FanHouse Peyton Manning

About 20 years ago, an AP sports writer in Denver named John Mossman went through all of John Elway's games with the Broncos and wrote a story chronicling the number of times he had led fourth-quarter or overtime drives that either won or tied games.

It became an instant stat.

For the next decade, PR men extraordinaire Jim Saccomano in Denver and Harvey Greene in Miami battled annually with lists showing Elway ahead of Dan Marino, or vice versa. Joe Montana probably was ahead of both, but the 49ers PR department declined for a long time to play. But now it's standard -- teams keep lists like that on every quarterback right down to Matthew Stafford, who had his first game-winner on Sunday in the second win of his career.

Had you told the Baltimore Ravens they would win the turnover battle against Peyton Manning and the Colts on Sunday, I'm pretty sure they would have assumed the result would be a victory. Of course, getting into the end zone against Indy generally is a necessity in order to win the football game. The Ravens didn't do that and lost, 17-15.

Despite allowing 354 yards of total offense -- 135 to burgeoning star Ray Rice -- the Colts defense buckled down when in their own territory, forcing the Ravens to attempt six field goals and punt twice in their first eight possessions. The Ravens still had a chance to win the football game late, but Joe Flacco was intercepted by Gary Brackett with just over two minutes left at the Indianapolis 13.

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With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.

The Early Games

New Orleans (9-0) at Tampa Bay (1-8): New Orleans was tested last week -- in fact, they've been tested in each of their last four games. Drew Brees has thrown seven interceptions and only six touchdown passes in those four games. You can expect the Saints to come out on Sunday and look to clean up their act a bit on offense as they play a divisional foe who doesn't have the arsenal to put up much of a fight.

Josh Freeman's play since taking over at quarterback is giving hope for the future in Tampa. He's thrown four touchdown passes and only two interceptions and seems to enjoy throwing to Kellen Winslow who has 11 receptions in his last two games. The Saints defense is a little beaten up, but should be able to hold off the Buccaneers on Sunday.

Pick: New Orleans

Your No. 1 QB overall isn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. It isn't Drew Brees or early-season hero Matt Schaub either. It's the one and only Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers presents the perfect example of why it's unnecessary to draft a QB in the first two rounds. He was a late-third or early-fourth round pick in most leagues and he's performing just as well as the big boys.

Sure, Brady and Manning offer you peace of mind, but with the RB and WR rankings constantly in flux, it's a much better idea to load up on talent at each of those positions, then snag a QB like Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Kurt Warner, Donovan McNabb or Tony Romo a bit later. You could probably win your league with one of these guys and a good group of RBs and WRs. Teams with Manning or Brady and a weaker group of RBs and WRs will likely have more trouble in the playoffs.

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So Dick Jauron is available to paint your house this weekend if you need somebody. The Buffalo Bills have relieved Jauron of his job as their head coach, effective immediately. And while there's nothing on Jauron's resume that's going to cause anybody to mix him up with Vince Lombardi, the other Bills news of the day makes me wonder if the man really ever had a chance.

The news of Jauron's firing comes on the same day the Bills apparently decided to give Ryan Fitzpatrick the starting quarterback job over Trent Edwards (presumably because neither Rob Johnson nor J.P. Losman answered his phone). And while we all certainly wish Fitzpatrick well, let's get real. This quarterback decision is that of a team that has no real quarterback. And when you don't have a real quarterback -- a reliable, stud, franchise-type quarterback -- well, that's when people's careers end.

In this past week's fantasy football tailgate (every Sunday from 10:30 AM ET to kickoff, come check it out!), someone asked us what we thought the first round would be for next season's drafts. Since we never want to disappoint, let's check it out. Here is one man's opinion on how the first round will shake out next year in standard scoring formats. This is using what we've seen thus far in 2009, plus what I expect to see the rest of the way. The first pick isn't really a secret, if you've been reading me the past two weeks.

1. Chris Johnson, RB, Titans - As I said, I haven't been secretive about this. He's gonna end up with 2,500 yards from scrimmage and close to 20 touchdowns this year. And he's only getting better.

The conventional view is that Peyton Manning is an extraordinarily precise passer whose single-minded dedication to the NFL may make him one of the most game-altering quarterbacks to ever play the game. Those of us who have watched him carefully over the years know the truth, however. Peyton Manning is a witch.*

I use to think that The Peyton was evil and had a pact with the devil. Colts fans took exception to that because they said Manning is a really swell guy who does good deeds and likes Oreos. Okay then, can we just agree that he is a witch, and then just agree to disagree on his evil status, and whether he should be burned at the stake?

Here's how it works. We throw some intriguing matchups at the FanHouse staff and ask whether each player will be over or under a certain point total. The result? Fantasy Football Over/Under. Makes sense, right?

Will there be 1,000 points scored in the New England-Indianapolis battle Sunday night? As you'll find below, we really don't think so, as we're high on the usual suspects but a little low on Austin Collie and the running backs in the game. We're also not buying a big game from a Fantasy FanHouse hero this week, thanks to a super-tough matchup.

And what do you do if you have Ladell Betts? If you have him, you likely added him this week, and you're probably itching to play him before he loses value. We'll tackle his case and many others in this week's Over/Under.

With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.

The Early Games

Denver (6-2) at Washington (2-6): Denver has lost its last two games and has shown an inability to score against good defenses. Washington's defense is ranked fifthh in the NFL, and that spells a much closer matchup than two teams with such opposite records should be involved in. It's extremely tough to throw against Washington, so Knowshon Moreno becomes a very important factor on Sunday. If he does well, Denver wins -- If Moreno falters, Denver loses.

Oh, sure, it might be fun if they hated each other, stole each other's women, fired off nasty tweets, treated their rivalry like another bloody night in the Octagon. But the beauty of Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady -- wait, give Brady first billing, since he has a 3-1 lead in the Super Bowl rings derby -- is that neither is a jerk on a sports planet filled with such creatures. Both are classy, dignified men who avoid blowhardish braggadocio and succeed because they rely on a tool that can be so remarkably beneficial when used properly.

The brain, we call it.