RADIO
Indianapolis Colts @ Denver Broncos
I've mentioned before that I couldn't remember the last time all four top seeds won and headed to their respective conference championships, so I expected either the Packers or Broncos to lose. It was surprising last year that both the Seahawks and Broncos made the Super Bowl as the top two playoff seeds. Had you forced me to bet on either the Packers or Broncos winning, though, I'd have picked the Broncos on the strength of the matchups.
Additionally, we all thought it was Aaron Rodgers who was the quarterback who was hurt. As it turns out, Peyton Manning has been playing with a torn quad. What in the what? How did we just find this out in January? To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, that’s kind of a big deal. (I sincerely hope you now read the remainder of this article in Ron Burgundy’s voice.)
The injury to Peyton Manning explains a lot about how poorly he'd played over the last month or so. The Broncos relied heavily on running back C.J. Anderson, and Peyton Manning single-handedly eliminated a boatload of fantasy teams by underperforming down the stretch. It’s unclear just how serious the injury is in terms of recovery time, but as a Peyton Manning owner in a keeper league, I’m terrified that this team will revert to being bad in 2015.
Between Peyton's age and durability issues, John Fox getting the boot with every top head coaching candidate already signed elsewhere, and both Demaryius Thomas and Julius Thomas becoming free agents, this team could be completely different. No one knows whether Peyton will retire or try to avenge the disappointing end to his 2014 season, but he could very well have to get used to new weapons.
As for the game itself, Andrew Luck could be on his way to his first Super Bowl after this win. 265 yards and two touchdowns is a solid outing for a guy in his third year. Luck’s two interceptions in this game shouldn’t come as a surprise-- he’s never been afraid to sling the ball around like a madman, but you can’t argue with success. It’s working for him, so you just have to take the bad with the good when it comes to his turnovers. Strangely, the Colts didn’t throw the ball downfield all that much, with their longest pass play being a 32-yard connection to Coby Fleener. That's kind of weird when you consider how often they utilized the deep ball over the course of the regular season.
I feel like we're seeing a weird similarity in how Luck, RGIII and Russell Wilson measure up to the draft class of Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger. Let’s get next-level here for a second: if Andrew Luck wins a championship this year, both he and Wilson will have one apiece already, whereas RGIII appears to be in limbo on the Redskins. RGIII was picked second among the three, while Rivers went in between Eli and Big Ben. Manning and Roethlisberger each have two Super Bowl victories. Is the second quarterback in a draft class trifecta cursed? Do I think about football too much to even notice such things? Maybe, but it’s fun.
