I'm not seeing the difference between Manning and Brees as being very clear at all....
Just looking at this year Brees had 34 TDs and Manning had 33. During the regular season Manning outscored Brees in 7 weeks and they tied in another week (Manning didn't really play in the final 2 weeks either). Looking back further there is the fact that Manning has a 49 TD season while Brees' best is this year's 34 (also had the same 34 last year). Add in that Manning has had five 30+ TD seasons in a 12 year career to Brees' two 30+ TD seasons in a 9 year career.
Now this year Brees has definitely seemed more explosive, but Manning only threw one less TD in the regular season than Brees. But even there isn't quite as big of an edge as you might think - Manning actually has 1 more 20+ yard pass play this year at 49 compared to Brees' 48 while Brees does take the edge in 40+ passes at 11 compared to Manning's 8.
Really the stats on these two couldn't be much more similar. Manning has 11 INTs to Brees' 16 which is the same story told by Manning's 10 sacks to Brees' 20. At the same time however Brees' has almost a full 2% better accuracy than manning and with a 0.6 yard better average (may not sound like a lot but its quite a big difference). So despite the obviously greater pressure Brees had a better accuracy - this indicates that these two things are a bit of a wash.
Now obviously the stats can't tell us what will happen, but they do tell us what has happened and based on that I don't see how anyone thinks there is a clear edge for either QB.
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