cdumler7
Well-Known Member
No doubt Elway knows what he's doing ... He's a good GM ... And yeah, Manning lost some arm strength but he made it up with smarts, he did exactly what was needed in the post season... Made some key big time play's also, even though his number's weren't great, his timing with some big play's was critical and he limited dumb mistakes... Coach Kubiak made the right call going back to him for the post season...
Yes and no
1) The first 2 playoff games against the Steelers and the Patriots I would agree. Manning did a great job of eliminating the big mistakes. When playing during the regular season Manning continued to have the mindset that he had to go out and win every game and well he just didn't have the arm to do that on a regular basis. He had a couple of decent games here and there like the Green Bay one but consistently his arm failed him and honestly almost cost the team more games than it did. I could argue Manning's inability to throw the ball down field cost us the Chiefs and Colts game pretty easily. His early turnovers put the defense in terrible spots and put the team behind early in the games taking away their best weapon in getting after the QB.
Still I would argue the Super Bowl was a down right terrible game for Manning. He had two very costly turnovers when our defense was dominating and our team had built up a good lead and all they needed from the offense was a few first downs and just don't turn the ball over. He threw a terrible interception and his fumble he just didn't feel the backside pressure. He also struggled on the money down of 3rd down. The team went I think 1 of 13 on 3rd down. So without the defense playing out of their minds and a couple of nice special teams plays the Broncos would have gotten blown out in another Super Bowl. Manning and most of the offense (CJ Anderson had a pretty good game) was a huge liability.
2) I do agree going back to Manning was the right call. At the time though man it could have blew up in his face. Nobody knew quite how healthy Manning was and if they lost that first game in the playoffs Kubiak would have been ripped apart by the media and Elway too. It was a gutsy call to go with the banged up Manning over the possible future of the team at QB in Osweiler. The move paid off huge thankfully.