Chris Humphreys-US PRESSWIRE
The Denver Broncos, specifically John Elway and John Fox, deserve a ton of credit for going after and getting Peyton Manning to sign with them. Everyone has talked about anything and everything when looking ahead to what Manning and the Broncos would look like. It’s was only one game but the win over the Pittsburgh Steelers tells us a lot of things but there is one thing screaming us, Manning is back and he looks like Manning. Now Fox and the other coaches have to make one more smart move, GET OUT OF HIS WAY!
In their first three possessions on Sunday night, the Broncos tried to run a conventional offense that included huddling between every play. Those possessions ended with two punts and a turnover, and that was the last we saw of that offense for the night. It’s almost as if Manning went back to the sideline and told the coaches, “Ok enough of that garbage, I’m taking over.” From that point on, the Broncos offense was never stopped again. Scoring 25 points in four drives, imagine if the offense had the ball more. The Steelers, a great defense, never came close to stopping Manning and the Broncos.
This is not a shot at the coaches for the Broncos at all; it’s just a statement of fact. When Manning gets into the flow of the game and starts reading the defense, he starts picking it apart. Manning is the best, maybe of all time, at finding the weakness of any defense and then exploiting it. When he is in the hurry up and the defense is trying to adjust, he just gets better and better. By the time the fourth quarter came along on Sunday night, Manning knew the Steelers defense better than they did. Receivers were wide-open and when the Steelers thought they had that solved, Manning checked to a running play and picked up ten yards.
The Denver Broncos are back in the conversation with the other great teams in the NFL and Manning is the reason why. There is a lot of other talent as we saw on Sunday but if a team does not have an elite quarterback, then they cannot be taken all that seriously. The Broncos now have one of those guys in Manning, and all they have to do now is get out of his way!
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