We May Actually Have Seen The Last Of Peyton Manning

The Broncos that took Soldier Field were the team that was the shared vision of Elway and Kubiak.

Osweiler felt so comfortable in his new role that he even addressed the team when Denver arrived in Chicago on Saturday night. “We’ve had many turnovers… hurting ourselves, and the message this week was ‘Let’s protect the football and play.’ We’ll play great defense”. (The Broncos drafted Osweiler ahead of Wilson, remember, way back when.) Lots of “run the football”, “for the football team”, and, finally, “at the end of the day”. You can tell that Martellus Bennett thought it was a pass as well as center Hroniss Grasu, that freed up safety T.J. Ward to make the play. (Photo via Kevin Fishbain of Chicago Football).

The only major mistake the young signal caller made on Sunday was when he accidentally tripped Broncos running back Ronnie Hillman during a 4th-down hand-off attempt inside the 5-yard line.

The Bears defense held again, sacking Osweiler on third down to force another punt. “We knew it would be tough, so we had to take advantage of getting points when we had the opportunity”. Simple and plain. Either way the three losses by the Bears over this seven game stretch (4-3) have been by a combined eight points.

Benched midway through last week’s game against the Chiefs, Manning, 39, is dealing with a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot in addition to rib and shoulder issues.

Bears coach John Fox, who was sacked as the Denver coach after the 2014 season, might have regrets over one of Chicago’s failed four-quarter opportunities. He has 43 yards, two catches, no touchdowns. He had receptions of 40 yards, and two grabs of 29 yards. Add to that Alshon Jeffery has been in and out of the lineup, (mostly out) and Jay Cutler’s season becomes more remarkable. Sure looked that way in how they were able to render Bears defenders motionless.

“We had a few really big drives out of the hole that maybe weren’t points for us but really changed the field position of the game”, coach Gary Kubiak said. It was a rough day in coverage for the Vic Fangio’s unit, but the line made plays for the most part. Anybody still think Matt Forte is expendable?

With the Broncos rushing for a season-high 170 yards on 36 carries (4.7 average) using Kubiak’s base runs, Osweiler was able to operate the offense efficiently.

In the first quarter, we stopped by Jackson’s in LoDo. That discipline was seen when the Bears didn’t jump offside on a Broncos fourth down, forcing them to punt. Prosinski filled in for Antrel Rolle (knee/ankle). We put this game in the same box as those. Their team plane was delayed 90 minutes Saturday because of weather, but the arrival of Osweiler as an effective game manager represented the most welcome development for the Broncos.

But Chicago had trouble reaching the end zone against the league’s No. 1 defence, even though the Broncos were missing outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware (back). “They also say he is going to run Kubiak’s offense like it’s supposed to be run just because he is much more athletic than Peyton Manning”.

The Broncos are slated to host Tom Brady and the Patriots next week while the Bears will head to Green Bay to visit the rival Packers. Make sure to weigh in below.