Belichick On Peyton Manning: 'The Best Quarterback I've Coached Against'
BOSTON (CBS) -- While Peyton Manning has likely led to a few sleepless nights for Bill Belichick, the Patriots head coach has nothing but good things to say about the Broncos quarterback heading into Sunday's showdown at Gillette Stadium.
Sunday will mark the 23rd time that Belichick and Manning will match wits on the field. The future Hall of Fame coach was sure to sing Manning's praises at his press conference on Wednesday, as he usually does before his team takes on the future Hall of Famer quarterback.
"I mean, [Manning is] great. He's obviously a great quarterback," said Belichick, before taking that praise one step further. "The best quarterback I've coached against."
That is saying something coming from a coach who has more than 40 years of experience in the NFL.
"Not to take anything away from the Montanas, Marinos and Elways or whoever is up there with those guys, but [Manning] is tough," Belichick said. "He's good at everything. I see no weaknesses in his game."
Tom Brady was quick to join the "Praise Peyton" party during his media availability too.
"He's a great player, and I think that you just know you're going to get one of the best offenses in the league," said Brady. "What that means for me is our offense has to be at our best. You can't think you're going to go out and score 10 points and win the game, and I don't think any of our games have ever really come down to that."
Belichick is 12-10 in his 22 times against Manning as a head coach, with that record going to 10-5 with Brady as his quarterback. Belichick and Manning have split their four postseason meetings, with Manning taking each of the last two matchups: last season's AFC Championship with the Broncos and the 2006 AFC Championship while with the Indianapolis Colts.
While Bill says he appreciates what his showdowns with Manning mean to the NFL (as well as the Brady-Manning rivalry), his focus in on Sunday's game.
"Right now, my thoughts are on this week," he said. "All the experts can write about this and write about that."
And those previous bouts between the master head coach and master play caller will mean very little come kickoff.
"Each game is its own game," Belichick said. "The offense, I think they have done a good job of utilizing their personnel and what those particular players do well in different systems, [against] different teams. Peyton does a great job of getting the ball to the weakest point of the defense, whatever the defense happens to be."
"You wait a year to play this game," said Brady. "You get one of the best teams in the league against us, and we feel like we're a pretty good team, and that's why you play the game. It doesn't get any better than this."
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