Brady has won 11 of the 16 meetings against Manning, but they’re 2-2 in the playoffs, including Denver’s 26-16 win in the conference championship game two years ago.
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When it mattered most, Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos found a way. For Tom Brady, this is his 10th opportunity to play for the AFC title.
The Broncos would not be playing in the AFC Championship Game without players like those. I think he came out and kind of buttered y’all up in the media a little bit, but Ben was Ben. They have a long history, those two.
Including the penalty, those six pass plays resulted in a net average loss of 2.8 yards. Now they hope it’s enough to push Manning across the finish line for one more shot at becoming the first quarterback to start and win Super Bowls for two different teams. Manning had just gotten out of his cast and watched that game from the locker room after shaking Brady’s hand in pregame warmups.
GREENE: So is this really a moment where, you know, we could see the changing of the guard.
The players weren’t the only ones devastated by the missed opportunity.
“If you haven’t been in a situation like this all season, then when it happens, you start thinking of the wrong things”, Roby said.
“There was a lot of emotion”, receiver Martavis Bryant said. He finally was overcoming the self-doubt that had bothered him for several seasons and wanted to show he was more than just a manager of the offense. “Because of the adversity we faced, it’s a hurtful feeling”. He responded by going 24-of-7 for 339 yards with his first pass traveling 45 yards so there was no question about his arm strength even early on. Instead, Roethlisberger went for it all to Wheaton who dropped it in the end zone. The Broncos quarterback will take in his customary spot in the huddle. Running back C.J. Anderson’s was the worst; he dropped the ball without a defender within ten yards of him, in the middle of the field, with wideout Emmanuel Sanders ready to throw a block. This time, it was a carry by Steelers running back Fitzgerald Toussaint.
Boswell extended the Steelers first-quarter lead to 10-6 by kicking a 43-yard field goal with 10:19 left in the second quarter.
“It’s a going to be a dogfight”, Broncos cornerback Chris Harris said.
He was targeted 15 times during the game, the most in his career, though only by one, and the previous instance also came against the Broncos, when he caught a career-high 10 passes for 87 yards.
It wasn’t intentional, but Manning sure knew that the play was a definite possibility. Forced to choose, I would select Brady as my big-game quarterback but Manning as my all-time fantasy league gunslinger, considering he owns the NFL record for passing yards and touchdowns. Eight of the final nine plays on that 13-play touchdown drive were runs, including five in succession to close the drive. The pass rush stepped up in the nick of time, but the Broncos will have to do better if they are to contain the Patriots next week. The Cardinals (14-3 SU, 9-8 ATS) gave up a Hail Mary touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Jeff Janis as the fourth quarter expired, tying the game at 20-20. That one drive put a damper on an otherwise solid performance.
Ware’s sack ended Pittsburgh’s next drive and McManus kicked his fifth field goal, joking it was such a tricky crosswind that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner”.
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A flurry of field goals and a defense that gave up big chunks of yards too often.
