Introspective Peyton Manning: ‘I knew this was not going to be an easy transition’
DENVER — Peyton Manning has a way of deflecting tough questions with a joke.
The first six games of the season haven’t always been easy for the Denver Broncos quarterback, but the seventh game was. Manning had 340 yards in a vintage performance. The Broncos came in as home underdogs even though they were 6-0, and blew out the Green Bay Packers 29-10. The game was never in doubt from the opening minutes.
So, did this game prove all the critics wrong?
“I hate to — how can I say this without hurting anybody’s feelings? — I just don’t give what you all say that much merit,” Manning said, and then waited for some laughs, which he got.
Manning followed that up with some more jokes, invoking Jim Mora’s “You think you know. But you don’t know” press conference. And he could have left it at that, because a Broncos spokesman already said it would be his last question.
But Manning then shifted a bit and answered the question honestly, giving great insight into what the first portion of the season was like for him. There have been a lot of fair criticisms of him, questions about what he has left at age 39 and a lot of speculation about his fit in new coach Gary Kubiak’s offense. None of it could have been easy for a quarterback who is arguably the best ever.
Manning just put his head down and tried to figure out a way to make it all better.
“I’ve been very determined to get comfortable in this offense,” Manning said. “For Coach Kubiak, and Coach [Rick] Dennison and Coach [Greg] Knapp and I to get on the same page. Like we said earlier last week, we are all 100 percent committed to getting on the same page. And we’re not where we want to be yet. We’re still going to continue to grind.”
Manning, whose 72.5 quarterback rating through his first six games was the worst among NFL starters, continued his introspective answer. NFL players aren’t often this honest in these situations.
“I’ve just been very determined,” Manning said. “I knew this was not going to be an easy transition. I can’t say that a lot of what has happened so far this season has been a surprise to me. It has been somewhat what I expected; there were going to be some rough times and rough patches and rough parts of the transition. But I’ve never wavered in our commitment to try to get on the same page and to get everyone going in the right direction. We’ll continue to work hard on that”
And then, he came full circle.
“I don’t look at this as an ‘I told-you-so moment,'” Manning said. “Because I don’t really listen to what you say in the first place.”
End scene.
Those words provide a glimpse into what this season has been like for Manning. Even though the Broncos were winning, it has been a challenge. Physically he looked like he might not be able to play at a high level anymore. He still made a few clutch throws, and that’s a big reason the Broncos are still undefeated at 7-0, but he has also missed way more throws than we’ve ever seen before. Manning had seven touchdowns and 10 interceptions through six games. And some of his slip is expected; he’s 39 years old with multiple neck surgeries in his past. He has admitted the surgeries left him without feeling in the tips of his fingers. If anything, what he’s done in the Denver phase of his career —three division titles on his way to a fourth, his 2013 season that was likely the greatest single season in NFL history and resulted in an MVP, the Super Bowl trip to cap the ’13 campaign — has been somewhat miraculous.
Manning worked hard to come back from those surgeries. When he was struggling early in the season, that’s all he knew to do again. Work and try to figure it out.
“Obviously, he played spectacular tonight,” Kubiak said. “He did a hell of a job. He’s done that many times in his career.”
Manning repeated a similar version of the same thing a few times after the game: This performance guarantees nothing moving forward. And he’s right. All the struggles of the first six weeks don’t necessarily vanish overnight, and Sunday night might have been a product of a very good night against a Packers defense that is suddenly struggling. But, it was definitely a very good night.
The running game had shown some signs of life in Denver’s previous game at Cleveland, and on Sunday both C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman ran well. The Broncos had a great game plan to beat the man coverage they anticipated from the Packers. Their crossing routes generally won, and the deep balls that had been off most of the season found the mark, specifically to Demaryius Thomas on the perimeter. The offensive line, a big problem for most of this season, was excellent on Sunday night. Manning was rarely touched.
And if they can just bottle this up for the rest of the season, specifically for a few weekends in the postseason, the Broncos are a championship-caliber team. The New England Patriots have played some great games this season, and so have the Cincinnati Bengals and others, but what the Broncos did on Sunday night was the best performance in the NFL this season. They had 500 yards on offense. They allowed 140 on offense, including 50 net passing yards to a team with two-time MVP Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. That’s unbelievable. The Packers were 6-0 coming in, everyone’s NFC favorite, and the Broncos destroyed them.
“I felt like tonight it was attitude. We wanted to make a statement,” Broncos tight end Virgil Green said. “We wanted to make a statement. I felt like at the end of the game, we just had them. We were manhandling them. I felt good about our execution.”
There’s a long way to go this season and by the end of it, what happened on Sunday night might look like an anomaly. One bad game for the Broncos offense at the Indianapolis Colts next week and the same questions will start again. If the New England Patriots come in here on Nov. 29 and dominate the Broncos, it will look like the Patriots are just marching toward another AFC championship.
But for one night at least, the Broncos could think big. Everything, including their legendary quarterback who seemed like he might be near the end, clicked just like they hoped it would.
More NFL on Yahoo Sports
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
