Manning’s foot is healed – at least as healed as it’s going to get for now – and he guided the Broncos to a 23-16 win over Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
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It was a game that may be best remembered for a hit by Wes Welker on Aqib Talib, which knocked the then-Patriots cornerback out of the game and opened up things for Manning, who threw for 400 yards that afternoon.
TOM BRADY AND Peyton Manning will renew one of the NFL’s most celebrated quarterback rivalries in the AFC Championship game next Sunday.
“It’ll be the Broncos vs. the Patriots“, Manning said of the AFC’s top two seeds, both 13-4. I think he came out and kind of buttered y’all up in the media a little bit, but Ben was Ben. “You’ve got to give them credit, but in that situation, I put it on myself”.
Football fans certainly won’t wait that long.
In January of 2014, it was thought that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning would square off in a playoff game for the final time.
Brady is winless in two career postseason visits to Denver, falling in the 2005 AFC Divisional round and in the 2013 AFC Championship game.
Manning’s teammates dropped seven passes, but produced in crunch time Sunday. Denver improved to 10-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer with its 23-16 victory over Pittsburgh…. The game balanced back and forth between a four and one-point deficit for Denver.
The two traded a further field goal each in the third quarter and then as the tension mounted in the fourth, the Broncos offense finally began to fire and they took the lead through Anderson’s one-yard touchdown run. He is 5-6 in 11 games against the Broncos – the only team he owns a losing record against in his career.
Chris Boswell made a 47-yarder with 19 seconds left, but Anderson recovered the onside kick.
Nothing is for sure in the National Football League, which is why the Seattle Seahawks didn’t score on their final drive of Super Bowl XLIX, the Minnesota Vikings didn’t advance to the divisional round, Cincinnati didn’t beat Pittsburgh last weekend and Arizona had to go to overtime with Green Bay on Saturday night. Katina Smith had just watched her son play for the first time following her release from prison in November after 15 years. Pittsburgh did a great job down there in the red zone, keeping us from touchdowns.
The Manning-led offense failed to cash in on multiple short fields, settling for field goals throughout much of the first half.
“We had some good field position early and had to settle for field goals”, Manning said.
Roethlisberger, who finished with 339 yards, connected with his second-tier receivers (mostly Martavis Bryant, who caught nine passes for 154 yards) for three plays of 35 yards or more, several of them targeting Roby. Brady threw for 277 yards in that game, completing 24 of his 38 passes with no interceptions. There also were injuries to key players Roethlisberger, Brown, Bell, Williams, Maurkice Pouncey and Kelvin Beachum, and two bad losses to the lowly Baltimore Ravens that cost the team a higher seed.
As always, Brady refused to shine a publicity-seeking light on himself or his opposing quarterback, no matter who it is.
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The Steelers added a 43-yard field goal Boswell in the second quarter, set up a 58-yard pass completion to Darrius Heyward-Bey on a blown coverage by the Broncos. Steelers LB Arthur Moats left before halftime with an injured chest muscle.
