ST. LOUIS SURPRISE
Rams defense overpowers Manning, Broncos
ST. LOUIS — The last-place St. Louis Rams continue to show that they can compete against the league’s best.
Sunday, the Rams added Peyton Manning and the AFC-West leading Denver Broncos to the list of favorites beaten by St. Louis.
“It’s not too bad to beat a guy who can put up 40 points in no time,” defensive end Robert Quinn said after the Rams surprised Denver, 22-7. “He’s a future Hall of Famer. It took a whole team effort.”
The Rams had already beaten the past two NFC champions, Seattle and San Francisco. And they had blown big leads at home against the Dallas Cowboys and the first time they played the 49ers.
This time, they finished the job against the NFL’s No. 2 offense, which hadn’t scored fewer than 21 points and had scored 30 or more in five of the previous six games.
Despite throwing for 389 yards, Manning blamed himself for the drives that fizzled out.
“You feel like you’ve let your team down,” Manning said. “I didn’t feel like I carried my weight today. That’s pretty plain and simple.”
Shaun Hill was effective in his first start for St. Louis since regaining the quarterback job and the defense made key stops.
After eight weeks on the bench, Hill was ready.
“Obviously, we were facing one of the best teams in the league,” Hill said. “Everybody stepped up, for sure.”
Rookie Tre Mason had 29 carries for 113 yards, the most against the Broncos’ top-ranked run defense.
Kenny Britt had four catches for 128 yards with a 63-yard score and Greg Zuerlein was a career-best 5 for 5 on field goals for the Rams (4- 6).
Manning was 34 for 54 with two interceptions, but he was held to a 42-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders, ending a streak of 15 games with at least two touchdown passes. He refused to lean on injuries that sidelined Julius Thomas, Montee Ball and Sanders.
“We didn’t execute very well and I just think I didn’t play very well,” Manning said. “No excuses. I have to play better and we have to score more points than seven.”
Demaryius Thomas had seven receptions for 103 yards, his seventh consecutive 100-yard game to match the Cowboys’ Michael Irvin (1995) for secondlongest season streak in NFL history. Calvin Johnson holds the record with eight.
The Broncos (7-3) failed twice on fourth down deep in St. Louis territory. Manning threw incomplete from the 37 in the first quarter and rookie Aaron Donald’s sack helped end a drive in the fourth quarter on fourth-and-four from the 28.
Quinn spun Manning around before Donald took the quarterback down.
“I got the opportunity to
clean him up,” Donald said. “You’ve got to take a big quarterback down when you can.”
Thomas (ankle) was sidelined in the first with two catches for 3 yards and ruled out in the third; Ball (groin) got limited work before aggravating an injury that kept him out the previous five games. Sanders (concussion) was ruled out after a hit from Rodney McLeod on a deep sideline throw in the third.
Hill was 20 for 29 for 220 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions in his first start since injuring a thigh in the first half of the opener.
“It’s a constant process to stay up, especially as a backup, it’s tough,” Hill said. “But it’s something you’ve got to do.”
The 34-year- old Hill got his job back after Austin Davis made too many mistakes. He guided a turnover-free offense.
“I certainly had the butterflies going,” Hill said. “It was a lot of fun to be back out there.”
The Broncos entered the game second in the NFL in scoring with a 31.8-point average. The point total was the worst since a 7-3 loss to the Chiefs in the 2011 regular-season finale with Tim Tebow at quarterback.
“It was frustrating,” wide receiver Wes Welker said. “We’d move the ball and then we’d just kind of get stuck along the way.”