By MIKE CHAPPELL
The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS - The statistical complexities are enough to give anyone not employed by the Elias Sports Bureau a major migraine.

You take the percentage of this, multiply it by a fraction of that, add the touchdown-interception differential and figure in whether Jen and Ben still are a couple.

Finally, you arrive at the desired destination: a quarterback's rating.

You'll forgive the Indianapolis Colts if they dispense with mathematics and use the power of observation regarding quarterback Peyton Manning's perfect performance in Sunday night's 55-21 dissection of New Orleans.

"Peyton was ballin', man," running back Edgerrin James said Monday afternoon.

Consider that the non-scientific explanation.

Statistically speaking, Manning was as good as it gets: a 158.3 rating. That's the highest possible figure in the NFL's passer rating system.

The road to perfection was paved with gaudy numbers: 20-of-25, 314 yards, a franchise-record six touchdowns.

But it was a path Manning has frequented in the past. It was the third "perfect game" of his 84-game regular-season career.

Perfect ratings games are not among the hodgepodge of statistics compiled by the Elias Sports Bureau. That's expected to change Tuesday when Elias officials, using a minimum of 20 pass attempts per game as a cutoff, review performances by quarterbacks since 1973, which is when the current rating system was instituted.

According to league officials, Manning's three career perfect games are the most by an active quarterback. St. Louis' Kurt Warner has two. Green Bay's Brett Favre? Zero.

While Manning was using the Saints' secondary for target practice Sunday evening, two other quarterbacks enjoyed stellar games earlier in the day. But in the eyes of the ratings system, neither was perfect.

Minnesota's Gus Frerotte completed 16-of-21 passes for 267 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 35-7 win over San Francisco. That's a rating of 157.2

And Tennessee's Steve McNair was 15-of-16 for 161 yards and three TDs and zero interceptions in a 30-13 victory. That's a 148.2.

Manning wasn't available on Monday to talk about his pristine game. Others followed James' lead and took up the cause.

Tight end Marcus Pollard likened Manning's performance to a basketball player being "in a zone."

"I've heard Michael Jordan say that when you're in the zone, the rim looks twice as big," Pollard said. "I'm sure the game was kind of like that for Peyton (Sunday).

"Everything slowed down. He made the right reads and spread the ball around and got everybody in the game."

Coach Tony Dungy, a harsh day-after critic, allowed that Manning "was pretty good, but I'm sure there are a couple of throws that he would like to have back."

No doubt. Even though Manning had more touchdown passes (six) than incomplete passes (five), things could have been, well, more perfect.

Two of his passes floated tantalizingly out of the reach of tight end Dallas Clark and wide receiver Marvin Harrison in the end zone. Another was jarred out of Pollard's grasp by Saints safety Jay Bellamy.

"Anytime you throw for six (TDs), it says a lot about the execution," Manning said after the game. "Even when we stopped, it was because we were stopping ourselves.

"It was one of those nights."

A perfect night.

Even so, Dungy didn't exactly embrace the ratings system that insisted a quarterback who failed to complete every pass attempt was perfect.

"I understand it," he said. "I don't think it's a great system. If you throw touchdown passes and don't throw interceptions, then that's really the gist of it.

"You get six touchdowns and no interceptions, that's pretty much perfect in their eyes."

Return to Bengals front page...