NFL Divisional Weekend

Don’t you Just Love Football?

How great was this weekend? Whether you are a Giant fan…Jet fan…whatever fan…what a weekend of football. Let's start with the first game which captivated us all.

Ravens 38 Broncos 35

I tweeted this, but just to reiterate, this game definitely is up there with one of the most enjoyable and entertaining sporting events I have ever witnessed in which I had no dog in the fight. I am a Peyton Manning fan, but I also found myself pulling for Joe Flacco as the “trying to prove to everybody that I can actually do this” underdog story. Which leads me to…

Look, Joe Flacco is what he is. He can be wildly inaccurate…he’s not going to win many games on pure passing aptitude, and he will always have those throws where you have to look to your football-watching-companion and say, “Wait, is it me or did he just throw that 20-30 feet over that guy’s head?”

Flacco has been blessed his entire career with an elite defense and exceptional running game. Critics have awarded him the dreaded “game manager” label because of his inability to win games on his own a la Aaron Rodgers…Tom Brady..etc. Many say that the Ravens are a Super Bowl team hampered by average Quarterback play. I am not exactly doing keg-stands from the Joe Flacco kool-aid—and in the first three years of his career, I wouldn’t dispute that the Ravens were winning despite minimal contribution from Flacco, and perhaps they were bridled by his mediocre-to-below-average-to-awful play.

Example: In 2009, Baltimore hammered New England AT New England 33-14, while Flacco went 4/10 for 34yards and 1 int. Rice and McGahee rushed for over 200 yards and Brady threw 3 picks. They then loss to Manning’s Colts in the Divisional Round, when Flacco threw two picks and finished 20 of 35 and 189 yards—only leading the Ravens to three points.

But last year, Flacco showcased some maturity when he played one of the best games of his life in New England, against maybe the greatest quarterback of all time with a Super Bowl birth on the line. A game where he was a dropped Lee Evans touchdown pass away from winning the game, and a Billy Cundiff missed 32-yard chip shot from at least pushing it to overtime.

And once again, in the biggest game of his life (considering his contract is up after the season, and possible status as Baltimore’s franchise QB), Flacco outperformed the other “maybe the greatest quarterback of all time” candidate. He displayed his greatest attribute—the ability to throw the deep ball, when he connected with Jacoby Jones(despite Rahim Moore’s incompetence) to tie the game in the final minute. Even if Rahim Moore didn’t play that ball like Josh Hamilton, not many quarterbacks in the league could have made that throw, if any at all. I counted 52 yards in the air, while under duress and a hand in his face.

Flacco’s performance earned himself quite a few million dollars—if not from the Ravens, the Chiefs, Cardinals, Eagles, and Jaguars (maybe Jets?) were all watching and would be happy to bid for his services. However, I think this win solidified his future as the franchise quarterback in Baltimore.

He will now make his third attempt to win a conference championship game and reach the Super Bowl, in the biggest game of his life, against maybe the greatest quarterback of all time…

Again.

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This question came in overtime from one my most avid readers (@WilliamNoglows):

If the Broncos lose this game, is Peyton Manning’s season seen as a success or failure regarding his injury and new team?

Given the severity of Peyton’s injury, the fact that he missed an entire year of football, the fact that he will likely will win the MVP, had the second best season of his career, led his team to eleven straight wins, a 13-3 record, and a #1 seed—is remarkable.

This is where I start tripping over myself. None of us could begin to understand the amount of work Peyton put in just to be able to play this year. Endless rehab…rebuilding arm strength…getting back to playing shape.

The easy answer: success. Just look at the credentials. However, I say that with so tentatively my stomach turns. Not even kidding. Do I have the balls to call this season a failure? Is Peyton Manning held to that high of a standard?

As long as Rahim Moore does his job, we aren’t even having this conversation, right?

But god, throwing across your body right smack in the middle of the field (the number 1 no-no for quarterback), the eventual fatal error for your season.

Maybe it was a failure.

(Thinks about what he is doing)

(Thinks more)

It almost sounds silly. Rebounding after four neck surgeries, playing THAT well during the regular season with an entirely new team, after some doubted he could ever play again.

But by mid-season, when Manning resumed to doing Peyton Manning things, many of us reverted to holding Peyton Manning to Peyton Manning standard. Is that right? I don’t know. Probably not. He is the greatest regular season quarterback of all time, and this is borderline indubitable.

I changed my mind, it isn’t borderline indubitable, it is indubitable.

However, Manning’s playoff resume falls well short of greatness and bellows monumental disappointment. Two of the worst performances of his career came against rival Tom Brady in the playoffs. He lost to San Diego back to back years in 2007 and 2008, one of them being at home. He also lost to the mighty Mark Sanchez and the the New York Jets in 2010.

Once again, I am criticizing someone who has won a Super Bowl, reached another, and owns the most decorated regular season resume of any quarterback in the history of football. But that is what makes Peyton Manning so tantalizing. His skill set, his unprecedented knowledge of the game, the barrage of jaw-dropping throws like this—he has every right to be the best quarterback of all time. He should be. But playoff failures restrict him from earning that title without argument. That’s a debate for a different day.

Back to the point, Peyton Manning played great football on Sunday. There have been times throughout his career where he has played good playoff football but still lost, there have been times where he has played really bad football and lost, and times where he played well but not “Peyton Manning football”.

You can go in so many directions to assign blame for this Denver loss. The first being Rahim Moore, the second being John Fox for being inexplicably conservative at the end of halftime and at the end of regulation. No one is completely culpable. What if Fox gave Manning the go with 36 seconds left until half with all three timeouts remaining? What if he did the same at the end of regulation with 31 seconds left and two timeouts?

Are we still having this conversation?

Bottom line, what Peyton Manning achieved this season is amazing. In fact, it was statistically the second best season of his career. Many of us are having a hard time coming to grips that he was outperformed by Joe Flacco at home in a playoff game, and choose to dawn on Manning’s repeated shortcomings in January and on. However, I don’t think we can sit here and call it a failure.

Let’s face it, another year to reach full recovery, another year work with two tremendously talented receivers in Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker, another year to break in Ronnie Hillman, and another year for the fearsome Denver pass rush to mature, the Denver Broncos will be the favorite (and my bet) to win the Super Bowl next year.

If they don’t, then that will be a failure.

-Chris Collins

Follow Chris @ChrisCollins127

Follow Chris and PJ @IceBathReport