For a man currently in his mid-twenties, the number of Super Bowls I’ve witnessed to go along with countless playoff classics is beginning to get up there in number. The NFL is a branded sport with as much history and overall success as any, and we have come to expect the sport’s biggest stage to typically materialize into the stuff of legend.
The Denver Broncos failed miserably on Sunday night to live up to the pre-game hype. No matter how you feel about either squad or the sport in general, you have to admit that it is bad when the halftime show is far more entertaining than the game itself (all due respect to Bruno Mars, who was fabulous).
NFL analysts are front and center today to “break down” a game that went awry for Denver beginning with its very first offensive snap. But there was a painfully obvious predicament relative to Manning in this game, and it all comes back to arm strength and overall health.
We had seen it just one year ago when he made his great comeback into the league after being sidelined for the 2011 season. Yes, he was fabulous most weeks and he revived Denver’s offense in a way which enabled to it rise up statistically into one of the league’s best units.
But Manning never looked fully comfortable in throwing the ball deep at times, and it was also apparent that his neck and arm issues could potentially give rise to additional medical ailments as time wore on. Never was that more apparent than on Sunday night.
Manning rarely tried to force the ball down the field. The majority of his completions were on quick screens or outs to go along with crossing patterns. Seattle’s secondary gladly gave those passes up and quickly gang tackled the opponent well short of the first down sticks for the majority of a first half that saw Denver do literally nothing with the ball.
A trusted source with strong ties to the East Rutherford region sent along some information during the first quarter last night. He indicated that he had heard word of Manning checking himself into a local area hospital around 2 A.M. on Saturday night with neck issues. Nothing major happened aside from the fact he was prescribed a new form of pain medication in advance of the big game on Sunday
Does this amount to anything more than a rumor as of now? Probably not. But any objective individual who witnessed last night’s game has to admit that Manning did not seem himself. His offensive strategy in the wake of new health issues has become painfully obvious over time. But he looked incredibly uncomfortable and inaccurate in going down the field with the ball beginning with his first few attempts, and little changed over the course of the game.
Football is a team sport, but with Denver and certain passing-centric teams we have seen throughout history, you can throw that out the window. The rules are in many ways set up nowadays for offense’s like Denver’s to thrive during the regular season. But, once again, we saw a high octane offense fall off the tracks when having to go up against a top tier defense like the one Seattle possesses.
Calling them “top tier” doesn’t really do them justice. Seattle’s defense might be one of the 5-10 best units the game has ever seen, and that is by a conservative estimation. The Seahawks are fast, physical and have an absurd amount of size in their secondary. They bullied Wes Welker and Eric Decker all night. While Demaryius Thomas had a decent amount of numerical success, much of it came underneath with limited opportunities for downfield targets.
Give credit to Seattle and what they accomplished this season. They will be lauded and praised for assembling a team and defense that was more than worthy to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end.
But this Super Bowl was more about Denver falling apart than anything else. Their offensive line did not play well, nor did most of their offense weapons in general. The defense held up okay early on, but they appeared to get more and more tired and simply could not overcome the absurd field position they were put into beginning in the second quarter.
Blame can be tossed in several different directions, and I in no way intend to “blame” just Manning for the outcome here. Without Peyton, Denver doesn’t come anywhere close to sniffing this game.
But you have to seriously wonder about his health and ability to play much longer. His arm did not look great last night. He was not accurate when throwing down the field and there were also times where it seemed like he just let it fly into double coverage without serious consideration of the scheme applied by the defense.
Peyton sat at the podium and said he “was not embarrassed.” Anyone, let alone one of the game’s all-time greats, would be embarrassed over a 43-8 finale in what was supposed to be their coronation as one of the league’s all time best signal callers.
Physically, we may never know just how healthy Peyton was for this game, but it was clear that he was not ready or well equipped enough to deal with a fast and athletic defense which offered him no mercy from start to finish. Congratulations to the Hawks, but this game will leave many wondering for quite some time.
