Manning has thrown more touchdown passes than any player in NFL history, and one whose personal performance standard rivals that of anyone who has ever stepped on a playing field, but in last night’s game he failed to guide his team into the end zone with a touchdown pass.
And sure enough, when I bull-rushed the 39-year-old quarterback at his locker about 15 minutes after his Denver Broncos had pulled out a dramatic but ugly 19-13 opening-day victory over the Baltimore Ravens at Sports Authority Field on Sunday, Manning was not passing out bountiful words of praise to himself or the men in his huddle.
“I’m sure there’s nobody on offense that’s happy,” said Manning, whose first regular-season game in new coach Gary Kubiak’s scheme looked every bit as shaky as his final outing for former coach John Fox and ex-offensive coordinator Adam Gase in a desultory divisional-round playoff defeat to the Indianapolis Colts last January.
Manning looked every bit like the 39-year-old who stumbled through the final month of 2014, and nothing like the QB who he’d been, well, basically for the last decade-plus.
Whether he still can throw a knockout punch remains to be seen — but because the Broncos‘ defense was squarely in Manning’s corner on Sunday, the famous quarterback was able to walk off a winner. So yeah, Denver got away with a win against a good team, but whether that’s a sustainable strategy for a squad with Super Bowl aspirations is highly debatable. “We better figure out something, and fast,” star receiver Demaryius Thomas said in a private conversation on the edge of the locker room, shortly before hitting the shower. “We can’t really rely on the defense scoring more points than the offense every week. We haven’t scored a touchdown, [shoot], in this new offense, even in the preseason. We’ve gotta figure it out very soon.” Kubiak, the former Houston Texans coach who spent the 2014 season as the Ravens‘ offensive coordinator, seems very much aware that the transition has not been exactly smooth. Evidence that Manning is still adjusting to Kubiak’s system, the Broncos opened Sunday’s game in the style of no-huddle, shotgun-based offense with which he is most comfortable — and emerged with field goals on consecutive drives, thanks to the super-strong leg of Brandon McManus, who connected from 57 and 56 yards. Denver led 9-3 early in the third quarter when, on third-and-10 from his own 20, Manning, forced to throw early by blitzing cornerback Kyle Arrington, propelled a low-velocity pass toward receiver Jordan Norwood on the left sideline. Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith went over the top of Norwood as the ball arrived, deflected the pass and caught it on the fly, racing 24 yards for a go-ahead touchdown. Baltimore increased its lead to 13-9 and appeared to be in control of the game late in the third quarter when, on third-and-6 from their 45-yard line, Flacco threw a pass for veteran wideout Steve Smith in the flat, and Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib jumped it and slithered 51 yards for a pick-six of his own. “We finally got something going there at the end, and we sorta had to have it there on the last drive,” Manning said. “So that’s what we’ll try to build off.”
