Not that rare. In addition to Peyton and Lewis, I'd say Champ, Brady, Willis, Calvin, Fitz, Peterson, Reed, Moss, and Polamalu all qualify, just looking at the multiple All Pros. Maybe Brees, Rodgers, Freeney, Andre, etc- depending on how liberal you want to be with the designation. With that many, you should be averaging one every few weeks.
That's
extremely liberal. Willis, Calvin and Peterson have only played 6 seasons (the top of that 2007 (edit) draft is incredible!).I'll give you Brady, Reed, Moss and Brees. And for Peyton and and Lewis it's more like "possibly
the best all time".
Not that liberal. Calvin has the yardage record. Peterson almost grabbed his, too- and he plays a position where 6 years is often a hell of a career. Willis has four first team AP All Pros in 5 years (and is a strong favorite to make it 5 in 6 this season, which would put him near the top of the career charts for an ILB). Anyway, there are going to be four players on the field in Denver today who all certainly rank in the top 5 to ever play their position, and all could probably make arguments for the #1 spot. And 20 years from now, with the benefit of hindsight, we'll be able to add Von Miller to that list, too
. Certainly not a game lacking in star power.
So, how good IS the Broncos running game? Is it enough to keep the Ravens (who are no stalwarts against the run) from pinning their ears back and rushing Peyton? Moreno's tendencies? Does he fumble? Can he catch?
Relies heavily on Manning diagnosing the defense and calling an audible into the right play. When you see Manning doing the chicken dance at the LoS, flapping his arms and pointing out defenders, a huge majority of the time he's noticing the box is light and switching into a run. Denver's running game is good enough to get very strong results when they have the right play called against the right defense, but none of the personnel is really able to impose their will in the run game. If it's the right call, Denver will execute the hell out of it. If it's not, it's going to be ugly for the Broncos, because nobody is going to make anything happen on their own. Fortunately, Manning has been doing this a long time, and it's almost always the right call.
I already did make the Ravens' case - they're the 4th best team in a conference that has only 2 really good teams this year, so they've achieved on par with their talent by making the AFC's Final Four and now they're going to get bounced. They've been particularly terrible on the road.But if you want to know - theoretically - how they could win, U-H summed it up very well. Get the running game going with Rice/Pierce to neutralize the Denver pass rush and keep Manning off the field. Have Ed Reed bait Manning into a game-turning INT. Get a huge play on special teams. Finally, have Ray Lewis get dinged up again, so he has to come off the field and won't be standing out there on third downs like a stationary purple traffic cone as Manning shreds the middle of the Ravens defense. Which reminds me - Brandon Stokely is the only other guy besides Ray still in the NFL from the 2000 Super Bowl Ravens. He will be running circles around Ray tomorrow.One other positive is that this is as healthy as the Ravens D has been all year. Unfortunately, that still means Suggs is playing with one leg and one arm, as is Ngata, Ray is playing with one arm (and no legs) and Webb is still out, so the top 3 Ravens CBs tomorrow are Carey Williams, Corey Graham, and Chykie Brown.Which reminds me. There are going to be some Bronco WRs running wide open on double moves tomorrow - maybe Manning hits the underneath stuff in the early going to set it up, and then goes for the killshot later, but however he does it, he will have ample opportunities for huge plays downfield. I mentioned a Reed INT above, but far more likely is that he will jump what he thinks is an underneath route - totally abandoning his responsibility in pursuit of the individual highlight play - and leave Williams hung out to dry in single coverage on a double move that goes for a long TD.
that's good news.
and am ready to watch Ray's glorious career end.
