Manning Breaks TD Record Approaching perfection Don't understimate Manning just because he makes it look easy By Don Banks Top QB seasons ever From Sid Luckman to Kurt Warner, the top QB seasons of all time By Dr. Z Trend setter Manning's ability to call his own plays will soon be copied around the league By Dr. Z By the Numbers TD record just scratches the surface of Manning's incredible season By Reuben Frank Photo Gallery: March to history A week-by-week recap of how Manning broke Dan Marino's record from 1984

Phil Simms was a heck of a quarterback. Won a lot of games, threw a lot of touchdowns, even won a Super Bowl.

Troy Aikman was a heck of a quarterback. Won a lot of games, threw a lot of touchdowns, even won three Super Bowls.

The most touchdowns Simms ever threw in a season was 22. The most touchdowns Aikman ever threw in a season was 23. Add them up and you're still four touchdowns short of Peyton Manning's 2004 season.

Simms at his best plus Aikman at his best equals Manning with one game left in the season.

Now that Manning has broken Dan Marino's hallowed NFL record of 48 touchdown passes in a season, let's take a look at just how amazing his accomplishment is.

So far this year, Manning has more touchdown passes than the Giants, Ravens and Bears, Cards combined (44). He has more TD passes in 15 games this season than the Giants have in their last 50 games (48).

If you split Manning up into two quarterbacks, he would rank third and fourth in touchdown passes among AFC quarterbacks with 25 and 24.

He's the only quarterback in NFL history with four five-touchdown games in a season.

He's the only quarterback in NFL history to open a career with seven consecutive 3,000-yard seasons.

He's the only quarterback in NFL history with four or more touchdown passes in five consecutive games.

Manning takes a passer rating of 121.4 into the final game of the season. He could go 0-for-35 against the Broncos next week and still break Steve Young's record for highest passer rating in a season in NFL history, 112.8 in 1994.

Even though Daunte Culpepper of the Vikings is on pace to become only the fifth quarterback in NFL history with 39 TD passes in a season (joining Marino, Brett Favre, Manning and Kurt Warner), Manning has 12 more touchdown passes than Culpepper.

During one unparalleled five-game stretch from the Chiefs through the Lions, Manning threw 24 touchdowns and just 49 incompletions.

The Colts have had 148 possessions this year and Manning has ended one-third of them with touchdown passes.

Manning has 39 more touchdown passes than interceptions. Unless he throws three more interceptions than touchdowns against the Broncos next weekend, Manning will break Marino's NFL record for touchdown to interception differential. In 1984, when Marino had 48 touchdown passes, he threw 13 interceptions, a difference of 35.

At his current pace, Manning will finish the season with 52 touchdown passes. Tom Brady has never had 52 touchdowns in a two-year stretch.

Manning, only 28 years old, now has 216 career touchdown passes, already the 19th-most in NFL history. At his current career pace of nearly 33 TDs per season, he will be seventh in NFL history at the end of the 2006 season, behind only Marino, Favre, Fran Tarkenton, John Elway, Johnny Unitas and Joe Montana.

Before his 30th birthday.

When the 2004 season began, Manning had a career passer rating of 88.1. In just 15 games, he has raised it more than four points to 92.3, fourth-highest in NFL history.

Since the Colts' bye week in mid-October, Manning has 35 touchdown passes in nine games. Only eight quarterbacks in NFL history have ever had as many TD passes in a full season as Manning has since the bye week.

Through 15 games, Manning is throwing the football less frequently than in any previous season in his seven-year career -- just 33 times per game. His lowest passer rating this year was 93.5 on opening day. He is averaging 3.3 touchdowns per game. Younger brother Eli Manning is averaging 3.0 touchdowns per season.

Manning is averaging 31 touchdowns per season in his seven-year career. Only 24 other quarterbacks in NFL history have had one season with 31 TD passes. Only 11 have had two. Only Favre has had three.

Touchdowns aren't the only thing Manning is piling up this year.

Despite ranking only fifth in the NFL this year in pass attempts, he's thrown for 4,551 yards, already 11th-best in NFL history. He's on pace to throw for 4,854 yards, which would be second only to Marino' 5,084 yards in 1984.

His 9.2 yards per attempt if he maintains it would be sixth-best since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. His 67.7 completion percentage would be ninth-best in NFL history.

Manning's completion percentage has improved every year he's been in the NFL -- 56.7 as a rookie in 1998 to 62.1 in 1999 to 62.5 to 62.7 to 66.3 to 67.0 last year and 67.7 this year.

Manning long ago registered his sixth consecutive 4,000-yard season, which is twice as long as the previous longest streak of consecutive 4,000-yard seasons. Only four other quarterbacks have had as many as two consecutive 4,000-yard seasons -- Marino (1984-86), Warren Moon (1990-91, 1994-95), Favre (1998-99) and Dan Fouts (1979-81).

Marino is the only other quarterback with six 4,000-yard seasons and it took him 12 seasons to do it. Manning did it in his seventh season.

Manning now has more career 4,000-yard seasons than Montana, Aikman, John Elway, Neil Lomax, Steve Young, Tom Brady, Randall Cunningham and Joe Namath.

Combined.