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A Super matchup is brewing in Miami

By Cam Inman, Contra Costa Times, Source: MCT News Service

We're less than a week removed from the 25th anniversary of the Joe Montana-vs.-Dan Marino Super Bowl at Stanford Stadium.

To commemorate that dream matchup, the lads at Super Bowl Inc. are wheeling out another quarterback duel for the ages.

Playing the role of Montana on Feb. 7 in South Florida will be the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning. He'll be vying for his second ring, just as Montana successfully captured his second with those 1984 Niners.

Is it fair to cast the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees in Marino's role? Hey, all is fair in love and columns. Plus, Brees has flirted with legendary passing records in the Saints' surge to NFL prominence, as Marino did for the 1984 Miami Dolphins.

Brees, like the '84 Marino, is playing for his first championship. Unlike Marino, he inherited a beaten down city. Brees came to the Saints in the first spring after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city and the team. The Saints played 2005 without a home and went 3-13.

Whereas Marino set regular-season records for most passing yards (5,084) and touchdowns (48) en route to his lone Super Bowl, Brees set his own league record this season with a 70.62 completion percentage. He also had a 109.6 rating for pass efficiency.

Does Brees have a Hall of Fame induction speech in his future? He'll likely need a Lombardi Trophy to bolster any such bid. Manning heard similar heckles three years ago.

It's also fitting, then, that South Florida (Miami Gardens, if you must) is hosting Super Bowl XLIV. Manning and the Colts capped the 2006 season by celebrating the Super Bowl XLI championship _ 29-17 over the Chicago Bears_on the same field.

We all know what's coming next: a Best-Quarterback-Ever debate between him and Montana. Brace for it, because it was the case two years ago between Montana and Tom Brady.

All of it enhances the hype for a Manning-Brees quarterback duel and makes for a wonderful drawing card.

Yeah, yeah, we know! A Manning-vs.-Brett Favre showdown would have been more popular with those commercial-loving neighbors who show up at your Super Bowl party.

But here we have the reigning and four-time MVP (Manning). And we have the NFL's most efficiently consistent passer (Brees).

Put them together and you can see what it takes for a team to stay alive in this quarterback-driven league.

With two weeks to pump up this quarterback commotion, many more angles will emerge besides memories of the Montana-Marino show. Such as:

_The 49ers won the game, of course: A 38-16 rout on Jan. 20, 1985. A crowd of 84,059 beneath the clearing fog and 53-degree kickoff temperature. An MVP effort from Montana, who completed 24 of 35 passes for three touchdowns and a then-Super Bowl record 331 yards and also ran for a 6-yard score among his 59 yards on six carries.

_Marino, a gun-slinging pup in only his second season, attempted 50 passes against a fierce 49ers defense. He completed 29 for 318 yards with one touchdown pass and two interceptions.

_Montana and Marino entered Super Bowl XIX after passing for a combined 8,714 regular-season yards. Brees and Manning combined for 8,888 yards this regular season.

_Montana and Marino combined for 76 touchdown passes in the 1984 regular season, the most of any Super Bowl tandem. Brees and Manning have combined for 67, behind only M&M and Brady-Eli Manning (73 in Super Bowl XLII).

Will we see a 22-point win from Manning (& Co.) to match Montana's margin of victory 25 years ago? How about a 45-point spread like the Super Bowl XXIV pounding Montana's 49ers put on John Elway's Denver Broncos?

Maybe this will unfold like the four-point wins by Terry Bradshaw's Pittsburgh Steelers in his two Super Bowl showdowns against Roger Staubach and the 1975 and '78 Dallas Cowboys. (Equal time for Cowboys fans: Troy Aikman led back-to-back routs of Jim Kelly's 1992 and '93 Buffalo Bills.)

Brees and Manning are in the prime of their careers. They're flinging footballs around with ease and remarkable precision. Their respective offenses are the league's most productive.

In other words, Peyton Manning-vs.-Rex Grossman this is not. (Neither was superb; Manning had a 81.8 passer rating with one touchdown, one interception and one lost fumble).

No, this is a Super matchup.

Enjoy the show. In your Montana replica jerseys, if you prefer.

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(c) 2010, Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.).

	Visit the Contra Costa Times on the Web at http://www.contracostatimes.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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