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I was telling a friend this and my wife. Peyton Manning is a great QB. But here is the problem with this team model.

When you have a QB as good as he is it covers so many flaws the team has. When that QB is then exposed like last night there is no team to pick him up. The Seahawks are the polar opposite. They are all team and can win on multiple levels which was on full display last night, be it defense,special teams, running game, passing game. You may be able to stop one but to stop all phases takes a perfect game.

This was all about pressure and it happened all night long and Denver did not have a chance.

EntiatHawk wrote:I was telling a friend this and my wife. Peyton Manning is a great QB. But here is the problem with this team model.

When you have a QB as good as he is it covers so many flaws the team has. When that QB is then exposed like last night there is no team to pick him up. The Seahawks are the polar opposite. They are all team and can win on multiple levels which was on full display last night, be it defense,special teams, running game, passing game. You may be able to stop one but to stop all phases takes a perfect game.

This was all about pressure and it happened all night long and Denver did not have a chance.

Exactly - this was the thesis behind my flying to Reno yesterday morning - That the Bronco's recievers were Above average with Thomas being very good - However I was confident that the Seahawks secondary would shut them down - and as we discussed here at the Shack - the key to the game was to get pressure on Manning which I believed we would.

Now post game a number of experts are tearing into Manning - Please - Without Manning Denver would have been a 6 - 10 or 7 - 9 team this past Season.

Well, if you were a stats monkey, you'd conclude the opposite. We only had 1 sack and 4 hits on Peyton. Generally that doesn't cut it, but it doesn't really tell the whole story. Peyton could never get comfortable. He had to move around and it took him off his planned throwing positions. Plus Peyton does have the tendency to float the ball from time to time. His arm isn't what it used to be, so he's not as good throwing when on the move. It was a little easier planning against him than it was vs. Kaepernick, where we had to assign a spy to follow him.

Indeed, we did talk about how well our secondary matched up against the Broncos. I likened it to how we matched up against the Saints receivers. They were almost carbon copies of Denver's receivers, big and strong. Cam's hit on Thomas in the first quarter pretty much set the tone for the whole game. I felt that our secondary had to play an almost perfect game, and that's exactly what they did, evidence of which was the failure of Manning to hit on any passes of over 20 yards.

OK time to play devils advocate. Ive been bombarded with Manning is this and that and blah blah blah for 14 years. You cant have it both ways.

No quarterback exerts more control over his offense in the history of the game and as such he should be judged harshly on his legacy of failure in the postseason. Bottom line for Manning in this and many other playoff games over the years is he folds under pressure, both physical and mental. Last night under his greatest test he folded like a cheap suit,2 picks and a strip fumble along with a couple other horribly thrown balls. Then after the game it was all about we didn't do this and we didn't do that and we we we. Even Kaepernic had the guts to come out post game and say " I made too many mistakes for us to win this game. I turned it over 3 times"

I didn't hear Manning say the word I one time last night and he even angrily denied feeling embarrassed while turning a direct personal question into another WE answer. Welker had no such problem.


Manning has always been a playoff choker and a deflector of blame and now with his noodle arm he is a cooked goose. He should retire IMO.

I think what the game clearly demonstrated is just how Peyton Manning elevated and carried a group of "very average" players (except for D. Thomas who is an outstanding receiver) all the way to the Superbowl.


The Broncos would be lucky to finish 8 - 8 without Manning as their QB.

savvyman wrote:I think what the game clearly demonstrated is just how Peyton Manning elevated and carried a group of "very average" players (except for D. Thomas who is an outstanding receiver) all the way to the Superbowl.


The Broncos would be lucky to finish 8 - 8 without Manning as their QB.

The game clearly demonstrated that Seattle has a filthy defense and a very good offense. It demonstrated that Harvin on all cylinders is a force to be reckoned with.

And it reinforced that Manning is a playoff choker as he has been throughout his career.Welker is "mediocre"? Moreno? Julius Thomas? The play their linebacker made on the throw to Kearse in the end zone was unbelievable. Pot roast stuffed the Seattle interior run game.

The team wouldn't have been 8-8 with Russell Wilson, Andrew Luck, or any number of good NFL QB s. Now Ostwieller? maybe you have a point there, we might find out next year. Irsay said it best when he referred to Manning's "star wars numbers" vs his lack of playoff success.

What was Mannings excuse when he had a young arm and guys like Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison and Brandon Stokely along with Edgerrin James and Freeney and Mathis rushing and Bob Sanders on the back end and he was routinely checking out at home one and done several times?Oh that's right he had "protection problems" and Wayne ran the wrong route on the pick 6 vs the Saints. Or maybe it was the idiot kicker......I'm glad to see Seattle beat him down so bad his flaws were almost impossible to deny anymore. And he still couldn't own up to botching the first snap, Manny Ramirez had to take one for the team, even though he initially said Manning shouldn't have done what he did. The entire line fired off at the snap, Manning was the guy who screwed up
Come on folks. The Hawks played awesome and everyone on that Denver team got whipped but Manning was guilty of about as as bad a performance as anyone Seattle saw all year except Eli. Guys like Ryan Fitzpatrick and a used up Carson Palmer were more effective and that was at the Clink.
I can't understand why Manning gets the credit for their success and is like the Teflon man when they flame out.