Peyton Manning was already a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer before he took a single snap this season. But the 2009 version of Manning is better than any that's come before.

 

Peyton's finally exceeding the hype that made him pro football’s Chosen One, doing the little things, the important things, that differentiate pass-happy stat monsters from the elite winners.

 

In fact, Manning is winning in ways that no quarterback ever has. And it’s his ability to spit in the face of statistical convention that’s largely the reason the Colts are 9-0 and all but locked in as the AFC’s No. 1 seed with seven weeks to play.

 

At the start of the season, we published a list of quarterbacks who can “carry a team” – that is, the quarterbacks who can win when the team puts the weight of the game on his shoulders.

 

It's harder to win in these situations than most people realize.

 

This list, compiled by CHFF ombudsdouche Mark Wald, was fairly revealing. It told us – as we had long told you – that passing often is almost never a good thing.

 

(By the way, “carrying a team” or passing often, for the purposes of this study, is defined as 30 or more attempts in games from 1960-77 and 40 or more attempts in games from 1978 to the present.)

 

Teams historically lose 70 percent of the games in which their quarterback is called upon to “carry the team,” according to this off-season study: they had gone 1,148-2,645-84 (.307).

 

The numbers have been fairly consistent with historical averages this year. Through Week 10, quarterbacks forced to “carry a team” in 2009 had gone 16-39 (.291).

 

Volume passing stats are meaningless outside the pretend, make-believe world of fantasy football, as we’ve always shown, and these lists and data provide further evidence.

 

Manning, however, has crashed the computers and is on pace to set a new single-season standard for “carrying a team.”

He’s 5-0 this year when asked to pass 40 or more times in a game, including Sunday night’s 44-attempt effort in Indy’s 35-34 win over the Patriots. In other words, he’s accounted for nearly a third of all the 40-plus-attempt victories (16) in the NFL this year.

 

That 5-0 mark puts him on pace to smash the all-time single-season “carry a team” record held by John Elway, who went 6-0 “carrying” his Broncos in 1985. With seven games to play, Manning has ample opportunity to blow past Denver’s Hall of Fame legend.

 

Here’s a look at the all-time single-season “carry a team” leaders (based on winning percentage)

 

Player	Season	Record	Pct.
John Elway	1985	6-0	1,000
Peyton Manning	2009	5-0	1.000
Joe Montana	1990	4-0	1.000
Tom Brady	2003	4-0	1.000
Mike Boryla	1974	3-0	1.000
Dan Marino	1987	3-0	1.000
Jeff Garcia	2001	3-0	1.000
Jake Plummer	2002	3-0	1.000
Mark Bulger	2002	3-0	1.000
Tony Romo	2007	3-0	1.000
Jack Kemp	1965	5-0-1	.917
Billy Wade	1963	4-0-2	.833
Daryle Lamonica	1968	10-2	.833

 

Boryla is obviously something of an anomaly. He had a cup of coffee with Philly in the mid 1970s and slung the ball all over the field while leading the Eagles to three straight victories in December 1974, his rookie year. But every list has its anomalies. The more telling indicator is that the top four at "carrying a team" in a single season represent a who's who of modern Hall of Famers: Elway, Manning, Montana, Brady.

 

The difficulty winning when a team calls upon its quarterback to “carry” the load was also evident this past week.

 

Nine quarterbacks attempted 40 or more passes in Week 10. All but Manning lost. The list of losers included Manning’s rival, Tom Brady, who attempted 42 passes for the Patriots.

 

The fact that we were watching two masters at work in Sunday's night classic is evident by the fact that Brady is second in the NFL this year with two “carry his team” victories (and a 2-2 record). No player other than Manning and Brady this year has more than one victory when asked to bear the burden for their offense. (MVP candidate Drew Brees of the undefeated Saints has yet to attempt 40 passes in a single game this year; Carson Palmer and Kyle Orton are each 1-0.)

 

Brady’s also on the short list of single-season “carry a team” leaders above, with a 4-0 mark in 2003, one of the four best single-season records in history.

 

The difficulty winning when you pass often is also evident here in the all-time “carry a team” career list below. We first published this list over the off season. It’s been updated here with stats through Week 10, 2009.

 

There remains only 10 passers in history who won more than half their games when asked to bear the offensive burden. Only two of them are active: Brady and Donovan McNabb.

 

The Mad Bomber Daryle Lamonica still tops the list. Brady, meanwhile, is No. 1 all-time list when asked to pass 40 or more times in a game (remember, we use 30 attempts as the cut off for games before 1978). Lamonica, for his part, was 2-2-1 if we use the modern standard (40 attempts in a game).

 

Manning, for his part, entered the 2009 season with an 18-31 (.367) mark with 40-plus attempts. After this year's blazing pace, he's now 23-31 (.426) in his career when asked to "carry the team."

 

But Manning's 2009 season might go down as the most impressive effort in history by a quarterback forced to carry the load for his offense. The Chosen One is finally matching the standards of excellence that have long been attributed to him.

 

* minimum 10 decisions