HEAT IS ON!
Pressure on Manning piled Mile High
DENVER — Peyton Manning was unstoppable as he set NFL records this season for passing touchdowns and passing yards, but it will be just more material for the Manning family scrapbook if he’s not playing in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in three weeks.
Since his boss, John Elway, was blown out in his first three Super Bowls, no player has faced more postseason pressure than Manning does beginning Sunday in the divisional round of the playoffs against the Chargers. Anything short of holding the trophy in the frigid air of New Jersey on the night of Feb. 2 will make this season a failure for Manning.
He is that good and the expectations are that high.
Elway lost to the Giants, Redskins and 49ers in the Super Bowl by an absurd combined score of 136-40 in a four-season period from 1986-89, then finally won the Super Bowl back-to-back in the last two years of his career, 1997 and ’98.
Manning already has one ring from when he beat the Bears in the rain in Miami following the 2006 season. He lost three years later to the Saints. He might be the greatest regularseason quarterback in NFL history, but legacies are built in the postseason, and for all of Manning’s incredible achievements, he is still a little short in the hardware department.
My top five quarterbacks of all time are Joe Montana, Tom Brady, Johnny Unitas, Elway and Manning. One more ring and Manning would jump over Elway, maybe even Unitas.
The criticism will be intense if Manning can’t beat the Chargers, considering San Diego won four fewer games than Denver during the regular season, or if he gets by this game and doesn’t follow it up with victories in the AFC t it le game and Super Bowl. But he has some bad history against the Chargers in the playoffs: He lost to them at home in 2007 when the Colts were 13-3 and the Chargers were 11-5, and again in overtime in San Diego in 2008 — the Colts never had an offensive possession in that OT — when the Colts were a 12-4 wild card and the Chargers were an 8-8 division winner.
Last week, Manning was asked if he has put too much pressure on himself in the past.
“That’s not how I feel,” he said. “I don’t believe that to be true. I’ve always enjoyed it and I felt fortunate to be in every opportunity when you get a chance to play in the postseason. Obviously, if you keep advancing, it’s exciting. That is what you are looking forward to try- ing to do.”
He has set things up perfectly to spend Super Bowl week in little brother Eli’s backyard. Denver is the No. 1 seed after another 13-3 season, and all the Broncos have to do is win two home games. The scenario was the same last year, but then Denver lost an excruciating double-overtime game to the Ravens in the divisional round.
Manning is just 9-11 in the playoffs, going one-anddone eight times, which is extraordinary considering all those great Colts teams he played on, not to mention that last year’s team in Denver, too, was dominant during the regular season.
He will turn 38 in March. He’s had four neck surgeries. He is running out of chances to get another ring, and this is most likely going to be his best chance. Every game is an elimination game now.
“Maybe as you get older, you think more in those lines, that, ‘Hey, this is a pretty unique opportunity to be in this position, to be one of just a few teams playing,’” Manning said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere on Sunday, playing a good football team, and there is nothing else I would rather be doing than be in that opportunity.”
A few weeks ago, the Chargers looked like they had their bags packed at 5-7. But they won their last four games, including handing the Broncos their only home loss of the season, 27-20, on Dec. 12.
San Diego now seems to have a little magic going. On the final day of the season,the Ravens and Dolphins lost early games, giving the Chargers the opening to get into the playoffs if they could beat the Chiefs, who had already clinched a wild-card spot and were going almost exclusively with backups.
The Chargers struggled to win in overtime, and needed the benefit of a missed call when they lined up illegally on a field-goal miss by Kansas City.
It’s no coincidence that the Broncos’ two worst offensive games this season in terms of yardage came against the Chargers. Mike McCoy, the San Diego rookie coach, was Manning’s offensive coordinator in 2012 and certainly has inside information on how to attempt to make Manning uncomfortable. Denver set an NFL record by scoring 606 points this season and was held under 30 points just three times, twice by the Chargers.
Manning has not won a playoff game since beating the Jets in the AFC Championship Game four years ago. He lost the next year to the Jets in the wild-card round, missed the 2011 season following neck surgery and then lost to the Ravens last season.
He said the Broncos have been using the loss to Baltimore as motivation “throughout the season.”
They began talking about it during the offseason training sessions, talked about it on the practice field. “I don’t think that you just get to this week and you start thinking about it,” he said. “I think you always want to have something to try to drive you, fuel you and make you better than the year before. I feel like we’ve done that and we’re excited to be at this place right now.”
Manning needs three more victories to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy at MetLife on Feb. 2. The pressure is
on.