As a soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback, rarely does Peyton Manning need much in the ways of criticism. Yet, after a 16 to 10 victory over the notoriously bad Oakland Raiders, Manning was more than willing to offer up some honest words of assessment about his play out on the field.
Said Manning after the game, “We want to play better offensively, we want to do our job and somehow, someway, it’s about helping the Denver Broncos get a win. I want to do a better job and do a better job playing quarterback to help our team get into the end zone more.”
In reality, Manning’s performance wasn’t all that bad. That said, it certainly wasn’t up to his high standards. Completing 22 of 35 pass attempts for 266 yards, he was uncharacteristically unable to connect with one of his receivers in the end zone.
Even worse, it’s not that the Broncos weren’t able to make their way into the red zone, it’s that after 3 trips to the highly-coveted area, they only had two field goals and a Charles Woodson interception to show for it.
If being completely honest, with as many games with zero touchdowns as multiple touchdowns (2), it appears that Manning is—for the first time in his 18-year career—no longer a guaranteed QB1 option for fantasy owners.