Manning brothers are winning, but Eli has been more efficient than Peyton

Not surprisingly, a quarterback named Manning is the irreplaceable centerpiece of his first-place team.

Somewhat surprisingly, it’s Eli and not Peyton.

Whereas the Denver Broncos are 5-0 thanks in large part to their top-ranked defense — and not, as in years past, the hot hand of Peyton Manning — the New York Giants are all about Eli.

With five weeks of NFL games in the books, the younger of the Manning brothers has the Giants at a comfortable cruising altitude. They have a one-game lead over the rest of the NFC East, and are fresh off a come-from-behind victory over San Francisco for their third win in a row. Manning clinched that game with a 12-yard scoring pass to tight end Larry Donnell, a toss and catch so dramatic it spawned comparisons to Manning’s historic Super Bowl completion, when David Tyree made a pivotal reception by pinning the ball to the top of his helmet.

Clearly, Manning sets the 3-2 Giants apart in the division, in which the other starting quarterbacks are a ho-hum collection — Philadelphia’s Sam Bradford, Washington’s Kirk Cousins, and Dallas’ Brandon Weeden.

Manning directed the winning drive Sunday night with his three top receivers — Odell Beckham Jr., Rueben Randle and Victor Cruz — on the sideline because of injuries. Beckham, hobbled by a bum hamstring, was able to reenter at the end of that drive and drew a pivotal pass-interference call. But without question, Manning was the star of the show, a marked change from earlier in the season when he was criticized for some clock-management blunders.

It was the 27th regular-season comeback in the fourth quarter for Manning, who has started 172 consecutive games, the league’s longest active streak. He had a career-high 41 completions in the game.

“This one was special,” Manning said after the game, “just because we hadn’t been as good in the two-minute drives as we once were and we should, come in there and had great confidence and we would ride down and win a lot of games that way.”

The Broncos are winning games too, but in an unfamiliar way. Peyton Manning is upside down, with six touchdowns and seven interceptions. Compare that with his numbers from two years ago, when he was named the league’s most valuable player for an NFL-record fifth time. Through five games of the 2013 season, he had 20 touchdowns and one interception.

A win is a win, and any player will happily take one, but Manning didn’t sound too pleased Sunday about the offensive effort after a 16-10 victory at Oakland.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the victory, Manning said: “I don’t know. It’s a good win, any time you win on the road, or in the division. We didn’t do what we needed to do offensively — didn’t score enough points, didn’t take advantage of some of the red-zone opportunities, the turnover before the half cost us some points. We need to do a better job.”

Eli Manning threw 54 passes Sunday night, 19 more than his big brother. The Broncos aren’t necessarily keeping Peyton on a pitch count, but they don’t want him throwing that much. He turns 40 in March. Every offensive adjustment Denver is making now is in an effort to get its lackluster running game on track.

Actually, the Broncos have moved the ball well between the 20-yard lines. They have the fourth-most completions of 15 yards or longer, and Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas are the league’s most productive receiving tandem both in catches and yards.

Where the Broncos falter is in the red zone (the area between the 20 and the goal line), and they’re ranked 27th in efficiency there.

Throughout his 18 seasons, Manning has seldom had the benefit of a dominant defense. He has one now. No team in NFL history has had such a productive combination of sacks (22) and take-aways (14) at this point in the season. These Broncos are conjuring memories of the old Orange Crush defenses of decades ago.

Then, there’s this dubious detail: Denver has won two games without scoring an offensive touchdown. The league record for such victories is three, by the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002.

In fact, a team winning multiple games without an offensive touchdown has happened 28 times, and the Buccaneers were not the only franchise to hoist the Lombardi Trophy after one of those seasons. Baltimore did that in 2000 and 2012, winning the Super Bowl at the end of both of those seasons. Pittsburgh got to the Super Bowl in 2010 with two of those offensive stinkers. And New England won a Super Bowl that way in 2003.

The bottom line is, while no team would choose to be shut out on offense, that’s certainly not a disqualifier.

“Somehow, some way, we have to find a way to get the ball into the end zone for touchdowns,” Manning said. “We are doing some good things. We’re moving the ball. It’s one thing if we weren’t getting down there at all. So, we’re able to get the ball down there. It’s a couple close plays, here and there. I think there are plays we can correct and plays we can continue to work on.”

The Manning brothers — including the eldest, Cooper — are ultra-close and are each other’s biggest fans. They are also very different. Peyton is painstakingly meticulous and Eli is sleepy-eyed and easygoing.

“I could tell you every quarterback in the SEC for the last 20 years,” Peyton told The Times in 2003. “We had to teach Eli the 12 teams in the SEC before he went to Ole Miss.”

Now, in a snapshot moment a dozen years later, they’re in distinctly different spots. But they are winning. And neither would trade that.

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