Well said, but I disagree with you. The reason why Marino never succeeded was that his team became too dependent on him throwing the ball to succeed. They always helped out Marino, providing him with weapons, but always to the detriment of a running game (Mark Higgs, Sammie Smith, Bernie Parmalee, etc) and the defense. At least Manning HAS the running game, but the Colts don't choose to exercise that dimension often.
I will go to my grave claiming Emmitt was better than Barry. Emmitt scored TDs, moved the chains, was always moving forward, and didn't put his team in 2nd-long, 3rd-long a lot by losing big yardage. Barry was great, don't misunderstand me, but I'd take Emmitt every day of the week and twice on Sundays.