AFC championship features more than just Brady, Manning
An executive with a large sports book in Las Vegas said Thursday he was seeing nine times as much money on the favored Patriots as compared to the Denver Broncos in Sunday’s game. They will walk away from Denver victorious, with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick headed to their seventh Super Bowl appearance together, the quest for 5 can not be stopped. The first two times the two quarterbacks met in the playoffs (following the 2003 and 2004 regular seasons), before anyone truly knew that Brady was exactly as good as he is, it was seen as more of a battle between Manning and Bill Belichick. With Manning’s weakening arm and shoulder no longer allowing him to uncork his fastball, there is plenty of speculation that a defeat could mark the end of his outstanding career.
The AFC Championship title is on the line, and a trip to Super Bowl 50 for one of these two legendary quarterbacks; to his name, Manning has one title.
That certainly isn’t the case with Brady. Then in 99 came another Super Bowl victory in dominant fashion over former Broncos’ coach Dan Reeves and the Atlanta Falcons – a team that kept the best Vikings squad ever from getting its redemption – and Elway went out on top. Brady has won two, and Manning has won two. Denver’s defense may be less sexy than a superstar quarterback, but there are some killer players on that side of the ball that have won many games for this season.
“I wanted to do it for Peyton”, Miller said. “So they have a great tradition there and we’ve played a lot of good Bronco teams. beaten them a couple times, but they’ve beat us most of the time, so I’d like to get to that No. 3 in the win column this weekend”.
While the big-play passing game and high-scoring offense Denver featured in recent seasons looks to be a thing of the past, the Broncos have continued to win by re-inventing themselves as a big-play defense that swarms to the ball in waves. The all-time great passer will try to keep his teammates better focused against the Patriots, while the world turns its attention to Manning and Brady. At the time, many wondered whether Brady, 38, and Manning, 39, would ever meet again. Who didn’t? But that was the class of Peyton Manning.
Let’s face it, the joint is just bad juju for Brady or any other Patriots player, past or present.
“I think what we’re doing right now is we’re staying in the moment”. He’s just been an incredible player, an incredible leader for his team. The NFL also was fortunate that Washington, Philadelphia and the two NY teams aren’t in the playoffs and that New England is on the road so they aren’t faced with the possibility of postponing the games. They’ve always been a great organization. They can not throw the ball downfield.
The Giants solved Brady with a relentless pass rush, particularly up the middle with their innovative “NASCAR” package that featured Justin Tuck moving from end to tackle and then Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan (in 2007) and Jason Pierre-Paul (in 2011) applying pressure from the outside.
“He’s been a remarkable player”. Brady is going to throw foah like eight touchdowns and Manning can’t throw moah than like five yahds down field. In December, against the Philadelphia Eagles, Brady caught a pass on a deception play, his first reception since 2002 and only the second of his career. That’s the blueprint for beating him.
The opinions from every caller aside, I think this one is actually going to be pretty close throughout but ultimately too many field goals cost the Broncos. And, should this be their final meeting, cool for all of us who have been privileged to watch it over the past 15-plus years, stats be damned.