Seeing Is Believing on Manning

One good thing about life in Los Angeles is that on fall Sundays, there are three NFL games on network TV -- two at the same time. Last Sunday, in the same three-hour span, L.A. fans could compare four of the league’s liveliest quarterbacks: Eli Manning and Marc Bulger, and Tom Brady and Drew Brees.

By comparison, the football fans of St. Louis -- or any other NFL city -- are limited to two games on fall Sundays, and league rules require that the home team’s telecast, good or bad, must be one of the two.

That’s why much of the country beyond L.A. missed out on young Manning’s emergence as a first-rate pro quarterback Sunday or on Brees’ surprisingly easy conquest of Brady’s New England Patriots.

Although network TV isn’t the only way to bring NFL football into an L.A. home, comparatively few football fans use the other options.

Moreover, network TV, as Los Angeles informs the pollsters, makes more sense than ever now in an era when standout quarterbacks lead a wide variety of pro clubs. You never know which passer is going to get hot.

Eli Starts Fast

Eli Manning, Peyton’s kid brother, was the most surprising of Sunday’s clever quarterbacks, not because he won as the New York Giants upset the St. Louis Rams, 44-24, but because he’s already playing like a veteran. He’s already one of the game’s eight or 10 best quarterbacks, even though he was a starter only seven times last year as a rookie -- and was not very successful.

NFL coaches used to say if the talent was there, it took five years to make a pro quarterback. These days, if the talent is there, it takes about five games.

Passing has supplanted running as the best way to play offensive football, and Manning has been an experienced, well-coached passer for years.

Fortunately for him, in Tom Coughlin’s second season as coach of the Giants, Manning is playing for someone who has converted from conservative ground-play offense to integrated passing and running.

What’s more, Coughlin knows enough about his limitations not to run the offense himself. The Giants have brought in offensive coordinator John Hufnagel, who has made an impressive start after gaining coaching experience on five NFL teams in five years.

At 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds, Manning clearly has NFL talent. He can zip the ball effortlessly and accurately, and he throws with touch when he should.

He is, in fact, more gifted than his famous brother Peyton, who is basically self-made, having worked hard to get where he is. Peyton spent years perfecting his drop, for instance, and forcing himself to be quick mentally and physically.

To Eli Manning, it all comes naturally. He and the Giants seem to have a bright future.

Rams Beat Bulger

Marc Bulger, the Ram quarterback, demonstrated frequently in this game that he was still one of the two or three best passers of this generation. But he had more to beat than Eli Manning had.

The Ram defense is as weak as ever, a situation that helped Manning more than he might have realized.

Meanwhile, the Giant defense could handle Bulger because the Ram offense has grown so predictable.

Under Coach Mike Martz, the Rams have become a formidable downfield passing team but downfield plays are all they have. They no longer have either a short-passing or running game.

And Martz insists on trying to run on first down. The Giants covered those plays so fast and easily that the Rams carried a minus-running yardage total most of the day.

Martz is a brilliant play designer but he’s proving to be a phase coach. When Martz was in his short-pass phase regularly with quarterback Kurt Warner, the Rams played in a couple of Super Bowls.

Downfield passing is, however, more challenging, and Martz seems to enjoy the challenge -- at the expense of all other forms of offense.

Lacking a short-pass threat, however, as well as a running threat on still another Martz team with severe defensive and special-team weaknesses, Bulger, even with his smoothness, quickness and accuracy, can’t beat a kid quarterback.

Brees Plays Smart

Drew Brees of the San Diego Chargers, the other winner last Sunday, became the first quarterback to outscore Brady in Foxborough in years.

And though Charger Coach Marty Schottenheimer gracefully blamed the Patriots’ many injuries for what happened to them, Brees, for his part, didn’t give them a chance.

To surprise the Patriots -- and the NFL -- this time, 41-17, Brees showed New England how a good quarterback can play great football.

Not as gifted as, for instance, Bulger or Brady -- or the Mannings -- Brees wins by moving his team with smart plays and smart passes.

He doesn’t try things he can’t do. He doesn’t force the ball into nearly hopeless coverages such as the great passers -- Peyton Manning conspicuously -- often do. In adversity, Brees doesn’t rattle.

He’s the essence of what is called steadiness in a quarterback. And because the Chargers have assembled the best in a supporting cast -- such as running back LaDainian Tomlinson and tight end Antonio Gates -- they rank now near the top of the NFL’s many parity contenders.

Their two-game winning streak after an 0-2 start suggests that the NFL’s most mysterious quarterback situation is still on hold in San Diego.

The Chargers pledged a fortune last year to Philip Rivers of North Carolina State, and Brees might well have been a bad dream for the Chargers -- just good enough to keep Rivers off the field.

But because Brees finally mastered the Charger system last year while Rivers was holding out, he has proved to be more quarterback than most pro clubs have.

Shotgun Kills Brady

Tom Brady was the best quarterback of the four on the stage Sunday but he couldn’t always play that way against San Diego because a change of offensive coordinators has reduced the Patriot offense from extraordinary to ordinary.

In action, Brady still leads in thinking clearly on his feet, in swiftly and correctly reading teammates and opponents, in sliding around in the pocket to evade blitzers, and in a passing motion that whips the ball away as quickly and accurately as if produced by a machine. He’d be an ideal quarterback if authorized to call his own plays.

His problem is that the Patriots’ plays are now called by committee instead of by longtime offensive coach Charlie Weis, now at Notre Dame.

And the committee has been putting Brady in shotgun formation most of the time while the Patriots have lined up in the same offense to become a .500 team. Last year when they changed offenses frequently, they were a Super Bowl team.

In the shotgun, Brady loses the running threat Corey Dillon provides when Patriot plays start under center. He also loses much of his pass offense.

The upshot is that New England’s offensive staff is what is beating New England. To those who value what Brady is and can do, it’s bad news.

McNabb Catches Chiefs

Donovan McNabb’s passing and Coach Andy Reid’s play calling for Philadelphia brought a spirited ending to Sunday’s network quarterback show.

After the Kansas City Chiefs struck for early leads of 17-0 and 24-6, the Eagles played their normal game to pull it out, 37-31.

Reid has devised an offense that is precisely the same, whether the score is even or lopsided in either team’s favor. Unlike New England, the Eagles almost never use the shotgun. Unlike St. Louis, the Eagles seldom run on first down

Whether on the attack or defending a lead, they are now passing 70% of the time and throwing on most first-down plays, usually out of a one-back formation, which means the defense must account for a running back who rarely runs.

The Eagles are very good at what they do because they’re so well practiced. And McNabb has the courage to lead the way, despite injuries that would have some players in the hospital.