Eli Manning: NFL’s greatest quarterback in playoff road games

Eli Manning now has two Super Bowl titles. That’s impressive. Not many quarterbacks have multiple Super Bowl titles. Let’s see. Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Jim Plunkett, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, John Elway, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger. And now Manning.

Impressive. But this is more impressive. Eli Manning now has five road victories in the NFL playoffs. Not many NFL quarterbacks have five road playoff wins. As in none, other than Peyton’s little brother.

Manning’s NFC Championship Game win at Green Bay raised his playoff road record to 5-1. That’s not counting the neutral-field Super Bowls. That’s road games. That’s games in unfriendly environs, which are incredibly hard to win.

Johnny Unitas, Kurt Warner, Doug Williams, Bobby Layne and Jeff Hostetler all were NFL champion quarterbacks. They combined for five road playoff wins. The same as Eli Manning all by his lonesome.

Steve Young, Y.A. Tittle and Norm Van Brocklin all are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Combined, they were 0-7 in playoff road games.

Peyton Manning and Joe Montana are on virtually everyone’s list of the top five quarterbacks in NFL history. They each went 2-5 in playoff road games.

Troy Aikman, Bob Griese, Jim Kelly, Warren Moon and Dan Marino are in the Hall of Fame, too. They reached a combined 11 Super Bowls, winning five. Their combined playoff road record: 5-19.

Eli Manning’s career playoff road record: 5-1.

We can do this by decade.

2000s: Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, Matt Hasselbeck and Philip Rivers, a combined playoff road record of 1-10 (Rivers has the win).

1990s: Vinny Testaverde, Kerry Collins, Drew Bledsoe, Neil O’Donnell and Jeff Garcia, a combined playoff road record of 1-11 (Bledsoe has the win).

1980s: Bernie Kosar, Boomer Esiason, Ken O’Brien, Danny White and Ron Jaworski, a combined playoff road record of 1-11 (White has the win).

1970s: Billy Kilmer, Ken Anderson, Steve Bartkowski, Jim Hart, Bert Jones and Fran Tarkenton, a combined playoff road record of 1-12 (Tarkenton has the win).

1960s: Daryle Lamonica, Don Meredith, Roman Gabriel, Frank Ryan, Joe Namath, Sonny Jurgensen, John Hadl and Milt Plum, a combined playoff road record of 0-13.

In this era, with extra rounds of playoffs, quarterbacks get more opportunities at road playoff games. But they’re still tough to win. They also get more opportunities at road playoff defeats.

But Eli Manning’s only playoff road loss was 23-20 at Philadelphia, back in the 2006 playoffs, the year before the Giants won Super Bowl 42.

Only 18 quarterbacks in NFL history have a winning record in road playoff games.

Some are Hall of Famers: Len Dawson (4-1), Roger Staubach (4-1), John Elway (3-2) and Bart Starr (2-1).

Some are headed to the Hall of Fame: Tom Brady (3-2).

Some could be headed to the Hall of Fame: Eli Manning (5-1), Ben Roethlisberger (3-1), Aaron Rodgers (3-1).

Some were tough old birds: Jake Delhomme (4-1), Earl Morrall (3-1), Steve McNair (3-2), Jim Plunkett (2-1), Richard Todd (2-1).

Some are inexplicable: Mark Sanchez (4-2), Tony Eason (3-1), Vince Ferragamo (3-2), Trent Dilfer (2-1), Chris Chandler (1-0).

Here are the all-time playoff road records of the top 150 or so quarterbacks in NFL history:

5-1: Eli Manning.

4-1: Len Dawson, Jake Delhomme, Roger Staubach.

4-2: Mark Sanchez.

4-4: Joe Flacco.

3-1: Aaron Rodgers, Tony Eason, Earl Morrall, Ben Roethlisberger.

3-2: Tom Brady, John Elway, Vince Ferragamo, Steve McNair.

3-4: Mark Brunell, Donovan McNabb.

3-7: Brett Favre.

2-1: Trent Dilfer, Jim Plunkett, Bart Starr, Richard Todd.

2-2: Dan Fouts, Otto Graham, Jim Harbaugh, Craig Morton, Dan Pastorini, Jay Schroeder.

2-3: Terry Bradshaw, Jim Everett, Mark Rypien.

2-4: Randall Cunningham.

2-5: Peyton Manning, Joe Montana.

1-0: Chris Chandler.

1-1: Steve Beuerlein, George Blanda, Bubby Brister, John Brodie, Marc Bulger, Elvis Grbac, Pat Haden, Jeff Hostetler, Stan Humphries, Jack Kemp, Bobby Layne, Chris Miller, Bill Nelsen, Babe Parilli, Tobin Rote, Fran Tarkenton, Jim Zorn.

1-2: Drew Bledsoe, Duante Culpepper, Rich Gannon, Tommy Kramer, Philip Rivers, Johnny Unitas, Michael Vick, Kurt Warner, Doug Williams.

1-3: Troy Aikman, Joe Ferguson, Bob Griese, Brad Johnson, Jim Kelly, Jake Plummer, Phil Simms.

1-4: Ken Stabler, Warren Moon, Danny White.

1-6: Dave Krieg, Dan Marino.

0-1: Aaron Brooks, Ty Detmer, Boomer Esiason, Doug Flutie, Trent Green, John Hadl, James Harris, Rob Johnson, Bert Jones, Joe Kapp, Byron Leftwich, Ken O’Brien, Neil O’Donnell, Marc Wilson, Andy Dalton, Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, Tim Tebow, T.J. Yates.

0-0: Sonny Jurgensen, Joe Namath.

0-2: Ken Anderson, Steve Bartkowski, Pete Beathard, Kerry Collins, Charlie Conerly, Gus Frerotte, Roman Gabriel, Jeff George, Steve Grogan, Jim Hart, Ron Jaworski, Scott Mitchell, Milt Plum, Frank Ryan, Y.A. Tittle, Norm Van Brocklin.

0-3: Steve DeBerg, Jeff Garcia, Bernie Kosar, Daryle Lamonica, Don Meredith, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Young, Drew Brees.

0-4: Matt Hasselbeck, Billy Kilmer.

 

-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.

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