Peyton Manning Thrives In Clutch Situations

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

In between the commercials, they'll actually play a football game on Sunday, and the game will feature one of the greatest clutch players in NFL history: Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

When thousands of people in the stadium and many more at home are clenching their teeth and holding their breath, Manning exhibits an inner calm, and more often than not, he engineers a game-winning drive.

NPR's Mike Pesca is in South Florida at the Super Bowl, and he set out to find out how Manning does it.

MIKE PESCA: A couple of days ago, Peyton Manning joked that he's not superstitious, he's just a little stitious. Then he quickly apologized for the lame joke and blamed his brother Eli for the line. It was just about the only time this year that he's displayed less than impeccable timing.

How good has he been? Something like this happened in half the games the Colts won this season.

(Soundbite of football game)

Mr.�MIKE TIRICO (Announcer, ESPN): Manning (unintelligible) to Garcon, makes the catch (unintelligible) field. And there goes Garcon. Nobody's waiting on him. Touchdown. The Sheriff, (unintelligible).

PESCA: That's Mike Tirico of ESPN, describing Manning in terms of an Old West gunslinger, but he's more like a Pinkerton detective or maybe the Terminator, so seemingly remorseless and automatic is the Peyton Manning comeback drive.

This season, Manning led the Colts to seven victories after trailing in the fourth quarter. Overall in his career, he's done that 35 times. That's one comeback fewer than legendary Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino. And even though few people realize it, this year, Manning actually passed the Denver Bronco who's always thought of as the king of the comeback.

Mr.�MARK SCHLERETH (Analyst, ESPN): I played with one of the greatest ever in John Elway. There was never a time, regardless of what the score was, when he walked in a huddle that I didn't believe we could get it done.

PESCA: Mark Schlereth, now an analyst with ESPN, was a lineman for Elway's Broncos and says that Elway delivered in the clutch because he was a great player who happened to be in the clutch a lot. That might seem obvious, but it's not. Joe Montana, for instance, was a great, great quarterback, but his 49er team so often blew out the opposition that there was no need for a come-from-behind drive. But with the Broncos, Schlereth says, you always figured a comeback was coming.

Mr.�SCHLERETH: When we were in those situations, if we got plays in late, we needed to get the ball snapped and we didn't have time, the only difference was really pace. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's get up the line of scrimmage.

PESCA: The ability to act quickly and decisively while going double-time is just one of the many mental parts of executing a comeback. Jim Caldwell, Peyton Manning's coach, threw out the term hypermnesia to describe his quarterback. It means having a near-photographic memory. But Phil Simms, who put together the most accurate passing game in Super Bowl history, says the funny thing about the game's mental part is that quarterbacks don't often really think out their decisions.

Mr.�PHIL SIMMS (Sportscaster, CBS): You take the ball, you get it, and man, you react, and you throw it. And you go, I don't know why I did that, but I did it, and let's just move on.

PESCA: Only in retrospect, Simms says, did he understand some of the things he did on a football field.

Mr.�SIMMS: You know, my mind couldn't focus on anything too much. Really, it just reacts. It's amazing. You react to, well, I saw a helmet move and you whoa, and you think, gosh, why did I do that? Then you see the film, and everybody parted, but you and you go, oh, that's why I did it.

PESCA: What Simms is describing is taking a complicated mental process and turning it into an instinct. Clutch hitters in baseball do this. In that sport, they always talk about not thinking too much. Football tends to glamorize the intellect of the quarterback position more, but the mental process is very similar to baseball, having so much knowledge and skill that execution becomes second nature. And of course, the more one succeeds in clutch situations, the more chances he gets to be in those situations again. What's worrisome for the New Orleans Saints is that statistics show that no one playing the game today has succeeded in the clutch quite like Peyton Manning.

Mike Pesca, NPR News, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

(Soundbite of music) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.