I know that baseball is the sport where statistics matter the most. That is, until Petitte, McGwire, Fehr, Palmeiro, Clemens, Tejada, Dykstra, Selig,McNamee, Radomski, Vina, Neagle...you get the point.

In football, the numbers often lie, and there is no better proof than the Google IPO-like rise of Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

Do not get me wrong. Manning's postseason has been about as perfect as his brother's reputation. Three games, 85 passes, zero interceptions. That would, of course, lead to a pretty good number as far as quarterback ratings are concerned.

Then again, pro sports is all about postseason performance, although, to truly gauge the long-term prognosis for any player, a body of work perspective is needed.

That being said, let's look at the numbers behind the numbers for Manning.

Interceptions: 20 (tied for most in the NFL).

Completion percentage: 56.1 percent (tied for 29th in the NFL).

Yards per game: 208.1 (16th in the NFL).

Quarterback rating: 73.9 (25th in the NFL).

To be fair, Manning was in the top half of the NFL in touchdown passes and passing yards.

I think Manning has a bright future, if for no other reason than he has withstood a tremendous amount of criticism to just get to this point. His mental toughness now cannot be questioned. After all, three playoff games are more pressure-packed than an entire 16-game regular season.

That said, one more playoff win for Manning and those mediocre regular season statistics I metioned will mean nothing. One more playoff win on February 3 and he ties his brother for number of Super Bowl victories. Now, there is a statistic I don't think anyone anticipated.

-"Z"