Peyton Manning vs Eli Manning: Which brother performed better in their respective Super Bowl wins?
Peyton Manning and Eli Manning have a lot of similarities. Both are former quarterbacks in the NFL who hail from the same family. They were both selected first overall in their respective drafts and both won two Super Bowls.
There is little doubt, though, who the better quarterback was between them. Peyton Manning is a Hall-of-Famer. He famously changed the league in how quarterbacks would react at the line of scrimmage and change plays. He holds the record for most touchdown passes in a season with 55. He reached four Super Bowls compared to the two of his younger brother. His overall impact on the game has been much greater than Eli Manning's.
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But who among them was better when it mattered the most? Peyton Manning won both Super Bowl XLI (2007) and 50 (2016) and was the Super Bowl MVP in the former. Eli Manning won Super Bowls XLII (2008) and XLVI (2012) and was the Super Bowl MVP both times. Let's look deeper to decide which of the Manning brothers fared better in their Super Bowl wins.
Peyton Manning and Eli Manning: A Super Bowl matchup
Peyton Manning played in four Super Bowls and won two. He won one and lost one with both the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos. In the ones where he did win, how much of a contribution to the eventual glory did he actually have?
In Super Bowl XLI against the Chicago Bears, the Colts quarterback threw one touchdown and an interception and was sacked once. His passer rating was 81.8 and he passed for 247 yards. As mentioned before, that was enough to win him the Super Bowl MVP nod.
In Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers, his powers had clearly waned in what turned out to be his last season in the NFL. He threw for only 141 yards and did not have a single touchdown. However, he did throw an interception. He was sacked five times for a loss of 37 yards in total. He ended up with a passer rating of 56.6. The Broncos won the game because of their defense and Von Miller took home the Super Bowl MVP award.
Now, let's take a look at Eli Manning. He won both his Super Bowls with the New York Giants against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. His first outing was in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants defeated the Patriots, who were coming off a perfect season until then, so the relative strength of the opposition was higher than what his elder brother faced.
Say what you want about Eli Manning, but the list of QBs to win multiple Super Bowls isn’t super long.
Tom Brady
Joe Montana
Terry Bradshaw
Troy Aikman
Peyton Manning
Ben Roethlisberger
John Elway
Jim Plunkett
Bob Griese
Roger Staubach
Bart Starr
And Eli Manning. #Giants #NFL twitter.com/DanGrazianoESP…
Eli Manning took charge and threw for two touchdowns and only one interception. Though he was sacked thrice, he only gave up a total of eight yards on those sacks. He passed for a total of 255 yards as he was named the Super Bowl MVP with a 87.3 passer rating. Note here that all the figures are already better than Peyton Manning achieved in either of his Super Bowl wins.
But for the younger Manning, his best performance in a Super Bowl was to come in the XLVI edition. In that game, he threw for one touchdown and had no interceptions. His total passing yards were 296, achieved by connecting on 30 out of 40 attempts at an astounding 75% completion rate. His passer rating was accordingly 103.8 as he again walked away with the Super Bowl MVP award.
Consider also that Eli Manning never lost a Super Bowl, whereas his brother lost two. That in itself is a pretty impressive stat.
Upon reflection, it is clear that Eli Manning has far outstripped his more illustrious brothers when it comes to Super Bowl performances. Peyton Manning may have achieved quite a lot, but when it came to crunch time, his younger brother held his nerve much better.