Column: This season is a bonanza of quarterbacks breaking records

The NFL is a passing league.

Peyton Manning has passed Brett Favre. Joe Flacco has passed Ben Roethlisberger. Philip Rivers has passed Johnny Unitas and Kurt Warner.

The season hasn’t even reached the midway point, and records already are falling like defenders at the feet of Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who even broke a record in defeat Sunday by becoming the first quarterback to pass for 300 yards and run for 100 in the same game.

Apologies if this sounds like a broken record, but just about every week some type of passing record is broken.

Denver’s Manning brought down a huge one Sunday night, throwing four touchdown passes against San Francisco to push his career total to a record 510, surpassing Favre’s mark of 508. The youthful way Manning is playing at age 38 puts the 600 mark entirely within reach.

“He’s been tremendous,” Broncos Coach John Fox said Monday. “Being in this league for some time and competing against him most of it, it’s very refreshing to have him on our side. I know he’s been great for us as an organization, great for the community. It was pretty cool to see our fans get a chance to witness a piece of history right in our stadium on a big stage. Those are things you don’t forget.”

Denver linebacker Von Miller recalled the moments leading up to the record-setting 509th touchdown, an eight-yard strike to Demaryius Thomas in the front corner of the end zone. On the two plays that came before that, Miller marveled at the sea of raised cellphone cameras poised to capture history.

“I looked into the stands and saw all the flashes turn on like it was a concert,” Miller said.

And that’s the way this season has been, a symphony of spectacular quarterback performances, unquestionably augmented by this season’s emphasis on identifying and flagging illegal contact and defensive holding.

Through the first six weeks of this season – according to the numbers the league had as of Monday afternoon – the uptick in those penalties was dramatic. Illegal contact penalties nearly quadrupled from the same period last season (63, up from 16), and defensive holding calls had more than doubled (138, up from 63).

Life is better for receivers, and therefore for quarterbacks.

That said, many of the passers have been pinpoint accurate. Two of the best will be on display Thursday, when Denver plays host to San Diego, another showdown between Manning and Rivers, two of the early most valuable player candidates.

Before hitting a speed bump in Sunday’s home loss to Kansas City, Rivers was scorching. He made league history by recording a passer rating of 120 or more in five consecutive games, one more than previous record-holders Unitas and Warner. Against the Chiefs, he had two touchdowns, one interception and a rating of 83.4.

It wasn’t so much that Rivers unraveled, it’s that he didn’t get much of a chance to operate. The Chiefs held the ball 39 minutes to San Diego’s 21.

“Sometimes,” Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said, “the best defense against Philip Rivers is to keep him on the sideline.”

Surely that will be the strategy of the New Orleans Saints when they play host to Green Bay on Sunday night. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has 17 touchdowns and zero interceptions in the past six games, following a disappointing opener at Seattle with an incredible streak of accuracy. That six-game run without a pick ties a 50-year-old record held by Hall of Famer Bart Starr.

Rodgers is the first quarterback in NFL history to throw at least 18 touchdowns with no more than one interception through the first seven games. And if he has a brilliant game against the Saints, more records could fall. He has thrown at least three touchdowns without an interception in four consecutive weeks; only Tom Brady has matched that.

While Rodgers is putting his stamp on the history books with performance after masterful performance, Baltimore’s Joe Flacco made his mark in minutes – 16 minutes, 3 seconds, to be exact.

That’s how long it took on the game clock for Flacco to throw five touchdown passes in a Week 6 rout of Tampa Bay. No quarterback has put up that many touchdowns that quickly, with second place going to Pittsburgh’s Roethlisberger, who in 2007 threw five in 18:09 against the Ravens.

Andrew Luck, too, has been tremendous. The Indianapolis quarterback threw for 344 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions in Sunday’s 27-0 shutout of Cincinnati. Luck has passed for at least 300 yards in five consecutive games, tying Manning (2009) for the longest such streak in Colts history.

Less heralded but equally impressive has been the play of Arizona’s Carson Palmer, whose team is 10-2 in his last 12 starts. He has a passer rating of 97.8 during that span, with a completion rate of 65.8% along with 22 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Palmer has thrown a touchdown pass in 16 consecutive games, tying him with New England’s Brady for the league’s fifth-longest active streak. He has a long way to go, to catch the leader in that category. Manning has thrown a touchdown pass in 45 consecutive games.

Then again, as this season has reminded us, records are made to be broken.

sam.farmer@latimes.com