What's Wrong With Peyton Manning? Who Still Cares?

Back in those 'so called' good ole days, when Peyton Manning was lighting up the stat sheets and keeping all of you part time Denver Bronco fans- full time Fantasy Football fanatic- happy and healthy in your league standings, the criticism against Manning was minimal at best.

In fact, I often felt kind of lonely and sort of mean writing posts that declared to hell with Peyton Manning and all of his fancy smancy trick offensive calls.  Sure, it was going to put the defense on the back of their heels, for a little while.  If coached by Bill Belicheck, Manning's mystical offense loses its power and control, looking like the dead run and shoot style from the now defunct USFL.

Yeah, Manning looks like some hot scheme gone cold just like the run and shoot.  He can still exploit the less experienced NFL secondary players, but even they have the film from that Superbowl loss to the Seattle Seahawks, who have functionally written the doctrine on defeating Manning.

Screw you too Brew.

If you chart it, we have basically seen some version of that approach every since that fateful game.  Win or lose, its the better way to go with Manning and the geriatric scoring bares that out.

Was that a dig at Manning's advanced age as an NFL quarterback?

Screw you Peyton Manning.

No, no!  This time its a good screw you Manning versus last years cursing of all that "Omaha, Omaha" crap that hasn't kept Peyton from being one of the NFL's greatest turnover artists and not Manning the Magician that he still thinks he is.

This time I say screw Manning because we truly don't need him to win anymore, giving him the potential to be the most respected game manager in the NFL; which is also an ultimate disrespect to all-time great passers.

Game managers are not respected in a world that finds no fantasy football value in such a thing.  Those of us who recognize the slippery slope of competitive addiction that lies in fantasy football or any one of those Facebook games, can still watch NFL football and our beloved Broncos for the value of the experience.

High scoring starts of previous seasons, that ended with stress and concern about how to close out a tight battle with a worn down defense that has played too many minutes because we show no commitment to run, kinda sucked for me.  Offensive production that amounts to points on the board may seem valuable no matter how you get them, but all points are not created equal.

Time of possession is a point of another sort in the game of football, and tilting the field for a rested defense is not only similar to scoring, that is virtually an Aquib Talib interception away from 6 points in this era of Bronco football.

If Peyton Manning- who used to humbly step to the podium and say he didn't really care how the team accomplished a win back when he was usually the reason for the win- actually doesn't really care how the team wins, it is now time to put up or shut up and follow the diagram for success no matter where it seems to be taking this team.

The last guy to get us over the top (Terrell Davis not John Elway), seems to think the same kind of stuff that I feel regarding what we are seeing out on the field.

According to Davis, "I see things a little different than some. I see a team that can get in an ugly brawl and win".

Why does it matter that Terrell agrees with me?  It doesn't.  It only matters that he is agreeing with me while using those recognizable terms that only come to bare in the championship moments of sports.

Inevitably, every sporting event- that doesn't involve the massacre of one team over another- gets compared to THE ultimate sporting event, the one in which your arse is truly on the line.

Boxing comparisons are supremely cliche but represent the only vernacular we have when sports ascend into the realm of war.  MMA doesn't quite translate the same and Bruce Lee is that hero we don't even dream of being like, so we dare not compare his one finger punch to anything that happens on a field or court. But, boxing?  Everyone can relate to a good fist fight and might have even dreamed of what it feels like to win one.

Superbowl legend from the Dallas Cowboys Michael Irving, stated it in an interesting way.  He said (I will paraphrase) if you want to hurt a team you attack them at their weakness.  If you want to utterly destroy them you attack them at their strength.

No matter what teams are doing to take attack the strength of Manning's offensive exploits when firing on all cylinders, nothing they do to Manning can disrupt the undisputed strength of this team- its defense.

I called this defense special even before Manning started playing poorly enough to bare that witness as well.  Only real, Orange Crush-like Bronco fans who actually care about defense, recognized the constant call to action that the defense had to answer in previous seasons, carrying Manning through what has become increasing moments of predictability.

Manning will never be the best player on this team for as long as he remains on this team.  Manning is still in the top ten list of best players on the Denver Broncos team, and Brock Osweiler is not even in the top 20 or 25 considering players who recently stepped up and impressed in the absence of injured starters.

If all you really have left in Peyton Manning is someone who can be the consummate game manager for a team that probably needs one more than any team has needed one in recent years, then this Denver Bronco team just found its QB for this year and the next.

What's Different With Denver's Defense?

Manning can reduce the mental error and turnovers, and needs to do it for the sake of his career and legacy.  How he closes the book on his career is soon to be determined.  Will he get a title and ride out like Elway did?  Can this team actually get better with rookie Shane Ray or old man Demarcus Ware out of the lineup?

Speaking of what do you see, despite injuries of their own, this Bronco fan sees a team that has played well on defense for the past two seasons culminating in this breakout year in which our number one acquisition in the off-season was not any one player, but one very special coach.

Wade Phillips is the only real difference between the defense we now laud and the under schemed, over utilized defense who are essentially the exact same players as before. Between Phillips and a stellar special teams unit, the Broncos are as good as every other undefeated team out there, who all have some areas of needed improvement despite their spotless records.  Fix our capable but sputtering offense and the Broncos would clearly be the best team in a league unsure who the best team actually is.

When things get tight, hold strong Bronco Fans.

This defense and its new coordinator deserve exactly what they are getting right now- the culmination of several years of good work gone mostly unnoticed. They are a marriage made in football heaven, and the reason why I would take these Broncos, including our more than capable QB Peyton Manning, into battle against any team with the absolute confidence that we can win.

None of my old screw you Manning posts had any confidence that we could actually win without Manning performing at least marginally well. Now I really really mean it.