Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, who threw for 400 yards and two touchdowns in a 26–16 win over the Patriots in the AFC championship game, appears on the national cover of this week’s SPORTS ILLUSTRATED (1/27/14)—on newsstands NOW. Manning broke the single season record for passing yards (5,477) and touchdowns (55) in 2013 and will now lead Denver to its first trip to the Super Bowl since 1999. Still, despite his stellar season in the Mile High City, Manning has one more ghost to exorcise: The playoff choke. In the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl pundits will undoubtedly point out Manning’s perfectly average stats in two Super Bowls: two TDs, two INTs and an 85.4 passer rating. In SI’s 10 Things We Think We Think Super Bowl XLVIII preview, Andrew Lawrence writes, “Manning is certain to hear the choker talk from the minute he steps off the plane in New York. Which is perhaps what Broncos vice president John Elway—the two-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer whose outsized reputation crushed every Denver quarterback who followed him, until now—was driving at last week when he said that Manning doesn’t get enough credit. That’s a laughable statement to make about a four-time MVP, until you measure it against Manning’s intake of grief. ‘I’ll be honest with you: As a parent, I get tired of it,’ said a typically awe-shucks Archie Manning, from the eye of a delirious Broncos locker room. ‘You play 16 years . . . so what’s he played in? Twenty-two postseason games? And he’s kind of being ridiculed. I mean, I played in zero postseason games. I can tell you a bunch of guys in my era, quarterbacks, buddies of mine—they’d love to say they played in 22 postseason games. . . . My text count just hit 108 since the game’s ended. The last one I got is [from] Fran Tarkenton. So there are a lot of guys out there who played the game, friends of mine, friends of Peyton, who are proud of him.’” (Page 41)
The Broncos led the NFL in total offense, passing, receiving and touchdowns scored during the regular season. The Seahawks led the league in total defense, pass defense and interceptions. So what happens when the most prolific passing offense in history meets a secondary of superheroes? Writes Lawrence, “The Seahawks boast the league’s top defense, but who has challenged them, really? Throw out the Saints, whose fourth-rated attack is as one-dimensional as it is explosive, and the average rank of the offenses that Seattle has faced is 23rd. The people who still hew to the thinking that defense wins championships clearly haven’t watched the last four Super Bowls. In three of them all the best defense won was an up-close view of the winner’s confetti shower. If Peyton wins at MetLife Stadium, he’d become the only quarterback walking around with rings from two different teams. He would be able to smile, and maybe even lose the Manning face, safe in the knowledge that his greatness is no longer in doubt.” (Page 41)
So it’ll be the best cornerback in the league versus the best quarterback in the league. SI Senior writer Peter King is putting his money on Manning and predicting a Pot Roast: Broncos 27, Seahawks 24.
For Peter King’s early thoughts on Super Bowl XLVIII click here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/video/mmqb/20140121/the-mmqb-nfl-peter-king-on-further-review-championship-weekend.sportsillustrated/
