most novice observer knew that his success had little to do with his athleticism and was largely a product of having a mind that functions like a super computer. While that genius, initially cultivated by his father and former NFL quarterback, Archie Manning, has helped make the seven-time first-team All-Pro one of the game's all-time greats, it has also stood in the way of success.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Manning has a sub .500 playoff record. He has lost two of the three Super Bowls he has played in, including a 43-8 drubbing at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks two years ago. He has also been one-and-done in over a third of his postseason appearances.

No. 18 is not solely responsible for his lack of postseason success. He engineered a Colts offense that produced several historically great seasons, including in 2004, where he combined with the likes of Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne and Edgerrin James, to give Indianapolis a potent attack that outscored the rest of the league by a significant margin, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.

However, while playing with the horseshoe, his teams often lacked balance, as high-powered offenses were frequently paired with defenses that were ill-equipped to handle the rigors of the playoffs.

Yet, as a member of the Denver Broncos, he has been fortunate enough to play with formidable defenses. There were even times in Indianapolis where he played with a championship-caliber defense. According to the team's encyclopedia page on Pro-Football-Reference.com, Manning played with the league's second-highest and top-rated defense in terms of points allowed, in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

Those represent some of the best opportunities to add to his playoff legend that Manning let slip away. It needs to be repeated that the losses do not solely fall on the shoulders of one individual. But even the most staunch Manning supporter cannot eschew the drop off in his performance from the regular season to the playoffs.

	Regular Season	Playoffs
QBR	80.24	66.16
Rate	97.5	88.5
CMP%	65.5	63.96

These numbers were molded by playoff losses such as a 20-3 blowout against the New England Patriots in 2004, a 2007 home loss against a San Diego Chargers team that triumphed without Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson, who both sustained injuries that prevented them from finishing the game and most recently, another loss at home, this time, at the hands of his former team, the Colts, as Manning fought through a torn right quadriceps, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.

Each of Manning's playoff losses is unique. Sometimes, his team was the favorite. Sometimes, the opponent validated why it was the better team. There have been games where the blame can be primarily placed on No. 18's shoulders. Other times, that wasn't the case.

However, there is one trait that Manning's playoff losses have in common: the opposition was able to defeat him mentally. The Patriots are the shining example of this. According to Bill Bender of Sporting News, with Tom Brady under center, New England is 11-5 against Manning.

If you want to watch this game in its entirety, more power to you. But the reasons this video is being used are exemplified at the 18:45 and 1:33:35 marks.

What these plays have in common is New England's ability to disrupt Manning's rhythm: Whether it comes courtesy of making Manning uncomfortable in the pocket, the use of physical play to disrupt the timing with his receivers, or both, if you throw off his cadence, he has proven to be incapable of overcoming it.

While Manning's injury was a significant factor in his performance in Denver's divisional loss to the Colts, where he threw just one touchdown pass, so was Indianapolis' ability to throw off the quarterback's timing with his receivers, jamming them at the line of scrimmage and forcing Manning to try to win with the long-ball, often down the seam.

Frustrating experiences like this often result in the Peyton pout. For those unfamiliar, it looks something like this:

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

The other way to beat Manning is to turn his genius against him. Again, no team does this as effectively as the Patriots.

This was on full display during a 2013 regular-season game, where despite being carved up by running back Knowshon Moreno to the tune of 224 yards, New England stubbornly remained in its nickel defense. NESN.com's Doug Kyed explained the beauty behind the strategy:

"

Basically, Belichick was encouraging the Broncos to keep running the ball at a 5.8-yard-per-carry clip. He kept defending the pass even when Peyton Manning wasn’t passing.

It happened to work out perfectly for the Patriots. The goal appeared to be to keep Manning from throwing the ball. The Patriots fell behind quickly and Manning never quite got into a rhythm once they caught up.

"

If Manning had slowed down for just a second he might have stopped going by the book and decided to test Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib, who displayed a noticeable limp in the second half and was matched up with Demaryius Thomas. Instead of restoring balance to Denver's offense, he continuously read that the defense was ceding the run and fed Moreno the ball 37 times, per ESPN.com.

Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but the playoffs have been his own personal torture chamber. His perspicacity is both to thank and blame for that.

Both regular season and playoff numbers attained courtesy of Manning's ESPN.com player profile page

Manning's quarterback rating was not officially tracked until 2006