Oh, sure, he finds lots of stories, much in the way that a rat combing through the sewage finds lots of garbage.
Through all the false story lines, where it gets really obnoxious is his flaccid attempt to elevate Broncos QB Peyon Manning. He writes: "Guess we can all stop mocking the Manning family now. Brady has now lost five consecutive playoff games to the Manning Bros." Well, two of those were to Peyton's brother, and no one around New England mocks Eli Manning anyway. So much for that straw man.
He's been making this strange case for years, for no apparent reason other than to be an ass. Remeber when he wrote:
Peyton Manning is better than Tom Brady. ... Sorry, folks. Sometimes the truth hurts. And the truth is that outside New England, this argument is over. Everywhere else in the continental United States. The proverbial ship has sailed and its name is the SS Peyton.
That was in February 2010, after which time Brady broke Dan Marino's single-season passing yardage record, threw six TDs in a single playoff game (tying another record), became the first quarterback to lead his team to 13 division titles, set a record for playoff appearances by a quarterback, broke Joe Montana's record for career playoff touchdowns. In the five seasons since Shank wrote that, Brady has passed for more than 23,000 yards and 167 touchdowns. Manning meanwhile, has thrown for 17,000 yards and 140 TDs. Oh yeah, Manning's also thrown six more picks over that same time. Find the NFL coach who would take Manning for Brady, straight up. No exists.
Oddly, here's what he wrote about one Peyton Manning in late 2010 after Mr. HGH threw three picks, including one to seal yet another Colts loss to the Pats:
Peyton Manning's going to be exhausted by the time he gets to the end of this season, that's for sure. It's can't be easy carrying the Indianapolis Colts all by himself. He has no running game. He doesn't have a lot of healthy, experienced receivers. He's got guys dropping passes and running the wrong way. And still he almost beat the Patriots in New England on Sunday.
So no excuses, unless it's The CHB making them? Check.
There's literally nothing of value here. Why did the Pats decide to take the ball when they won the coin flip? Shank asks the question but doesn't know the answer. Guess the bravest columnist Joe Sullivan ever metTM didn't quite have the guts to pose that one.
Throw in an ancient Celtics-Lakers reference which will hold meaning only to octogenarians and you have The CHB's AFC Championship game wrap.
1 comment:
Shank obviously missed that February of 2010 that Manning threw the pick six that killed his team in the Superbowl and then failed on a critical fourth down in the Saints redzone that could have salvaged something for the Colts.
"You don't deserve to win when you rush for 44 yards...." Yes you do - establish the run has never been true in football despite the stubborn myopia of generations of "experts" and even coaches and Shank's excuse for Manning's 2010 semi-collapse doesn't wash given the Colts that year averaged 3.8 yards per carry, hardly an inferior running game given that fifteen Superbowl champions averaged 3.8 YPC or lower. BTW Shank, Manning threw for 4,700 yards in 2010 also, and the fact of his poor play is why Bob Lamey was caught advocating the Colts draft Manning's replacement.
"And he still almost beat the Patriots in New England on Sunday." The difference between Manning's 2010 "martyrdom" and Brady's bitter loss in Denver is Brady threw what was to be the tying touchdown where Manning was intercepted on a terrible throw in that 2010 game.
Shank is so bad even Bertrand and Zolak expressed on the air little desire to have to deal with him today.
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