Get ready for Brady-Manning XVII.
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Their 23-16 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday was their 10th by seven points or fewer, tying the 1978 Houston Oilers for most such triumphs in a single season in National Football League history.
Manning and Brady have squared off 16 times before, a full season’s worth of matchups between the two quarterbacks whose careers are so intertwined that a conversation about one nearly has to include the other – like Bird vs. Magic or Ali vs. Frazier. “It’s another one of those games we found a way to do it”. “We never really got frustrated and that served us well tonight and it served me well this season”. “I told them it would take them all today”.
Carolina is in the NFC title game for the first time since 2005.
The 17th chapter was slated for November before Manning went out with a foot injury that pushed longtime backup Brock Osweiler into the starting – and starring – role. Manning had just gotten out of his cast and watched that game from the locker room.
Here’s the schedule for the conference championship game and the Super Bowl.
Manning’s teammates dropped seven passes, but came through in crunch time.
With Peyton Manning finally back at the helm of Denver’s offense, the Broncos picked right up where they let down. Kubiak’s biggest concern was the non-call on an onside kick in the closing seconds: “The ball was touched at 7½ yards and there was no flag, so thank God we survived that one”.
Then, Manning went to work, driving Denver to its only touchdown.
Roethlisberger served notice on the first play of the game that his shoulder wasn’t going to be an issue.
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”.
Manning credited Denver’s NFL-best defense for thwarting a team that piled up 34 points on them last month and an offense that stayed patient. This fiftieth bowl of all bowls will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 7, 2016 and Sunday’s AFC and NFC Championship contests will decide which teams will represent their respective league on Levi’s Stadium turf. We had a good week of practice. “We’ve been here all the time, so it was just that we were going to do our job and make something happen'”. I think we had plenty of plays out there that we left on the field, things that we can definitely do better, and I think we can be sharper next week. We didn’t force anything and we didn’t give them any short fields.
“We’re missing DeAngelo Williams, we’re missing Bell, we’re missing Brown but with Ben, we still have the ability to win”, said Rounds.
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“That wind was ugly”, said Sanders, who led his team with five catches for 85 yards. The highlight of his day was a 3rd down pass Smith made to Jason Avant for 26 yards, after scrambling in the pocket and breaking 4 tackles for loss.
