When Peyton Manning went down in pain late in Sunday night’s clash between the Broncos and the San Diego Chargers, fans in Denver anxiously held their breath.
The star quarterback, going down with an apparent high ankle sprain, was cleared after an MRI scan on Monday which should see him take the field this weekend against the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs.
However, it did force the Broncos to ask an all too scary question, ‘What would we do without him?’
Manning has been the unchallenged driving force behind a record setting Denver offence this season, which leads the league in passing yards, yards per game and points.
Manning himself leads the league in pass completions and touchdowns as well as having the league’s highest quarterback rating with an astounding 121.0.
While there is no doubting the Broncos are making a very strong case for Superbowl supremacy, it is their defence that is struggling and their relatively unused running game has yet to see some stable production.
What is abundantly apparent, nine games in, is that the defence is sitting off some large offensive production.
Manning and his receivers are playing catch up, often winning the game by only closely outscoring their opponents despite throwing up insanely large offensive numbers.
While the Broncos lead the league for points, they sit 30th for yards against giving up 287.9 per game.
Through nine games, they have only once restricted a team to less than 20 points and that was against the winless Jacksonville Jaguars who still managed to score 19.
They have 371 points for, with the Dallas Cowboys following nearly 100 points behind, and 238 against, which puts them in the bottom third of the league for that statistic.
So if the Broncos have any chance of surviving the playoffs and perhaps even a Superbowl, they are going to need to improve their defensive efficiency as well as introduce more variety into the running game.
Denver’s backup quarterback, 22 year old Brock Osweiler, has just three snaps to his name this year.
A total of ten yards from two completions. The story here being that the Broncos could not afford to replace Peyton late in the game for fear of the defence not being able to hold the lead.
While fans in Denver will look to last year’s San Francisco 49ers Kaepernick success story to relinquish any fears of the team falling apart without their beloved quarterback, it has been seen all too well from teams like New England and New Orleans that losing a star quarterback when other aspects of the game just are not flourishing can cause huge trouble for the post-season.
With the Chief’s strong pass rush defence coming to Denver this Sunday, Peyton and his offensive line will need to protect his ankle more than ever because this will be the story of his game all through November and December.
If Manning’s injury continues to get any worse, it may just be the end of a dream season for Denver.
Hey, supercoach? Choose your own ultimate NFL team and compete with other players for cash prizes in daily competitions on any match. If you’re after the best odds on the NFL, PlayUp is your best bet. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
The extraordinary episodes after his life as an American Football hero quite overshadowed the career of O.J. Simpson, who has died at the age…
The Kansas City Chiefs, steered brilliamtly at the end by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, downed the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in overtime to secure…
San Francisco 49ers will make their eighth appearance in the Super Bowl after a stellar season from a team stacked with real talent across the whole line-up.
The Chiefs are no longer strangers to playing matches in February. What was once a multi-generational 50-year drought has become an almost yearly tradition.
Daniel Faalele and Mitch Wishnowsky have kept their Super Bowl dreams alive, with Baltimore and San Francisco winning the divisional round playoff.
Six-time NFL champion Bill Belichick has agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots, bringing an end to his 24-year…
