After last year Peyton Manning heard all the questions and people doubting he could ever play quarterback again, much less be the old Peyton. After rehabbing he had to know his skills were returning and had to have been confident he would overcome his neck surgeries. Thus started the Manning World Tour, interviewing with several teams to decide which one would fit him the best. There was only one problem - besides all of the coaches and surrounding personnel, he did not consider the weather.
A large part of Manning's neck injuries resulted in slightly lower grip on the ball, something that can be magnified in extreme weather Even before that revelation, it seemed that the number one thing that could stop him was the cold. This situation would only rear it's ugly head in the playoffs if he had to go on the road, like he had with the Colts, somewhere like New England. That is, unless he put himself in that situation at his own home stadium! Basically Manning guaranteed that if he was good he would get home playoff games and have to play in the cold! WHY!!! His first playoff game against the Ravens was so-so but in crunch time, in OT when the game was on the line and the temperatures were in the single digits and the wind chill below zero, he made a throw into traffic that was so slow a white guy in the 100 meters could catch it.
We started to see chinks in the armor at the end of regulation with the game tied. The Broncos forced a punt giving them the ball back on their own 20 with two timeouts and 31 seconds left on the clock. In good weather, ask yourself how you would feel if you were the Ravens in this spot. Put Brady or Brees in for Manning. You are petrified - no, you are calm knowing that your best hope is allowing a 40 yard field goal attempt because you know an ace quarterback will move the ball. But what did Manning do? He knelt. Clock expires. Play for overtime. That was definitely a first and shocked everyone to the point that his coach and GM had to come out supporting the decision after the game. If it wasn't such a big name in football the announcers would be talking about how the quarterback has lost the team's and coaches' confidence. And maybe they did. It got worse after that - in overtime Manning was 3-5 with a interception. Even more damning was without their starting running back the Broncos' coaches did not trust him, running the ball seven times versus five passes.
It appears that Manning himself was nervous, just look at this quote from the Denver Post: "You can't simulate it. I tried everything from putting my hand in a freezing tank. But you just can't simulate it. Next year, the Super Bowl's in New York. So that was a good hurdle for me to be effective in those type of conditions." Is it really a good hurdle if you didn't even jump and just slammed face first into it? I would almost feel sorry for him if he didn't have more than enough time to court all the teams he did - but it is his fault he chose the ugly girl at the bar (not a shot at his wife - she's hot). How long into putting his hands into a freezing tank do you think he thought, "I've made a huge mistake, I should have picked anyone but the team that guarantees I will play in cold weather at the end of the season." My guess is two minutes - the same time his terrible across-his-body-over-the-middle-floating throw was in the air.
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| "You know how I know you're cold? You have gloves on and still need a hand warmer." |
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