After the Broncos beat the Steelers 23-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC championship game against New England, Peyton Manning channeled his inner Bill Belichick. They worked it down to the 1, where C.J. Anderson ran it in for what would be the winning touchdown, the only one scored by Denver.
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Anderson’s decisive score was the culmination of a 14-play 65-yard drive which crucially took almost seven minutes off the clock.
One of the Broncos best wins of the year, and one that’s in their recent memory, was their Week 16 overtime win against the Cincinnati Bengals, the team who the Steelers knocked out in the divisional round to set up their meeting with Denver.
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”.
Bob Labriola will update you throughout the game with his thoughts on “what went right, wrong” during the AFC Divisional Playoff game in Denver.
Ailing Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw for 339 yards while playing without injured receiver Antonio Brown, but the visitors could not deliver a final answer against the Broncos defense.
According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Bradshaw posted 3,833 passing yards and 30 touchdown throws in 19 playoff games throughout his career.
Sunday’s AFC Championship game also will be a rematch of Week 12, when the Broncos handed the Patriots their first lost of the season. Martavis Bryant had nine catches for 154 yards. He added a 41-yard field goal after a subsequent drive stalled on a third-down incompletion.
Manning completed 21 of 37 passes for 222 yards. And McManus finished 5 for 5 on his field-goal attempts.
Graham Gano kicked a field goal to stretch Carolina’s lead to 24-0 before Newton picked out Greg Olsen in the endzone to put the Panthers 31-0 ahead.
It was Denver’s first touchdown in 23 postseason possessions.
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And Manning was forced to go on the defensive in December, vehemently denying a claim in an Al Jazeera documentary alleging that he was among a number of professional athletes who may have been provided human growth hormone, or HGH, by an in doctor. Of course, neither of those two wins came when Manning was with the Broncos.
