Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
The Denver Broncos are going to the Super Bowl after beating the New England Patriots 26-16 in the AFC Championship.
Eli Manning won a Super Bowl in Peyton’s stadium in Indianapolis a couple of years ago. Now Peyton will have the chance to do the same in Eli’s stadium. Call it brotherly love if you’d like.
The most excited person to ever have to turn down a free trip to Hawaii in the history of the universe? None other than Peyton Manning, folks. He’s had enough Mai Tai’s at the Pro Bowl. He’s ready to drink the Super Bowl juice again.
In a stadium overflowing with orange and blue confetti, and Mile High cheer, it was arguably the Broncos most complete game of the season.
Let’s start off by talking about the ‘D’ in Denver, not the ‘O’ in Omaha. The Broncos held the Patriots to 3 points in the first three quarters, and 64 yards on the ground for the game. They attacked Tom Brady all day sacking him twice and putting him on the ground three times as he released the ball. Brady was limited to 277 yards (24-for-38 passing) with one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown. One of the biggest defensive stops came when the Patriots made it a 10-point game, and were going for the two-point conversion. The Broncos shut any comeback down immediately with that stop.
Manning went 32-for-43 for 400 yards and two touchdowns. The Broncos put up 507 yards of total offense, and went 7-for-13 on third down and 1-for-1 on fourth down. Manning’s favorite target was Demaryius Thomas, who had 7 catches for 134 yards and 1 touchdown. Julius Thomas added 85 yards on 8 receptions. Knowshon Moreno led the ground game with 59 yards on 14 carries.
As the game wore on, players such as Moreno and Tony Carter among others went down with injuries. The “bye” before the Super Bowl is absolutely essential to getting these players at 100% again.
This win makes up for the Tim Tebow-led playoff loss in New England a couple of years ago. It makes up for the Ravens loss last season. It makes up for the two years that Josh McDaniels was in Denver. It even makes up for the 2005 conference championship loss to the Steelers.
The Broncos are in the throes of their glory days once again thanks to John Elway, for not only his ability to bring Manning to Denver, but for his ability to inject the winning culture back into this organization.
In fact, if Colorado had its own state currency, the coin would say “In Elway We Trust.”
It’s Super Bowl, not bust!
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