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Rock Strongo
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Week 10 delivered a stressful, frustrating Sunday to many of the NFL's playoff contenders. It's hard to find a competitive team that left the weekend in better shape than how it entered, with the Steelers, Vikings and suddenly resurgent Chiefs as notable exceptions. Even teams that won big games, such as the Cardinals and Patriots, are dealing with injuries that could dramatically impact how they play in the weeks to come.
At the same time, no sport creates a tempest in a teapot quite like the NFL. Injuries or narratives that seem like an enormous deal get replaced within a week. Remember Week 4, when kickers were melting down around the league? The league's placekickers have converted 86.2 percent of their kicks since, an improvement of their 84.0 percent clip from 2014. Or how the Steelers were going to struggle this week without Ben Roethlisberger, who is recovering from a sprained foot? Not only did they win comfortably against the Browns, but they did so with Roethlisberger excelling in place of an injured Landry Jones.
It's not always easy to differentiate between a real menace and a temporary nuisance, so let's try and split them up here by running through some of Sunday's top stories to figure out which of the NFL's contenders actually need to panic. And that starts in Denver, where a presumptive Hall of Famer was feted by the fans and roasted by the Chiefs . . .
Peyton Manning gets benched for Brock Osweiler
Panic? YES
Even in what is almost surely going to be his final season of professional football, Manning probably couldn't have envisioned a performance quite as bad as the one he put on Sunday against Kansas City. He might have set the league's passing yardage record during the first half, but he also threw three picks before halftime for just the fourth time in his career. He added a fourth interception before coach Gary Kubiak mercifully brought in Osweiler. It was the first time Manning was benched since September 30, 2001, when he was with the Colts and then-coach Jim Mora took him out for Mark Rypien during a 44-13 loss to the Patriots. That game is famous for another reason: It was Tom Brady's first career start.
Kubiak tried to take the blame afterward for Manning's subpar start, suggesting he should have sat him after he suffered a rib injury during the week, but it's hardly as if this were a one-off performance. (ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Monday morning that Manning was also playing through a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot.) It might have been Manning's first four-interception game of 2015, but he didn't look appreciably different from the struggling passer he has portrayed all season. This isn't like 2007, when Manning threw four picks in the first half of the season before a flukish six-interception disaster of a start against the Chargers. This has been a bad season at the office.
Manning has now thrown picks in nine consecutive games. That places him in dismal company. The list of quarterbacks who threw picks in nine consecutive games since 2000 isn't a pretty one. The names aren't the ones you associate with greatness. John Skelton. Ryan Leaf. Donovan McNabb's sojourn in Washington makes an appearance (you never want to be on a list with Donovan McNabb's year in D.C.). There are a couple of appearances by Philip Rivers andDrew Brees, but this is mostly a list of quarterbacks who were about to expire. The previous time Manning threw picks in even as many as six consecutive games was in 2001.
And while I'm sure Manning was affected by the rib and foot injuries, the issues Sunday against the Chiefs are the same ones he has had throughout this season. As much as his struggles are chalked up to his diminished arm strength, that's just part of the problem.
It's not as if he's deadly accurate on short passes and just can't throw a 16-yard out anymore. Manning has lost a great deal of his touch and labors into and out of his throwing motion. He overthrows his receivers seemingly as frequently as he one-hops passes in their direction. The amount of torque he needs to generate with his body to get zip on his passes forces him to commit to his throws earlier, making it far easier for defenders to hijack previously clear throwing lanes. His lack of arm strength is at the heart of some of Manning's issues, but somebody like Chad Pennington was able to succeed without an NFL-caliber arm toward the end of his career while simultaneously posting solid interception rates.
Manning is a mess -- and sadly for Broncos fans, there's just not much of a reason to think things will get better. The arguments earlier in the season were that the Broncos needed to return to a more Manning-friendly scheme and get their offensive line right, and neither solution appears to be in the cards. Each of Manning's 20 pass attempts Sunday came in the shotgun or pistol, and he posted a 0.1 QBR on those throws. Further injuries to the offensive line have prevented the unit from jelling, and the running game that carried Denver over the regular-season finish line last year hasn't shown up since the Nov. 1 win over Green Bay. Denver still has a great defense, but when the opposition's average starting field position is 52 yards away from the end zone, as it was for the Chiefs on Sunday, even a dominant defense can do only so much. The Broncos may have already banked enough victories to claim the West, but with Manning this altered, it's hard to see them doing much in January.
Julian Edelman breaks his foot.
Panic? NO
Well, no on a technicality. The Patriots might have made their way to 9-0 on Sunday, but they lost another offensive weapon when Edelman left the game with a foot injury and did not return. Edelman was diagnosed with a Jones fracture, similar to the injury suffered by Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryantagainst these same Giants in the season opener. Bryant received a bone graft for the injury, and despite suggestions that a four- to six-week return timetable was "impossible," Bryant indeed missed just six weeks before returning against the Seahawks in Week 8. A similar time frame would get Edelman back for the Week 17 regular-season finale against the Dolphins.
At the same time, no sport creates a tempest in a teapot quite like the NFL. Injuries or narratives that seem like an enormous deal get replaced within a week. Remember Week 4, when kickers were melting down around the league? The league's placekickers have converted 86.2 percent of their kicks since, an improvement of their 84.0 percent clip from 2014. Or how the Steelers were going to struggle this week without Ben Roethlisberger, who is recovering from a sprained foot? Not only did they win comfortably against the Browns, but they did so with Roethlisberger excelling in place of an injured Landry Jones.
It's not always easy to differentiate between a real menace and a temporary nuisance, so let's try and split them up here by running through some of Sunday's top stories to figure out which of the NFL's contenders actually need to panic. And that starts in Denver, where a presumptive Hall of Famer was feted by the fans and roasted by the Chiefs . . .
Peyton Manning gets benched for Brock Osweiler
Panic? YES
Even in what is almost surely going to be his final season of professional football, Manning probably couldn't have envisioned a performance quite as bad as the one he put on Sunday against Kansas City. He might have set the league's passing yardage record during the first half, but he also threw three picks before halftime for just the fourth time in his career. He added a fourth interception before coach Gary Kubiak mercifully brought in Osweiler. It was the first time Manning was benched since September 30, 2001, when he was with the Colts and then-coach Jim Mora took him out for Mark Rypien during a 44-13 loss to the Patriots. That game is famous for another reason: It was Tom Brady's first career start.
Kubiak tried to take the blame afterward for Manning's subpar start, suggesting he should have sat him after he suffered a rib injury during the week, but it's hardly as if this were a one-off performance. (ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Monday morning that Manning was also playing through a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot.) It might have been Manning's first four-interception game of 2015, but he didn't look appreciably different from the struggling passer he has portrayed all season. This isn't like 2007, when Manning threw four picks in the first half of the season before a flukish six-interception disaster of a start against the Chargers. This has been a bad season at the office.
Manning has now thrown picks in nine consecutive games. That places him in dismal company. The list of quarterbacks who threw picks in nine consecutive games since 2000 isn't a pretty one. The names aren't the ones you associate with greatness. John Skelton. Ryan Leaf. Donovan McNabb's sojourn in Washington makes an appearance (you never want to be on a list with Donovan McNabb's year in D.C.). There are a couple of appearances by Philip Rivers andDrew Brees, but this is mostly a list of quarterbacks who were about to expire. The previous time Manning threw picks in even as many as six consecutive games was in 2001.
And while I'm sure Manning was affected by the rib and foot injuries, the issues Sunday against the Chiefs are the same ones he has had throughout this season. As much as his struggles are chalked up to his diminished arm strength, that's just part of the problem.
It's not as if he's deadly accurate on short passes and just can't throw a 16-yard out anymore. Manning has lost a great deal of his touch and labors into and out of his throwing motion. He overthrows his receivers seemingly as frequently as he one-hops passes in their direction. The amount of torque he needs to generate with his body to get zip on his passes forces him to commit to his throws earlier, making it far easier for defenders to hijack previously clear throwing lanes. His lack of arm strength is at the heart of some of Manning's issues, but somebody like Chad Pennington was able to succeed without an NFL-caliber arm toward the end of his career while simultaneously posting solid interception rates.
Manning is a mess -- and sadly for Broncos fans, there's just not much of a reason to think things will get better. The arguments earlier in the season were that the Broncos needed to return to a more Manning-friendly scheme and get their offensive line right, and neither solution appears to be in the cards. Each of Manning's 20 pass attempts Sunday came in the shotgun or pistol, and he posted a 0.1 QBR on those throws. Further injuries to the offensive line have prevented the unit from jelling, and the running game that carried Denver over the regular-season finish line last year hasn't shown up since the Nov. 1 win over Green Bay. Denver still has a great defense, but when the opposition's average starting field position is 52 yards away from the end zone, as it was for the Chiefs on Sunday, even a dominant defense can do only so much. The Broncos may have already banked enough victories to claim the West, but with Manning this altered, it's hard to see them doing much in January.
Julian Edelman breaks his foot.
Panic? NO
Well, no on a technicality. The Patriots might have made their way to 9-0 on Sunday, but they lost another offensive weapon when Edelman left the game with a foot injury and did not return. Edelman was diagnosed with a Jones fracture, similar to the injury suffered by Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryantagainst these same Giants in the season opener. Bryant received a bone graft for the injury, and despite suggestions that a four- to six-week return timetable was "impossible," Bryant indeed missed just six weeks before returning against the Seahawks in Week 8. A similar time frame would get Edelman back for the Week 17 regular-season finale against the Dolphins.
The thing is -- even when he wasn't near his best, his team got 27 points and the 2-minute drill was good enough to win. 
