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Losing Gronk is a blow but let's not go overboard. Hernandez will be back for the stretch run, which will replace at least some of the TE production. Even without Gronkowski, NE is still the best offense in the league.
Did you really just say limiting gates to 2 catches is a good sign. Who hasnt limited gates to 2 catches this year. Basically all you have to do is put a cheerleader or water boy on him and he will be shut down. And san diego is just straight up pathetic over all.
I was feeling about 50/50 for Week 14, but now I'm thinking 60/40 in SF's favor
SF has the LBs to run with their TE's and now they only have to worry about 1 of them...Considering he went 6 for 81 and 2 TDs the last game I think that is a marked difference. Woodyard has been improving dramatically, and with DJ getting back and splitting/taking over @ MLB, he should improve that position as well.
Um, the best teams in the league are supposed to beat the so-called bad teams. I can see why their 2-3 record against teams .500 or better makes some pause before calling them one of the best teams, but when you look around the NFL, no one is beating everyone. Hell, Houston took OT to beat Jacksonville at home yesterday, NE lost at home to Arizona (granted, that was early on when Arizona was playing really well), and Baltimore beat KC 9-6, so, yeah.
Yea, this is garbage.Takes a while for a team to get rolling with a new QB, especially one as involved as Peyton. All of those losses were in the first 5 weeks, all to pretty damn good teams (NE, ATL, HOU), and two of those three were really close. Since then, they've had their foot on the gas pedal and have looked great on both sides of the ball. I'm not sure about proclaiming Super Bowl appearance, but they're definitely on the short list of favorites. Their odds increase dramatically if they can pull out a top 2 seed, which could definitely happen.
That is my biggest concern as a Bronco fan. Yeah, the defense has improved as the season has progressed and the addition of DJ will help, but they still have serious mismatches against NE TEs. Having said that, the biggest problem in the earlier matchup was Joe Mays inability to get the defense set before plays. That appears to be solved with him no longer there and the calls coming thru Woodyard.
Hernandez clearly still isn't where they wanted him to be (it's been suggested he had a setback in practice before the London week as he was expected back weeks ago), and now he doesn't have the luxury of getting to that point with rest. Edelman came up big yesterday, but Welker and Lloyd are nursing injuries of their own as well as questions abound as to their roles or the extent of their roles in the offense.
This is true, but also it should br pointed out that Mays was demoted after the NE game because he struggled getting the play called and with audibles. Ever since Brooking has been the guy @ MLB, there has been a significant improvement. This D has been downright nasty the past few games, best D I think I've ever seen in Denver.
Everyone struggles to stop the Pats' offense. I don't like Denver's chances of doing so in their next meeting, either. Of course, that cuts both ways- good luck to New England trying to stop Denver's offense now that Manning is rounding into form. In a matchup where both units are overmatched, it comes down to who you trust to make more plays, and I like the one with a DE who led the league in sacks, an LB who leads the league in sacks, and a first ballot HoF DB.
Peyton was a little loosey-goosey with the ball, especially on the fumbles...
wut?
It's crazy to think how many Super Bowl rings Manning would have if he had played his whole career with an elite defense, and a great head coach, and talented receivers, and a QB that didn't choke in the clutch, and a strong running game. Probably like 7 or 8.
Of course Manning chokes in the clutch. It's a tautology. Manning chokes in the clutch because "the clutch" is invariably defined as "any time Manning chokes". You didn't hear much of that choking in the clutch nonsense when Manning was busy driving 88 yards down the field in the 4th for the go-ahead TD. The last play Manning ran in regulation (discounting the kneel-down) was a 17 yard TD to take the lead. Not something that is typically true of chokers.
Okay, let's say he choked in overtime with a poor play (kinda reminded me of Favre's against the Saints). That would make him 1/2 in clutch opportunities. How do you feel about that? Do you credit him with the TD drive and absolve him of the INT? Do you say the INT wasn't "that bad" of a play...but ignore the very questionable PI that kept the TD drive alive? Without that call, would he have shaken the choke tag in regulation?We could delve into the minutiae of each situation, but the bottom line seems to be that Manning is never at his best when it counts the most. Maybe not a choke job, but no hero, either. He's below the Manning standard when the games become more important. Let's not call it a choke. What would you call it?FWIW, I thought he had a lot of trouble throwing the ball. He had to really focus to get any velocity on it at all. He looked like he was really forcing passes just to make them look normal. I haven't watched a lot of Denver, so maybe he was like that all year. Or maybe it was the cold, or he was wearing down after a long season. But he wasn't at his best in the playoffs-- again.
I wouldn't call it anything. His play regresses in the playoffs, sure. So does Tom Brady's- to an almost identical degree, as a matter of fact. So does almost everyone's- the quality of competition is much higher, after all. Manning has a better postseason passer rating than Brady. His offense performs almost identical to Brady's in terms of points per game compared to their regular season average (both QBs underperform by approximately 1.5 ppg) and points per game compared to the average points allowed by the opposing defense (both overperform by roughly 4.5 points). But because Manning started his career with some memorable playoff flops, he earned the choker label and hasn't been able to shake it. And because Brady began with some memorable playoff successes, he earned the clutch label and hasn't been able to shake that, either. Our narratives are set on both players, and our confirmation biases are working overtime to ensure the narrative doesn't change (such as ignoring the game-winning drive in regulation and focusing on the interception that wasn't his fault and the other interception that came after 70+ minutes of game time). Peyton wasn't amazing tonight by any stretch of the imagination, but neither was anyone on the team except for Holiday. Manning's receivers weren't really helping him out with the drops. The penalties kept putting the offense in unmanageable situations. The running game was providing little help. The pass rush completely vanished. The secondary fell apart. The coaching staff reverted to their worst tendencies. Manning wasnt blameless, either- the pressure impacted him more than it usually does, and his throws definitely looked a bit more labored than usual at times. Maybe it was the cold, maybe it was the layoff, maybe it was just dumb luck and random chance, but for whatever reason, the whole team was out of sync. With that said, Manning was one of the most reliable and least out-of-sync players on the squad. Obviously Manning played well enough to lose. He also played more than well enough to win. He had a pretty good game. He didn't look like a potential MVP (but he looked a lot closer to it than Miller did to a potential DPoY), but Denver should be able to win without relying on Manning to perform like an MVP in every single game. Denver should be able to win when Manning plays pretty well, too. And today, Manning played pretty well.
