Super Bowl: Manning just better than Brady

Eli Manning deserved his MVP award for leading the New York Giants past the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI Sunday night.

And when the stakes are the highest, Manning is better than Tom Brady.

Brady had the two big miscues in Sunday's game. His intentional grounding call put the Patriots in a hole, and his ill-advised pass attempt was picked off by the Giants and snuffed a drive.

I'm still stunned that a Tom Brady-led team and a Bill Belichick-coached team couldn't put away the Giants. The Patriots led 17-9 early in the third quarter and didn't score again.

The Patriots needed a knockout punch and Brady couldn't deliver.

But don't take this criticism of Brady and taking credit from the Giants.

They deserved to win.

Manning's pass to Mario Manningham was picture perfect.

Compare that to Brady's pass to Wes Welker than was off by enough to have Welker drop it.

Manning's perfect in Super Bowls while Brady now has two losses.

That's not worthy of being mentioned with Joe Montana in Super Bowl lore.

But watch out for Eli. He still can add to his legacy.

Was Flacco the better quarterback in the AFC title game?

Much of Joe Flacco's play was scrutinized leading up to Sunday's AFC championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots.

Some, like myself, see the Ravens quarterback as a strong-armed version of Trent Dilfer, who led the Ravens to their only Super Bowl title.

Not many would have thought that Flacco would have had a better game than the universally praised Tom Brady.

But Flacco did.

Check out the numbers:

• Flacco: 22-of-36, 306 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, 95.4 rating
• Brady: 22-of-36, 239 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, 57.5 rating

I'll give you Brady had to face a much better defense, but he had better weapons.

And, frankly, if Lee Evans had held on to that touchdown pass, I'm not convinced Brady would have led the Patriots back.

Please don't confuse this as saying Flacco is a better overall quarterback than Brady. I'm saying Flacco outplayed Brady in the AFC title game.

That's something no one thought possible.

Ranking the QBs for the NFL playoffs

Those involved in fantasy leagues for the NFL playoffs, here's my list of QBs:

1. Aaron Rodgers
2. Tom Brady
3. Drew Brees
4. Ben Roethlisberger
5. Eli Manning
6. Matt Ryan
7. Matt Stafford
8. Joe Flacco
9. Tim Tebow
10. Alex Smith
11. Andy Dalton
12. T.J. Yates