Manning gets the best of Brady
• Never underestimate the old guy, especially when he’s running with a crew of younger assassins like those who populate the Denver Broncos defence.
Peyton Manning won the 17 th and likely final battle against Tom Brady on Sunday afternoon at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, tossing a pair of touchdown passes in the opening 17 minutes and then relying on the Broncos smothering defence in the hairy second half of Sunday’s AFC Championship.
The result was a nerve wracking 20-18 triumph over Brady’s New England Patriots that propelled the Broncos to Super Bowl 50 against the NFC champion Carolina Panthers in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 7. It will be the second trip to the Super Bowl for the Broncos in Manning’s three years with the club. The Seattle Seahawks destroyed the Broncos 438 two years ago.
The Patriots and their high flying offence were favoured by three points to beat the Broncos at home, but Manning came out firing and the Denver defence made life miserable for Brady. As a result, Manning is going to his fourth Super Bowl at age 39. The icing on the cake? His playoff record in head-to-head meetings against Brady is now 3-2, including a 3-1 mark in the AFC Championship game.
We assume he couldn’t care less about his 3-9 record against Brady in the regular season. He’s going back to the Super Bowl in search of his second crown, which is notable considering many said he was finished just four weeks ago when his foot healed but the Broncos were still winning under backup Brock Osweiler.
Manning can’t throw the ball like he used to, but Owen Daniels, whose touchdown grabs were 21 and 16 yards long, said Manning’s leadership in the last month is a testament to the success he has enjoyed throughout his career.
“He’s a really unselfish guy,” Daniels said. “I’m sure it was really tough for him to be in the situation he was in with the injury, and then we were playing pretty well as a team after that. He just stuck to it.
“He was there to help everyone with input and around the building and in meetings. You can’t say enough about that. He’s one of the greatest of all time, and for him to be as unselfish as he was... You like to think guys like that are unselfish and are good teammates, but you never really know until they’re put in that situation.”
As has been the case so many times this post- season, Manning was asked after the game to reflect on the big picture and how special it is. He’s not ready to go there right now, and nor should he. He has the NFL champion Carolina Panthers to think about for the next two weeks.
And if he, Gary Kubiak and offensive co-ordinator Rick Dennison can come up with a solid game plan for Super Bowl 50, there’s a good chance he’ll be able to ride off into sunset as a two-time champ instead of the guy who could win only one.
“There is no question this is a sweet day,” said Manning, who brought son Marshall to his postgame press conference. “This was a sweet victory. To me, this victory is a great example of what this entire season has been like. It hasn’t been easy.”
Manning completed only 17 of 32 attempts for 176 yards and the two scores, but he also had a 12-yard run for a first down. That’s not something that happens every day.
As expected, though, the biggest and most important battle of the afternoon was Brady against the Denver defence. And even though Brady ended up with 310 passing yards and got his team to within a two- point convert of sending the game to overtime, Denver’s No. 1 ranked defence won that clash decisively.
“We had some plays late in the game that we wish we could bring back,” cornerback Aqib Talib said, “but it was definitely one of the nicest defensive performances that I’ve been a part of.”
Some members of the Broncos defence said they were fired up to prove people wrong on Sunday.
“All week everybody counted us out,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said. “They said I couldn’t cover (Julian) Edelman. They said we couldn’t cover their receivers and their tight ends. We held them to... how many points did they have? Eighteen points? That’s the number one offence in the league, and we shut ’ em down.”
Now they just have to do it again, although Carolina had the 11th ranked offence during the regular season. That was five spots beneath New England.
They say defence wins championships, which is why you shouldn’t count out the Broncos in the Super Bowl. Their 39-year-old quarterback will probably have a little something to say about it, too.