Peyton’ hi tory with Colt over hadowed y health
DENVER — As much as they both try to avoid the comparison, Sunday’s AFC divisional matchup never was going to boil down to anything but Peyton Manning vs. Andrew Luck.
With the two quarterback’s pedigrees and Manning’s rich connection to the franchise he will now try to eliminate, the rest of the Broncos and Colts practically became afterthoughts as soon as Luck led Indianapolis to a wild-card win over the Bengals last week, setting up the showdown at Sports Authority Field for the right to advance to the AFC Championship.
But for all the backstory and history for any Peyton vs. the Colts clash, the biggest question entering Sunday is this: Is Manning healthy?
Manning struggled through the final five weeks of the regular season (averaging just 234 yards per game while throwing more interceptions, six, than touchdowns, five) and was caught on video last week laboring through a practice.
The issue appears to be a lingering thigh injury that, at least in practice, prevented the 38-year-old Manning — who already struggles with his arm strength — from getting practically any velocity on the ball.
Fortunately for Manning, the 12-4 Broncos have the NFL’s third-ranked defense, a resurgent running game led by C.J. Anderson and a formidable defense to take the heat off if their star quarterback struggles again.
The Colts (12-5) have no such health worries about Luck, who mostly struggled in the playoffs his first two seasons but is coming off one of his finest performances as a pro last week.
Luck completed 31 of 44 passes for 376 yards with a TD and no interceptions in that home win over the Bengals — an encouraging sign for someone who threw a whopping seven picks in just two postseason games last year.
Luck’s effort last week was just a continuation of his strong regular season, when he led the NFL with 40 TD passes while directing Indy to its second consecutive AFC South title.
But going into Denver and beating Manning and the Broncos in the thin air in a stadium where the Broncos went 8-0 this season (one of just two teams along with Green Bay to do so this year) promises to be an infinitely more difficult challenge.